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I bought about 300 Snake Plant (Sansevieria) seeds as they ship better than full plants typically.

I've been having a lot of trouble getting them to grow and have found very little information on doing it optimally as every resource assumed you have access to a fully grown Snake Plant.

How much water ?

How much light (lux) ?

J. Musser
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Enigma
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  • What have you tried? Remember you have 300 seeds. Plenty to experiment with and plenty to try again. Have you tried (10) seeds in a moist paper towel, moist not dripping, kept in a ziploc bag? Kind of a generic way to germinate lots of different kinds of seeds. Warmth is critical, 65 degrees F to 75 degrees F. In a day or two you should see seeds with a white root. Gently transplant into POTTING SOIL OR germination soil. Use a dome to protect from rodents and increase the humidity. The soil needs to be warm, stay moist not wet. Go purchase a great grow light. A fan should be blowing – stormy Nov 03 '16 at 04:32
  • @stormy - Well I'm using a 100 watt Veg LED light about 3 feet from the surface in a bookshelf grow area. I think I may have been overdoing the light and dropped it to 15 minutes every hour (6 hours a day). I threw a couple seeds in a tiny seed starter pot and put it under a 9 watt LED and they are growing. I actually dropped 100 the first batch (all dead) and 100 the second batch (some showing life now) so only about 90 left :P Temp as been pretty stable between 65-75. – Enigma Nov 03 '16 at 20:59
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    I only use grow lights for germination primarily for the heat. There are seeds that need light to germinate, I've recently learned but think about this. The seed is in DARK under the soil. How the heck light can do anything but warm the soil is beyond me! I am a firm believer that plants need darkness and routine they can count upon. Light is critical once there is green growth above the surface but to have a nighty night time is just duh howdy. Us humans have the toughest time trying to outdo the natural world, tch tch tch. Stability, routine, mimicking what nature gives is important! – stormy Nov 03 '16 at 21:31
  • When these seeds come up with their green cotyledons that light will be important. Send a pic of your setup. Just because a light is called a Veg light doesn't mean it is a grow light. Never heard that term anyhoo. Oh I believe you, marketers use anything and everything to sell. So you have 100 seeds left, yes? Don't use any more than 5 to 10 seeds per trial. There is no hurry. Your lights should be a minimum of 300, I don't use less than 400 watts. Use the link I sent and just try to get a few to germinate then use your light. Check the height and temps! Don't cook 'em. Also a fan – stormy Nov 03 '16 at 21:41
  • The small 9w starter is showing some green leaves now - looks promising but was hoping to have a whole lot growing at once in the other setup. I'll get some lumen readings on the light I'm using but it's far from insignificant. It's this light: https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-Platinum-P300-12-band-Grow/dp/B00NTBS91Y - which is definitely complete overkill for snake plants hence the 15 minutes an hour. Honestly I may need less but was wondering if anyone knew. – Enigma Nov 04 '16 at 14:56

2 Answers2

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These are not usually grown from seed, because of genetic variability (the plants are usually grown for specific variegation patterns). When propagated by leaf cuttings, the variegation is not retained. That's why people usually propagate by division. But you can grow them from seed. It's not extremely hard.

  • Soil: Use a sandy, free draining cactus mix
  • Water: Just enough to keep the soil from drying completely, Not wet.
  • Temperature: between 75 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal.
  • Light: Bright indirect light Around 500-800 lux) until the plant reaches the 3 leaf stage. You don't need much light right as the seed germinates, as that can cause drying.
  • Fertilizer: None, until the plant reaches the 3 leaf stage. at that point, it should be done drawing energy from the seed, and is relying on nutrients from the growing medium.
J. Musser
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Here is a link, have you read this? growing snake plant via seed

stormy
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  • Please read [this meta post](http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/225370/your-answer-is-in-another-castle-when-is-an-answer-not-an-answer). – J. Musser Nov 03 '16 at 20:21
  • J.Musser...I know you are trying to help me but please tell me what I am supposed to learn from this meta post. Am I not sending links properly? – stormy Nov 03 '16 at 21:45
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    Hi stormy! I can't speak for @J.Musser and hope he'll correct me if I'm wrong. I think that post is saying we shouldn't write answers that are links, without adding information that's in the link. Answers, like the awesome ones you write, stay here for years, but off site links don't. If someone comes around later & the page from the link is gone, the answer can't help anyone. We have a page in our [help] that says that link-only answers can get deleted. If you just [edit] in what people can learn from the link, I think it should be fine! I hope I helped! – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL Nov 04 '16 at 02:59
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    Stormy, I'm sorry for being unclear. What we want is original answers on our site, with the links to outside sites used as *references*, or further reading - rather than comprising the post entirely. I tried to make an example of that in [this answer](http://gardening.stackexchange.com/questions/21989/should-trees-be-staked-when-they-are-planted/21990#21990). (links used as references, and any copied text is attributed and in quotes) Thanks again for all your effort! – J. Musser Nov 04 '16 at 16:31
  • Ahhh. Was not thinking about links being temporary. Interesting. Hey, I usually answer the question IF I know enough to answer and yeah, I am verbose. THEN I go out to find a link to substantiate what I have tried to explain. 'Cause I was told that adding links was important. So, let me get this straight, sometimes I need special classes grins...my answers aren't complete or does it seem I am repeating the articles I add, or just that links need to now be just additional information to use until the link is gone or changed? – stormy Nov 05 '16 at 21:12
  • @stormy Links are references - the relevant content in the links should be transcribed into the answer. – Enigma Nov 07 '16 at 15:54
  • Hi stormy! One thing you can do if you have a link you think a person would like, but you don't want to quote from it or expand on it, is leave it as a comment. This one would have worked fine that way. It's a suggestion to the person who wrote the question, but not something that future visitors will have to count on for information. I hope that helps you! – Sue Saddest Farewell TGO GL Dec 22 '16 at 03:36
  • Perhaps the perfect conclusion to all of this discussion: the link is now dead lol – mobeets Jun 08 '21 at 02:14