| First seeds sown 11/2/2012 | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Sat Feb 11, 2012 2:53 pm | |
| I've finally sown my first seeds today: 36 Ariocarpus retusus v furfuraceus from seedsaustralia.net and 38 Trichocereus hybrid seeds from HN (thanks HN, great germination rates) Had no problem with seedsaustralia, just need to wait and see if they are viable or not (36% germination rate). Went a bit overboard, got the seeds in a chinese take-away container, in zip-lock bags, in a fish tank! Got them ontop of a heating pad and near a window sill. I've got a lamp with a fluorescent light bulb in it. Is this suitable if I want to give the plants extra light hours? Hoping for a 100% germination rate. Jokes. That would be excellent but I would be satisfied with a 50% germination rate as this is my first go and probably did something wrong along the track. Is there anything else I have to do now, or just sit and wait? Do I fert them and do I take them out in 15 months time which will be the start of 2013 spring? Mitch
Last edited by mitchell101 on Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:50 pm; edited 1 time in total | |
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Hanazono Astromaniac
Number of posts : 825 Location : SA Registration date : 2008-09-14
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Sat Feb 11, 2012 6:05 pm | |
| mitchell101 If you had sown seeds, you can not do anyting until germination starting. The successful germination ratio of Ariocarpus is not too bad normally. I sow Ariocarpus seeds in spring using a heating pad and moved into a normall wet box around20 days after of the germination. Seedling will grow up to a resunable size until autum. I repotting seedlings next spring, one year later after germination. If your seedlings grew a resunable size by Sptember 2012, you can remove heating pad, I think. The photo is 4 months old retusus v furfuraceus seedlings in a 10 cm square pots. | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Sat Feb 11, 2012 6:30 pm | |
| I hope mine have grown that much by 4 months. Is there anything special you put in your soil for raising arios by seed? At the moment I just have them in a propagating sand mix bought from bunnings. It has a mix of coarse and fine sands.
And how does a wet box work? What is it? | |
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Hanazono Astromaniac
Number of posts : 825 Location : SA Registration date : 2008-09-14
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Sat Feb 11, 2012 9:33 pm | |
| mitchell101
I use a normal plant seed raising mix brought form bunnings. It is organic base but I add 0.5~2.0 mm size of zeorite about 15%.
Since the temperature of the potting mix top is important, I use a thermometer and measure the temperture of potting mix top and set up the heating pad volume. I use fungicide spray over the top of potting mix before swoing seeds and after sowing seed each time, just twice in total. I use coarse sands to hold seeds.
I use a flat plastic box which can pack clothes and keep under a bed, 15 cm height. A capillary mat is layed on the bottom. All pots are on the mat. I do not feed water on pots but feed over the mat. When a lid sit on the box, you can keep a wet condition in the box quite long time.
Hanazono
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Thu Feb 16, 2012 4:35 pm | |
| UPDATE: Checked seeds today and 5 of the ariocarpus have just started to germinated. Hoping for a few more within the next few days. The tricho seeds are booming though. About 20 have germinated and are already growing nicely. I would say most of them are 3-4mm already. Don't think I will be having the lid on the container for long.
What's my next step? Just sit and wait. Or is there anything minor I can do to keep up my success rate and not let anything die or get fungus? | |
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Hellonasty Admin
Number of posts : 1824 Location : NSW Registration date : 2008-04-04
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Fri Feb 17, 2012 7:41 pm | |
| Patience my friend, patience These buggers grow slowly. Sit back, relax and admire your work, the hard work has been done now let nature take over and do what is does best. Provide. Sounds like a good job so far, keep it up. | |
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IXOXI Cereus about Cacti
Number of posts : 521 Location : Glenhaven, NSW Registration date : 2011-12-08
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Sat Feb 18, 2012 1:04 pm | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:40 pm | |
| Next time I take the lid of their container I'll take a photo. Don't know when I'll take the lid off next. More should be germinated by then though. | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Wed Feb 22, 2012 2:24 pm | |
| Just gave them both a water and counted how many have now germinated. There's only a few seeds of the trichocereus left to sprout - I think I possibly have 30 seedling at the moment. The ariocarpus are a bit slower and only 10 have germinated now. Here's the pics Ariocarpus Trichocereus Sorry about the massive pictures. Don't know how to make them smaller. | |
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IXOXI Cereus about Cacti
Number of posts : 521 Location : Glenhaven, NSW Registration date : 2011-12-08
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:24 pm | |
| How many Ariocarpus did you plant? | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:14 pm | |
| Nothing has changed since my first post; its still 36 ario seeds that I planted. Hoping that more sprout. It's only been 2 weeks so I think having a third of them germinate isn't too bad a result | |
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Lachy Moderator
Number of posts : 733 Location : Langwarrin Registration date : 2008-04-05
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Thu Feb 23, 2012 4:28 pm | |
| For a first timer I'd say that's pretty good. Don't be surprised if a few stragglers pop up later on... | |
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trigonus II
Number of posts : 48 Location : Central Coast NSW Registration date : 2012-02-13
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:53 pm | |
| Look at those cute little guys | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Thu Feb 23, 2012 9:05 pm | |
| In these photos they look like little boogers to me. And I don't think like being called "cute" Trigonus; they told me they're insulted; they want to be known as spiny and verocious. I told them you were only joking and that you didn't mean it because I don't want them to go into withdrawal and stop growing. | |
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trigonus II
Number of posts : 48 Location : Central Coast NSW Registration date : 2012-02-13
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Thu Feb 23, 2012 9:59 pm | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Fri Feb 24, 2012 6:28 pm | |
| Yeah. I'm sure they will too. Better be safe than sorry though | |
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IXOXI Cereus about Cacti
Number of posts : 521 Location : Glenhaven, NSW Registration date : 2011-12-08
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Tue May 22, 2012 5:43 pm | |
| Hey Mitchell, hows your seedlings going? Got any update pics? | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:10 am | |
| Pictures as requested. 4 months to the day since the seeds were sown. Not growing as fast as I would have liked when I compare them to other people's arios were at this stage (4 months). Also, they really don't have much of a root system at all, for some, their roots are pretty much non-existant. Anything I should be doing at this stage or when Spring hits? I've just been sittin' back and letting them do their own thing thus far. Ariocarpus Trichocereus Trichocereus Ariocarpus
Last edited by mitchell101 on Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:58 am; edited 1 time in total | |
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IXOXI Cereus about Cacti
Number of posts : 521 Location : Glenhaven, NSW Registration date : 2011-12-08
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Mon Jun 11, 2012 2:21 pm | |
| Looking good. The only thing that I would do if they were mine, would be to add some coarse sterilized sand. They would be able to hold themselves up better. Looking great, thanks for the update. | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:57 am | |
| Update: 1 of the arios died (turned to mush) so I've got 12 left.
There's 30 tricho seedlings.
All seedlings are growing well. Most of the trichos have spines now as do some of the arios.
Sorry about the last post. The top two pictures are of trichos and the bottom two are of arios. I mixed them up last post. | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:46 pm | |
| I just sowed some more ario and tricho seeds.
The mix is slightly different. This time I've used 50% sand 50% seed raising mix and I'll see how it goes.
I sowed 28 trichocereus and 27 ariocarpus.
With the arios i soaked 14 of them in warm water for 20 minutes and sowed them. I didn't do anything with the other 13 seeds.
Will wait and see if there is any difference in their germination. | |
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IXOXI Cereus about Cacti
Number of posts : 521 Location : Glenhaven, NSW Registration date : 2011-12-08
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Tue Jul 10, 2012 1:56 pm | |
| I have never had any real problems getting Ariocarpus to germinate, they seem to go really well. One of my mates has an Ariocarpus that he loaned me, so I could get the 10 seedlings out that were growing around the base of it. Upon further examination of the plant, we saw, stuck into the fur a bunch of seeds, all over the plant. I collected 70 seeds, and planted them, over 50 germinated. | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Tue Jul 10, 2012 2:50 pm | |
| I either did something wrong last time, was just unlucky or the seed wasn't too good because 1/3 germination isn't great. I can afford it since I bought 60 seeds but if I only bought 10 seeds wouldn't be so good.
So I'll just see how it goes. Still got the heat mat on which got all the seedlings through the winter thus far.
Lightning fast response by the way. | |
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IXOXI Cereus about Cacti
Number of posts : 521 Location : Glenhaven, NSW Registration date : 2011-12-08
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Tue Jul 10, 2012 4:18 pm | |
| Thanks, my responses are fast, but I am slow to take photos. Speaking of which I will get the ones of the Notocactus soon | |
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mitchell101
Number of posts : 134 Location : Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Registration date : 2010-05-02
| Subject: Re: First seeds sown 11/2/2012 Wed Aug 08, 2012 4:44 pm | |
| It's been a month now since my last post.
I soaked 14 ariocarpus seeds and 6 of them germinated early on. No more have since the first week.
The 13 ariocarpus seeds that I did nothing with I had no result with until after week 2 whereby only 2 germinated.
14 trichocereus seeds germinated.
I probably was too eager and sowed them too early on... or the temp of the soil was off. I don't have a thermometer in the soil. I just set the heater to 5 during the day and 2 at night.
The original seedlings haven't done a great deal. Its probably because I'm growing them in 100% sand and haven't ferted until today. I used Seasol Complete Garden Treatment at around 1/4 strength.
I will dose with this again next week and then after that use Seasol Powerfeed.
In the sand mix, the seedlings still have pretty much no roots.
The half sand, half general cactus mix seems to be doing well... The seedlings are only a month old but seem to have reasonable roots and will probably soon catch up to the seedlings in the sand.
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