Seed success.

Had a fantastic year for seeds. Just a few shots from the garden.

Out of 19 pots only 3 have failed to produce.


Some of the species include:
Mammillaria
coryphantha
ferocactus
lophophora
escorbia

As well as the ones below which I am most excited about.

ariocarpus furfuraceus


uebelmannia pectinifera


Mammillaria mazatlanensis (own seed)


Ever exciting mixed bag. I think the big ones a probably echinocereus.


Also a few shots of last years seedlings.
Lophophora (weiss-bluette, texana, cardona, mex 54 + one lonely little koreshii)



Epithelantha


Airocarpus retusus and fissuratus

oh doze widdle widdle ariocarpus. how cute.

when im not oozing with testosterone baby ariocarpus make my heart melt.lol.
nice work sneakz.

Thanks for sharing,
The seedlings all look great! It's nice to see someone else's seedlings as a reference point, I'm always worried mine aren't doing well but seems in comparison they are right on track!
Very jealous about your little loph family, mine are just little green blobs atm, can't wait until they actually resemble a proper plant.

Your going to have your work cut out for you once the seedlings are ready to be transplanted!
I'm up to around 15 containers of seedlings (I keep buying seeds lol) guessing I'll have about 100 plants to repot once they're ready!

Kind regards,

Walker87

SneakyCuttlefish wrote:

Had a fantastic year for seeds. Just a few shots from the garden.

Out of 19 pots only 3 have failed to produce.

A great result!

I'm looking for tips on seed germination/raising.  The first photo suggests a very moist environment inside your baggies (?)  How "wet" is your soil, and do you add/do anything to minimize algae etc?  You mention 'wettable sulphur' in another thread (?)

I've tried using less moisture in my sealed baggies but I suspect this just hinders germination.  I note the grower below uses considerable water but most is evaporated before he seals the container.  (Google the doc name for the link.)

CACSS_Article_Cactus_From_Seed_Leo_Martin.PDF

Great job Sneaky.

No doubt in time most of these will be available to forum members as I certainly don't need all of them.

Eck wrote:

SneakyCuttlefish wrote:

Had a fantastic year for seeds. Just a few shots from the garden.

Out of 19 pots only 3 have failed to produce.

A great result!

I'm looking for tips on seed germination/raising.  The first photo suggests a very moist environment inside your baggies (?)  How "wet" is your soil, and do you add/do anything to minimize algae etc?  You mention 'wettable sulphur' in another thread (?)

I've tried using less moisture in my sealed baggies but I suspect this just hinders germination.  I note the grower below uses considerable water but most is evaporated before he seals the container.  (Google the doc name for the link.)

CACSS_Article_Cactus_From_Seed_Leo_Martin.PDF

This should probably be a new post so as not to hijack the original but I will post a response anyways.

There is a channel on YouTube called cactusmain, he has a tutorial on raising cacti from seed. I followed his direction and have had excellent results, the only thing I strayed from was I bake my soil in the oven for about 90 minutes at around 200 and I use cling wrap to cover my containers not bags.
There is also a q&a on that same channel that should answer any additional questions you may have.

Or you could read through previous posts on the forum, there is an absolute wealth of knowledge amongst these pages, a lot of practical info you will struggle to find anywhere else.

Hope that helps.

Eck

The method I use for seed is as follows.

Soil prep:
3 parts cactus mix
1 part coarse sand
Handful of blood 'n' bone
Handful of gypsum

Let it sit for a week until the blood and bone has stopped smelling. Stir regularly. Then place the soil in a pot and place the pot inside a bucket. Add boiling water until completely covered and let sit until cool enough to handle. Remove the pot, cover with glad wrap and let it drain over night.

Pots
Place the empty seedling pots into boiling hot water just prior to planting.

Seeds
Sow the seeds evenly over the surface and pat down gently with a spoon. Large seeds will need to be lightly covered. Then lightly spray with a weak solution of wettable sulfur. This will help to settle the seeds and fight off algae.

Its important to note that I don't drench the pots in sulfur.

The soil is at field capacity as it goes in the bags so there is no need to add more water. You want a build up of water droplets on the side of the bags as this is a clear indicator that the humidity is nice and high inside the bags.

SneakyCuttlefish wrote:

The method I use for seed is as follows.
...

Thanks for the detailed description and method.  It suggests I have been using too little water in an effort to stave off algae.  The weak sulphur spray is easy to try.  I've read some people add a little peroxide in their water but not tried it myself.

Thanks for that SneakyC, I've been thinking about growing my own..... I have some questions, but will make my own thread for that.

No worries guys. Just trial and error. I have had some major losses until I sorted this method out. Last year I planted over a hundred bucks worth of aztekium and mammillaria seeds from the states. After the fifth week, only one single pot out of 40 showed any sign of germination.

I eventually worked out that the pungent death smell was not from the neighbors. It was coming from my seed baggies. I put fresh blood n bone in and didn't allow time for it to sit. I assume the chemical reactions that take place at the beginning of break down are not good for cacti seeds.

I find the biggest issue for seedlings survival is clean seed, be sure to clean all seeds before they are planted. They must be free of any fruit material or other contaminants or you will certainly loose many to damping off/bacteria.

So I re-potted some of my seeds from this years planting. Big thanks to HN for supplying his fantastic cross pollinated Astro seeds. They turned out great.

Aawww.. The babies look adorable.

I didn't plant my astro seeds when they first arrived since I thought they'd go better a little later in the year 'round here.
I put some seed trays down this last week gone and the trays I expected fair germination from have already started sprouting. Looking forward to getting busy now that winter has past.