THE BEAUTY

November 2014. And even now there is no sign of growing in this plant of TESTUDINARIA ELEPHANTIPES.
I allways do have some plants who will not grow in the same growing cycle as the "normal" TESTUDINARIA ELEPHANTIPES plants. I can give you no hint or advice how to avert or "heal" this growing - better speaking of no growing - pattern.

TESTUDINARIA ELEPHANTIPES

November 2014. These are the seedlings sown in March 2014. They grow and will grow the whole winter. I fertilize and water them and offer as much sun and warmth as possible.

Above you can see the caudex - storing the sugar as starch - forming underground.

And here above you can see some seedlings of SCHIZOBASIS INTRICATA self-sown from seed flying in from a nearby standing plant of SCHIZOBASIS INTRICATA.

SOWING MAY 2014

We do have November now. This is how the seedlings sown in May 2014 do look like.

I fertilize and water them the whole winter and give as much sun and warmth as possible.

SOWING 2014

These are 2 x 100 seeds of COPIAPOA CINEREA from 2 different sources sown at the 1st of November 2014.

The glasses do get warmth from beneath and are standing close to the glass of a southern window. A piece of paper above the glasses do protect the young seedlings from the "hard" sun.

My substrate is a fine coarse granulate of pumice. The method been used for the sowing is the FLEISCHER METHOD.

The first seedlings came out of the seeds after 10 to 14 days. The germination rate for one glass is nearly 80 % and for the other one only 5 %.

RESTING PERIOD 2014

BOWIEA VOLUBILIS has ended up its growing at the end of October 2014.

I allways remove the vines and shoots after the growing period. So this is like it looks like after "the cleaning".

Now I keep the bulb cool - 5 C to 10 C - and possibly on a sunny side of the window. But you may keep it in the dark too. That will be no problem at all. Then you only need to ensure the bulb may adapt to the sun in spring of the year to come.