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Sowing the seeds

i watched several youtube videos before i compiled my own technique to sow the seeds.

i decided not to sterilize the pumice i had bought. i don't know if sterilizing would have helped with mold or algae, the sowing conditions are anyway in favor of them (moist). apparently serious growers swear by the use of a mild fungicide.

i also didn't rinse the pumice which was a mistake. it turned out to have quite a lot of dust on it.

i had washed with soap some plastic containers (former food packages). i used what i had at hand and one container was black, the others see-through. all of them had original see-through lids but i needed to remove large stickers from them. unfortunately some of the glue from the stickers remained on the lids.

i used about 1,2 l pumice to fill my containers about 3/4 full. i used medical swabs to cover the holes on the bottom of the containers except with the black container. i had to cut the holes myself on the black one and i made them more like slits so i didn't need any swabs to prevent the pumice to escape. i presoaked the pumice filled containers about 5 min. i had a plastic box filled with water and then i just dropped the containers one by one in for 5 min.

i used cocktail sticks to sow the seeds. i dipped the point into water and touched a seed which then followed until i touched the moist pumice with it. it was quite easy to move the seeds. the pumice was coarser than recommended and i gather that it would have been even easier to position the seeds if the pumice was finer. i didn't cover the seeds.

i sowed 10 conophytum calculus seeds, 22 argyroderma delaetii seeds, 21 lithops mixed seeds and 24 monilaria moniliformis seeds. only the conophytum bag didn't have any extra seeds.

i closed the lids and positioned the containers on two plates in front of my plant lights. the lids had some holes already so i didn't need to cut those myself for ventilation.

as i did the sowing in the afternoon on the 2nd september i turned on the plant lights at 2 pm and turned them off at 9.30 pm. the temperature inside my apartment was + 24 °C.
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