How to Grow Ice Plant From Seeds? (WITH UPDATES)
Ice Flower Plant Is an Easy To Grow & Very Hardy Plant, That You Can Start From Seeds even If You are A Begginer. They Have Relatively Smallar Seeds than Any Other Winter Flowering Plant, So In This Post We Will Discuss a Few Simple Seed Growing Tips, Also We Will See How To Grow Them Till Their Flowering Stage. So Lets Begin.
When Should We Sow Their seeds?
First of All Its Important To know What is The Right Time To Sow Their Seeds, Their Growing Season Starts In Early Winters, As Soon as The Temperature Gets Ideal. Their Ideal Temp Range Is 15 To 27 Degree Celsius. In Colder Areas, Its also Grown In The Start of Springs, But in Temperate regions, Their Seeds are Sown In The Starting Winters. Before Sowing Their Seeds, Simply Just Take a Look of The Weather In Your Area, If The Day Temperature is ideal, You can Sow Their Seeds.
Choosing Good Seeds….
Another Important Thing To Grow Ice Plant from Seeds, Is The Quality of Seeds. Just Make Sure You are Sowing The Right variety, It Should be Compatible With Your Areas Climate. Rare Varietes tends To Have Lesser or Sometimes No Germination Rate, So Choose a Local Variety, Some Of The Good Quality ice flower Seeds Are Also Linked Here, If You Like To buy. One More Thing Is That, Make Sure The Seeds You Sowing Are Healthy & Freshly Stored, Older Seeds Produces Weaker Plants, So Ask The Seller Before Buying.
Prepare Seed Starter & Pot!
Choosing a Good Quality seeds Starter is Also Very Important, Its Should Be Loose, Soft & Well draining. Seeds are Sensitive To Soil Media, So You can Buy a Seed starter From This Link, Or For Making a Cheap But Effective Seed Starter at home Follow The Article added Here.
You Sow Their Seeds In Good size Pot. For better Germination & To Avoid Overwatering, Choose a Claypot. They Have Tiniest Seeds, Therefore its also better if You choose A Wider Container.
Sow The seeds…
For Sowing The Seeds of Ice flower Plant, Make The Soil Fully Moist. Then Place The Seeds Over The Soil Mix, You can Sprinkle Them. Make sure Not To add To Many Seeds at one Place.
Now Cover Them With a Fine Layer Of Cocopeat Or You Can Use The Same Seeds Starter Mix. Dont Bury The Seeds To Deep, Cocopeat Is light Weight, So It is Better for Kick Starting The Seeds Germination.
Now Make The Top Soil Layer moist, using a Gentle Sprayer. First Watering Is Very Important, As It Helps In initiating The Seeds Sprouting, So Water Well. & Place This Pot In a Semi Shaded Area, That Have alot of Indirect Sunlight.
After 7 days…(Light)
After around a Week or So, You will See Tinny, Tick & Fleshy Ice Plant Seedling Will Poop Out, As Soon as You See The First Sign of Sprouting, Imediately Make Sure The Pot is Placed in a Bright Well Lit Area, Sunlight of Hours is Not Required, But If You Can Provide some Sunlight, That Would Be Great. At This Stage The Seedlings Tends To Get Leggy, & Can Die To, So Water Very Carefully & Make Sure of bright Light.
After 19 days….(Transplant)
You Will See the ice Plant Seedlings Will fill Up The Whole Container, & Now Its Time To Transplant Them. As Soon as They Have a Few Leaves, You Can Shift Them Into a Bigger Pot. Get The Seedlings Out Of The Pot Using a Spoon Or other Tool, Just Try Not To Damage The Roots.
For The Soil mix, I am Using My homemade Potting Mix, Detailed Recipe Guide On This Mixture is added Here. It Works Best For all Type of Seasonal Flowers.
Carefully Put The Seedling Into The Hole & Cover It Upto The First Set of True Leaves.
For Watering, Use a bottle & Dont Through Water Over The Seedlings. Ice Plants Have a less Developed Root Structure, That’s Why You can plant Them In any Size of Container. Just Water Carefully.
After 28 days…..
Within a Few Days, These Transplanted Seedlings Will be Own Their Own Feet. The Leaves Will get Bigger, At This Stage Water Carefully, Their Only Enemy Is an Overwatered Condition, So Make Sure Its Draining Well.
After 37 days…
After a Few More Weeks, Your Plants Will Be much Bigger In Size, & They May fell Off On The Soil Due To The Weight of Their Thick & Fleshy Leaves, But Thats Ok. This Is The Second Container Of Ice Plants, They all Are Growing Well. The Temperture of below 20 Degree Celsius is Like Their maximum Growth Time. You Can See They Are Growing Very Bushier.
After 51 days…
At This Stage of Growth, Ice Plant Requires a Fertilizer & alot of Direct Sunlight to produce Their buds & Flowers. So make Sure They Recives atleast a Few Hours of Direct Sunlight. a Cool & Healing Sun of Winters Will Work as a Buds Maker.
After 63 days,,,,(Fertilizing)
& Within a Few Days They Will Start Blooming Too. You Can Fertilize Them As Soon as They are a Month Old, but I Have Included The Fertilizer In The Soil While Their Transplant, That’s Why I Will fertilize Them Now.
Ice Plant is a Moderate Type of feeder, That Likes normal Fertilization, You can use any type of Compost, or If You Like Maximum Growth & Blooming, Use This Fertilizer Its made Just For Flowering Plants, Using Simple Ingredients.
Detailed Guide On This Fertilizer is Added Here. Must Check It Out & Fertilize Your Ice Plants, Every 2 Weeks Specially During The Springs Or At The Buding Stage.
After 77 days……(Flowering)
After a Few days, As Soon as The Spring Starts or The Season get Ideal, You Will See All Your Ice Plants Will be Suddenly on Flowering. Every Weaker or Dying Plant Will Flower, Because The Season is Ideal. The Only Problem That Can affect the Growth & Bloominhg of Your Ice Plants is A Water blocking Soil mix. To much Moisture Around The roots of Ice Plant, Wont Let The Plant Grow. So make Sure to use a Good Mixture, Its Also Linked Here, If You Like To Buy.
After 84 days…..(Dead Heading)
The ice Plant Flowers Will Keeps On blooming in The Sunlight, until The Springs Are Going on. To Keep The Flowerd Comming, One Important Thing You can Do Is That You can Remove The Spent Flowers, Otherwise They Will Start Making Seeds & Your Whole Plant May Die. So Remove The Dead & Dried Flower. & For Learning More of Such Flowering Secrets, Follow Up This Ebook Point By Point, its Added Here, To Buy.
After 110 days….(Seed Collection)
At The Starting Summers, You Will See Your All Your Plants Will Drie Out, But The spent flowers Still Have The Seeds that We can Harvest, Simply Choose a Healthy dried seed Pod & Open it With Your Nail.
Here You Can See Their Are Some Seeds, These Are Ice Plant Seeds That We Can grow In The Next Season, So Collect Them & Store Them in a Dark & Dry Area.
So Its all About Growing Ice Plant From Seeds, To Learn How to Take Care of ice plant at Every Stage Of Growth, Follow up This Article.