What I'm really trying to get at with this thread is that time itself is not the best scale with which to judge the seedlings. Instead we are looking to see maturity, in this case I'm specifically referring to maturity of color. There is no doubt some correlation between maturity and plant size. The question is whether that correlation is strong enough to judge the coloring on a young seedling that has reached a mature (or nearly mature) size.
Paleo, yes I also notice that the form of a fully mature rosette seems to go through a change at the zenith of it's growth. 'Serapis' a cultivar I've had for three years has always laid very flat to the ground, but this year for the first time ever the rosettes are reaching upwards and have achieved an impressive size. Last year I switched 'Serapis' to a more recent soil mix that is faster draining and more nutrient rich, so that could also be playing a part in these big "spiky" rosettes, it was struggling in the old mix so I can hardly say I regret the change. The color however has not changed much since I bought it (other than the usual seasonal shifts).
Conditions do greatly affect the shape and color of rosettes. I bought my 'Rita Jane' in 2017, it's color and general form didn't change much, but it went from being a 2" rosette to being a 5" rosette, and once it reached that maximum size the leaf edges started to develop a ruffled effect. Obviously, selecting for ruffles or bumps would probably require each rosette in a seedling batch reach maximum size and age (though some younger plants still show these variations and it might be advantageous to select for plants that develop these desired distortions earlier), however effective selections made purely on the basis of color or general form might be possible (even in younger plants) that had reached 50-75% of their maximum size.
Julia, so are you noticing mature coloring in the second spring? And have those original rosettes reached 50-75% of their maximum size by that point?
Since the spring of this year, I've noticed drastic changes in form and color of my seedlings planted in February of last year. The twilight of spring is bringing out predictable summer shifts in those colors and forms. That first spring they were just showing baby colors, few of them actually retained those colorations and if I had thrown any of them out at that point I'd have made a big mistake. But now, after over a year of good soil, fertilizer, regulated moisture and sunlight, many of my plants are larger than their parent plants, others nearly as large. Is it safe to say these big plants beginning their second year are showing their final coloration?
-Sol
