See below for a few comments on seed-raising.
The "spiral Aloe of Lesotho". This is one of those plants that Ihad wanted to grow, but had never seen cultivated plants for sale. In late1996, I obtained some seed from plants in cultivation in California. They germinatedand grew well, and the frequent suggestions that this plant is difficultto grow appear to be unfounded.
From reading about conditions in the plant's African habitat, it seemed thatat times it receives plenty water, and also is subjected to (possibly freezing)cold. The conditions in England seem to suit it, and for some years now, I havekept the plants outdoors. My plants have been protected from rain in Winter, buta friend to whom I gave some had left one of them unprotected outside, withoutany ill effects.
I sold quite a lot of my seedling plants back in 1997 and subsequently, andhave sometimes seem them since being kept in a small pot in a hot greenhouse,watered infrequently. They don't die if you do this, but they don't grow mucheither!
The friend who I gave some plants to first got a flower in 2002 or 2003, whichis around 6 years from seed - a much shorter time than I have sometimes read.
I kept 4 of the plants myself (they get rather large - I haven't got room for more!),and it was 2004 before one of these first flowered, as shown here. The rosette is around50cm in diameter.
Date: 2004 June 2
The flower spike developed rapidly. You can see that in this case, theflower stem branched into 4. My friend's two plants (a little larger, probably dueto being grown in larger containers, and with more water and richer soil) alsoflowered in 2004, and had larger inflorescences with more branches.
Date: 2004 June 9
The first flowers soon started to open. Each flower only lasts a few days, and appeared to be'protandrous' (pollen ready before sigma receptive). Many trips were made carrying pollen betweenmy plant and my friend's two plants, as it appears that the plants are usually unable toset seed unless corss-pollinated. The plant's pollinator in habitat is said to be theMalachite Sunbird - I don't know if anything is likely to pollinate the plant in England,but I was pretty sure that it wasn't going to make the 5 mile trip between the plants, sohuman-intervention was needed!
Date: 2004 July 4
As you can see, pollination appears to have been successful. I hope that thesecapsules ripen and contain viable seed.
The capsules eventually split open. Having arrived back at seed again, after startingwith seed 8 years ago, I truly consider myself to have 'grown' this species.The seeds measure around 8 x 3mm, including their papery 'wings'.
Aloe polyphylla - the next generation!
Date: 2005 February 27
I sowed some of the seed on 2005 January 16, and saw the first signs of germination 4 days later.As typical monocotyledons, the seedlings initially produce a single leaf (the one on the rightin this photo). They grow quite quickly, and here six weeks since sowing, the 3rd leaf is startingto appear. The seedling measures 25mm from leaf-tip to leaf-tip. The first leaves are producedalternately opposite each other, and not until around the 7th leaf is the symmetry broken, andthe spiral arrangement (equally likely one way or the other) starts to develop.
Aloe polyphylla - in the snow
Date: 2009 February 2
The story continues. 6 of my original plants raised from seed in 1996. They get no protectionfrom the weather, even when it snows!
Aloe polyphylla - 7 plants, 5 flowers!
Date: 2009 June 16
The snow doesn't seem to have done any harm at all. Of the 7 large plants I ended up keepingfrom seed sown in 1996, 5 of them flowered this year. I've never had more than 1 flower in anyprevious year. This is probably the result of them all being re-potted 3 years ago.
You can see the typical progression in Aloe flower spikes. The bottom flowers have already finished,and are pointing upwards, like the eventual seed-pods do. The next ones up are open and hang downwards,while the buds are the top, yet to open, point upwards.
With 5 flower spikes on my own plants, it was a relief for the first time not to have to transferpollen between my plants and a friend's ones several miles away! By August, the first fruits havestarted to split open, and here is a picture of a fruit and some seeds.
I'm not selling spare plants at the moment, though I should have plants of various sizes in 2014.I can't ship plants outside the EU because of CITES regulations, and it takes a lot to persuademe to ship any even within the UK and the EU, because this is a hobby, not a business,and I haven't got time to buy a box, pack the things, take it to the post office etc.
When I first obtained seed, in 1996, I followed instructions from Alan Beverly ofEcoscape who raises the plants in California. He says to sandpaper the seedto break off the papery wings (rub seeds between two sheets of sandpaper), and then to sow normally, so this is what I'vealways done, usually resulting in germination starting in a few days. I think the best germination I've had with thismethod is around 50%, and sometimes lower - maybe I sometimes don't sandpaper enough, or perhaps too much, though the coreof the seed seems very hard and indestructible.
Increasingly, many people say to put the seed in water until it starts to germinate (several weeks), then to takeout and sow normally. I tried this once a few years ago, and nothing happened - I can't remember how long I waited -perhaps not long enough.
I have previously donated some seed to the British Cactus & Succulent Society,and it appeared on their seedlist with the December 2010 journal. The accompanying article recommendedsoaking the seed in water until it germinates (2 weeks or more), and some people had great success with this seed.
I began to feel that all these people who soak seed couldn't be wrong, so in August 2013, I decided to have another attempt, using some of the old seed I have left over, collected from my own plants in 2009, 2010, and 2011 (so 2, 3, and 4 years old), which had just been stored in open containers in the house. I took about 100 of each batch of seed, and placed each batch (separately) in water. I used rain-water (not sterilised), in the house so temperature about 18C,and I changed the water every few days. I kept out of direct sunlight to avoid them getting hot, and so green algae wouldn't grow in the water. I'm not claiming that these details are important - they just happen to be what I did. The seed floats to start with, but sinks after a few days. Every few days after the seeds started to germinate (which they did, after about 28days in the water), I removed those that had germinated, and placed in soil - usually root was just showing, or was up toabout the length of the seed. I found it easy just to tip water and seeds onto a flat tray; pour off the water; thegerminating seeds would stick to either my finger or the blade of a penknife and could be shaken off onto the soil.Once I'd got all the germinating ones, I just washed the remaining seed back off the tray into their jar of water.
Here are the results - what total percentage of each batch of seeds had germinated by various numbers of days since puttingin water on 2013 August 15:
| 4 years old | 3 years old | 2 years old | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 days | 4% | 1% | 9% |
| 36 days | 20% | 5% | 30% |
| 41 days | 36% | 21% | 51% |
| 44 days | 51% | 31% | 58% |
| 48 days | 64% | 48% | 71% |
| 52 days | 75% | 67% | 80% |
| 61 days | 81% | 80% | 83% |
| More to follow... | |||
So conclusions so far: the 'soak in water' method does indeed work, and seed doesn't have to be very fresh or be storedin special conditions.
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