Alpine gesneriads from seed?

[Maggi Young]

 Hi folks, I' have this question from Australia... any advice for them? 

Hello,  we are a small group of Gesneriad enthusiasts here in Melbourne , Australia. We get together to learn all about the “other” Gesneriads, i.e. other than African Violets.We are used to growing most of these plants from seed,our method being seed sprinkled on top of peat Jiffy pots, enclosed, then put in a warm position, usually under artificial lights.We are struggling to succeed with Alpine Gesneriads such as Sarmienta from Chile and Ramonda. Could you please tell us if you sow your Alpine seed in a different method than ours? Summer here temps. range from 43 > 18, and winter from15 > 5. hoping to hear from you, regards, Leonie Chirgwin   

[Ezeiza]

43-18 means it is impossible to grow alpine plants under such conditions. On the contrary, the many subtropical gesneriads must be weeds with them.

[Lesley Cox]

I would be interested to hear anyone's thoughs here as with Ramonda, no matter how I sow them, either spaghnum-type moss or liverwort overtake anything that germinates way before it is big enough to handle. And it's important for me to learn something new here as I have 6 pods on Asteranthera ovata. The biggest is over 1cm in diameter, the others progressively smaller so far but all apparently containing seed. They are taking a long time to ripen though, it being (what passes for) winter now. Each pod is attached to a quite thick, curving stem.

[Ezeiza]

Dear Lesley, why not to sow in pure grit/ coarse sand and watering from below only in order to let the surface dry off.

[Lesley Cox]

I've certainly had my best success with both shortias and very dwarf rhodos sown onto grit, over a layer of more compatible compost. I'll try ramondas that way when next I have some seed.

[Ezeiza]

I sow almost everything in pure grit for some years and results have never been better.

[Darren]

There was a good article on this in the Rock Garden several years ago, by Brian & Maureen Wilson - or was it the Alpines 2001 conference proceedings?

[Maggi Young]

It was from a Journal of 1995, Darren, which I had forgotten about.
I will pass it to the questioner. I emailed Maureen about her advice but I think a she may be away.
Here is the article.........

 Growing Alpine Gesneriads- Wilsons .pdf (431.99 kB - downloaded 1146 times.)

[Lesley Cox]

An excellent article which I read at the time but hadn't looked at since. Since I'm expecting quite a lot of seed from the Asteranthera, I should have enough for a little experimentation.

[Maggi Young]

Mission accomplished...I've had this nice message from Australia.... "Thank you tremendously for your answer-- it is exactly what we wanted."

[Gene Mirro]

Here are a couple of posts that I wrote a few years ago:
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=71.0 
http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1166.0

I think the grit is a good idea.  Moss and liverwort is a big problem with these plants.  But you need to fertilize, or they will take forever to grow.

[Lesley Cox]

Now almost the end of July and still the Asteranthera pods are bright green, slightly streaked with brown, no sign of ripening as such but the largest one has a slightly squashy feeling now so maybe it will be ready soon. The others are still hard and not really growing at all but still seem to be OK as their stems are still turgid and strong.