It is a my goal to start breeding and selling Haworthias on a small scale although this will be a fairly long-term enterprise because they are slow-growing and it takes around 2 years after sowing seed before you have saleable plants. Haworthias are not self-fertile, meaning that you need two genetically different plants to be able to make seeds. Fortunately, various species of haworthia can easily be crossed to create hybrid plants that will show characteristics of both the plants although no two hybrid seedlings look alike. Just as in human families, having the same parents means that children will resemble one another but they do not all look exactly alike.
Left to Right: Haworthia bayeri, Haworthia obesa (a hybrid) and Haworthia pygmae var argenteo-maculosa
These three plants are currently flowering and I am busy trying to make various combinations of all three of them. Seeds can only have 2 parents, not three but I am attempting to combine them in all 3 possible ways: bayeri X obesa, bayeri X argenteo-maculosa and obesa X argenteo-maculosa
There are 2 possible ways to cross-pollinate plants; firstly, by using a brush to transfer pollen from one plant to another or secondly, by pulling the flowers apart and applying the male floral parts to the female plants of the other flower. The second method can be more accurate but it is also problematic because the flower parts mature at different rates, meaning that your timing has to be exact and if it is not, the flower has been pulled apart and can't be used again. Last time I tried pollinating Haworthias I used this method, without success, but that is possibly because the plant I used in the cross is notoriously difficult to get seed from.
I am trying the brush method using a cat's whisker. The flowers are very small and a small object is required to collect and transfer pollen. The pollen needs to be collected from the younger flowers and transferred to the older flowers that are lower down on the stem. I will know in about a week whether I have been successful or not as a flower that has been successfully fertilised starts to form a seedpod but one that has not withers and falls off the stem. It is considered best to pollinate the flowers in the afternoon.
Wish me luck!
