Schlumbergera Seed Pictorial

Since people seem to be really interested in how to grow Schlumbergera from seed, I thought I'd put together a quick pictorial.

This project started over a year ago when I hand pollinated a few flowers. Since I couldn't bare to pull a flower off any of the plants and destroy it, I moved two of the plants close together and gently 'smooshed' the pollen from the pistols onto the center stamen of each when the flowers were at their very freshest (one or two days after opening).



It didn't take long for the base of the flower to begin to swell and form a bright pink, hard seed pod.
This was left on the plant for one year to mature. You definitely need patience for this step. Even though it still looked very firm and hard after a whole year, when squeezed it was soft and pliable. A bit like a slightly over-ripe blueberry.



The pod was gently pulled from the plant. If it doesn't come off easily with a gentle tug, it may not be ready.



I sliced the pod open with an exacto knife. As you can see, these make many seed.



The seed are very small and a little hard to separate from all the 'goo' that holds them. Just remove all the goo possible and wash them off as best you can with plain tap water.



I didn't bother to dry them off since I was immediately spreading them onto damp medium. I used a very tiny pot, then popped the pot into a zip lock bag and sealed it. They sat in a warm room under a plant light that was on for 16 hours a day.



They germinated in seven days and these are one week old:


Here they are at 3 weeks, still under the plant light:


As you can see, they are very slow growers. I slowly opened the baggie to let a little more air in each day and finally took it off completely.
Now the challenge becomes keeping them alive and happy.

Happy growing!!