How to grow cactus from seed

[magical9]

Would it be of interest to any one here to have a thread based on what each person does to grow their cactus from seed? I figure theres gota be different ways ya'll do it and why not have every method/process listed out? I was thinking "what if im doing it wrong or not the ideal way" and thought why not check it against how others do it. Ive been following EthnoGuy85's process for the most part with my own twist to it but again i wonder if my own twist might give me hugely different results or.. maybe the same or better so listing out how one does it could help novice growers avoid pitfalls while allowing them to do it "their own way". What do you think?

My process:

I use a 1:1:1:1 ratio of:

- Decomposed granite

- Organic locally made cactus & palm soil mix (smells so gooooood)

- Course sand

- Perlite

I make sure there are no big chunks of rock or compost in the mix as well. Then I fill up my container, in this case a 200 site seedling tray, with the soil mix and pre-wet it with a mist from the hose. I figure this helps solidify the soil a bit and obviously needs to be wet for the seeds. I then place my seeds on top of the soil and lightly mist again using a water bottle. This actually helps wet the seed and it embeds the seed halfway into the soil. I found this helps keep the seed stationary and less prone to getting blown away from subsequent water bottle sprays and maybe it helps for future development of the plant as its more "in the ground?" Then i place the humidity dome over it after spraying the inside with mist. This creates a nice hot and humid environment.

Once sprouted and they have their first spines, i remove the dome cover for at least 1 minute per day while i mist them and the dome. I blow on them as well just to impart some of my essence ;) and get them used to a little dry air?

Thats as far as ive come so far. They seem to be growing fine and still green. Does anyone see anything im doing wrong or that i could do better? Maybe post your method for comparison.

[kapitän kamasutra]

sounds perfect to me. I do it similar only less decent.

[nitrogen]

It'll never work..

No I'm just kidding - in seriousness though I've always heard it a good idea to bake the soil in the oven for awhile to kill off any little molds etc that will want to grow once it's in the humid environ..

Also, the cactus and palm soil - some of those have peat moss or some damn thing that apparently trichos don't like much.. You can substitute that mix for some good worm castings and your cacti will love it..

Edited May 13, 2014 by nitrogen

[magical9]

I actually planted all my "show" cactus in just straight cactus mix and they actually seem to be my fastest healthiest plants! So they seem to like it. Lets hope it stays that way. I read a thing called "rock eaters" or somthing. It talked about how cactus are essentially rock eaters. So I switched to using cactus mix/sand/decomposed granite. We'll see how they like it.

[Halcyon Daze]

It would prolly be a good idea to add all the links to one post, like a one stop shop for info. But I bet it's already been done. Someone just needs to put them all together in an updated version.

There's plenty good info outside of the corroboree of course.

[hostilis]

I use a 3/1/1 pumice/washed sand/"Happy frog" soil by fox farm. I use 2" square plastic pots to plant it with some gravel at the bottom. I have 2 propagators. The first one has a heat pad under it. For the first couple weeks I put syram wrap around the pots and have them in the propagator with the heat pad. They stay in there untill they germinate and grow just a little bit. Then I move them over to a propagator without a heat pad. They stay in there for a couple months and then i acclimate them to low humidity. I have them under HO T5 flouro lights. They sit about 10" under the lights and sometimes I move them farther away depending on the species (ariocarpus like to be farther away, but trichs like to be closer)

(Adenium obesum)

[magical9]

I use a 3/1/1 pumice/washed sand/"Happy frog" soil by fox farm. I use 2" square plastic pots to plant it with some gravel at the bottom. I have 2 propagators. The first one has a heat pad under it. For the first couple weeks I put syram wrap around the pots and have them in the propagator with the heat pad. They stay in there untill they germinate and grow just a little bit. Then I move them over to a propagator without a heat pad. They stay in there for a couple months and then i acclimate them to low humidity. I have them under HO T5 flouro lights. They sit about 10" under the lights and sometimes I move them farther away depending on the species (ariocarpus like to be farther away, but trichs like to be closer)

P4250078.JPG P4250079.JPG P5110146.JPG

P5110147.JPG (Adenium obesum)

Perfect man. thanks for the input! like the pics!

edit: btw i almost got that same fox farms soil yesturday but it was so expensive! like 40$ for one bag. I can get the same sized bag for like 5$ and my tricho's LOVE it so far. I have my juuls giant and a zircon6 bridgesii in just straight cactus mix and they are growing fast and fat. i get it from lowes.

Here it is http://www.lowes.com/pd_107434-11628-137_0__?productId=3006338

Edited May 13, 2014 by magical9

[franky]

Hi all,

Thought this would be a good place to ask my question, I've recently germed a bunch of seed, everything is going well I am just un experienced with hardening off the seedlings to low humidity settings, now they are a month old the seedlings, should I start opening one of the flaps on the propagators or should a wait another months or two?

[magical9]

Hi all,

Thought this would be a good place to ask my question, I've recently germed a bunch of seed, everything is going well I am just un experienced with hardening off the seedlings to low humidity settings, now they are a month old the seedlings, should I start opening one of the flaps on the propagators or should a wait another months or two?

ya im in the same boat. not entirely sure how much i should air them out and acclimate them .. just kinda using my intuition at this point.

[Myeloblast]

magical9, do you have a pic of the soil itself? I use Foxfarm soils as well, haven't found anything better at this point. I'm always interested in new commercial soils to some day make my life easier so I don't have to mix it myself, but I'm usually disappointed. Like the Black Gold brand of cactus mix, the bag says it's up to 40 or 50% pumice, so I purchased some, only to find out there's no way it had even 20% pumice in it and tons of bark and wood chips instead

[nitrogen]

I've found that letting them get to be a good size before hardening them off is better, if you want the quickest growth - I've kept mine in full humidity for like 3+ months - depends on your setup, I've never used fluoros, so mine grow slower than the fluoro setups.. Let them get at least 1/2-3/4" before starting to harden them off - if you do it to soon they can kinda get stunted - they'll turn into spiny tough little things but not grow fast for awhile..

[franky]

Cheers nitrogen, I want to grow them out as big as possible before spring arrives here at the end of the year, So i'll keep em under the humidity cheers

[nitrogen]

Yah and poking small holes in the incubator gradually over time is fine - I start this process well in advance of completely removing them from the thing. They just want to be fat and green looking when they're really young - too much sun or dry air and they'll sort of go into shock.. There's no real risk in keeping them too long in the high humidity - I suppose that eventually they might rot but I've never seen it..

[hostilis]

Yeah. I actually did an experiment with some of your (nitrogens hybrids.) I left some Psycho0 x tpm in humidity for 6 months and took the others out at 2 months. The ones that I left i humidity are 2x bigger than the ones I put outside, but the ones outside look more mature (thicker spines and skin)

[franky]

Ok so my plan will be to slowly acclimatize them to low humidity over time, I guess I'll aim to have them use to low humidity roughly 1 month prior to when I want to move them into my greenhouse from my little grow box.

[mimzy]

The seedlings I put down went into 30% course river sand, 20% perlite and 50% seedling mix. They are doing great! One thing I have never been able to get my hands on is crushed limestone, which I have heard helps the alkaline pH lovers. Does anyone think it makes an appreciable difference to their plants?

[hostilis]

I thought I would chime in with this comparison on growing mediums.

Here are some trichs and astros growing in 1/1/1 washed sand/pumice/seedling starting mix (inert mix of peat and perlite)

Here are some trichs and astros growing in 3/1/1 pumice/washed sand/Happy Frog soil

The trichs in the first mix are a lot smaller and wimpier looking. The plants in the second mix are a lot bigger and are actually more tollerant of high light levels. This is why i decided to start using this mix. It has a bunch of beneficial fungi and bacteria in it which I know is helping it out a lot. The only problem with the second mix is more algae growth, but the beneficial bacteria in it seem to fight off any mold that tries to take over in there. It is less prone to infection than my previously used mix of 8/2 sand/worm castings which i had a lot of mold issues with.

Edit: By the way the same batches/species of seed were used in each pot and they were started at the same time. Other than the lophs I threw into the first pot. They are about 3 months old now.

Edited May 15, 2014 by hostilis

[Evil Genius]

In the past, I used many different Methods. These days, I ONLY use standard sowing soil! Pure. Simple as that. And i cover it with Quartz Stones to starve out moss. This is not only important for healthy growth, but also for germination since the sowing soil increases 2nd or 3rd flush Germination-Rate dramatically. Used many different purely mineral growing media and all are inferior to the standard sowing soil. Sometimes, people have good intentions by choosing something exotic like birdsand and shit like that, but only make their life more difficult because the seedlings a.) lack nutrients b.)can´t dig their roots in because the soil keeps moving. Sand is ok and i made relatively good results compared to other mineral media, but it´s very vulnerable to Moss so it should at least be covered. But again, nothing beats Standard Sowing Soil for me.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Evil Genius

[hostilis]

Good to know EG. This little experiment I did is very short term.

By the way, how is the quartz stone important for healthy growth?

[Evil Genius]

It is not. But it keeps the Moss and Algae from growing on the Top Soil Layer. And this is extremely important for cactus seedlings. Moss is among the Top 3 Seedling Killers and overgrows them very easily, what leads to fungal infections because the air and light can't reach em anymore. Besides, the quartz creates a protected zone for the roots. The Roots take a lot longer to dry out if they are protected by Quartz stones. They keep the water where it belongs what indirectly leads to healthy growth because the seedlings rarely run out of water. Really, from all the things i did, this is what had the greatest influence on my seedling survial rate.

Edited May 15, 2014 by Evil Genius

[Swiper]

http://www.centralarizonacactus.org/assets/article/seed/CACSS_Article_Cactus_From_Seed_Leo_Martin.PDF

is how I start my seeds, except I use propagating sand from the hardware store.

[Myeloblast]

EG, do you add the quartz stone before or after germination? And if before, do you sow seeds on top of the quartz?

I typically add a layer of some type of stone after germination, but it can be time-intensive.

[Evil Genius]

Sometimes before, sometimes after. Both should work if particle size is right.

[magical9]

lots of good info. thanks. now i know to keep them under humidity longer

[magical9]

Im curious. at what point is it safe to separate my seedlings? is there a point in which it will be too difficult to separate them? I see everyone grows them all super close together but i dont know how one safely separates them later without ruining the root system. any tips/advice?