Good Home Cooking

Botany and Cool Shit: Bubble Plant

Egg sacs from the Alien franchise? Horrifying pustules of corrosive acid? Trippin’ again? 

Nope! Just some fucking plants. Haworthia cooperi comes from the Cape Town area of South Africa. They are able to express pigment genes in different ratios, making it possible to cultivate different colors. Unlike most succulents, instead of doing most of their photosynthesis on the outer layers of their leaves, they do it on the inside and at the bottom of their leaves! All that goopy-looking stuff inside the leaves is just water in storage. This gives them an eerie translucent appearance.

Not my images. 

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Growing cacti from seeds

Growing cacti from seeds is pretty straightforward. Usually, the mixed seed packs you buy in regular stores (or the cheap ones you find online) are hardy and fast growing. Perfect if this is your first cactus-growing experience. Keep in mind that there are dozens of ways to do this. This is just what worked for me.

Germinating the seeds

Buy some coarse sand, pumice or turface and mix it 2:1 with peat. Some types of cactus need an even grittier mix (my Astrophytum asterias and A. myriostigma would have benefitted from that), but this is pretty standard for most types of cactus. Use a small pot with drainage holes.

Moisten the soil. You can now choose to nuke it in the microwave or leave it as it is. Nuking it will decrease the chance of damping off, mold and algae.

Sprinkle the seeds on the surface of the moistened soil and bag the pot. Use a transparent plastic bag or cling wrap.

Place the pot under grow lights or in a western or eastern window and wait. Don’t place them in direct sunlight. They should germinate within 1 week if the seeds are fresh.

When the seeds have germinated, leave the seedlings in the bag for the next couple of months. The seedlings grow their first baby spines inside the bag in 100% humidity.

After a couple of months, remove the bag. I’ve had success with just removing it entirely, but others do it gradually by poking holes in the bag.

Fougères vivantes!