Watering Seedlings

[Psylocke]

I always here that it is very important not to water too much to avoid rot. I know this to be true with mature plants, but what about seedlings. I have lost many seedlings because they dried out. I always use a very well draining soil mix for planting seeds, and have found that I need to water them daily to avoid the seedling dying from drought. For very young seedlings, I even have to put a humidity dome over the pots that they are in to avoid having the soil dry out between waterings. I typically have to do this until they are up to a year old (longer for very slow growers). Obviously, it depends on the species. I am most interested in Astros, Arios, Gymnocalycium, and Trichs. Any advice? I am hoping to try some grafting in the near future, but I need to build up some stock first. Even tossing around the idea of tissue culture.

[tonic]

Keep them moist, but not wet, never let young seedlings dry out completly. Arios can supposedly be kept in high humidity for up to two years, I have never had success with keeping them humid for that long with rot setting in. All the genera you mention are quite different in their requirements (Astros & Arios being the most similiar) Trichos are pretty forgiving and I would suggest not keeping them in humidity domes for more than 6 months.

The basic rule is once they take on a mature form reduce watering. You will find Trichos alot easier the other 3 you mentioned, Gymno being not too difficult, then Astros aren't too bad and Arios being the most difficult, you will probably experience some noticable losses in the Astros and Arios in your first grow. I'm still getting the hang of it, with some losses.

Trichos are easy though.

Edited October 1, 2008 by Phos D

[devance]

I had alot of success with spreading the seeds on [sterile walmart supersoil] in a aquarium with a double tube flourescent light on the glass top.

The heat, light, humidity is just right.

Kind of counterintuitive, but cactus doesn't get the skin until they can grow up in a rain short term season.

They look like green spheres.

Not taking them out early is something I had to learn many a time the hard way.

As I had 200 multicloured lithops, but vanished as I was trying to get them use to outside temp by taking the aquarium outside.

All gone ,maybe fungous, maybe bugs in one night.

Boohoo, better luck for you.

[bit]

As I had 200 multicloured lithops, but vanished as I was trying to get them use to outside temp by taking the aquarium outside.

Lithops do seem to be supersensitive to changes in lighting/humidity. I've lost so many I can't count. Given up on them.

[Siggor]

are people being to careful with their seedlings?

what happened to natural conditions? why the use of humidity domes? just hand spray some water once every afternoon till big enough to look after itself.

the only time i have ever has anything rot is when it was a fresh cutting and had been raining for weeks on end.

[Psylocke]

Living in a small apartment, it is practically impossible to mimic natural conditions. I was forced to resort to using humidity domes, etc. since I have lost most of the seedlings that I have ever germinated. Then I realized that they were dying because of lack of water and not rot. Arios are indeed the most difficult, and I have never successfully raised an ario from seed to maturity. I have a couple of seedlings still alive now, so we'll see how it goes. Grafting is an attractive option, but I hear that arios are very hard to degraft successfully.

[planthelper]

i totaly agree with psylocke, keeping loph and echinopsis seedlings under a humidety dome is the way to go.

seedling loph behave very different to older specimens, i know people who never opend there humidety dome (up to 1 year) since they planted the seed's and the lophs were already pea size and bigger. but i am too curious and mostly open the dome during the day and close it for nightime. lophs grow in size over night, when they absorbe the water via there skin. loph roots are very sensitive to drying out, so be on the guard. that might be aswell the reason why some people swear on putting a layer of sand into the pot's after they germed, as this new additional layer might protect the now deeper sitting roots. i would personelly would not mix different media, like cacti mix and sand, but rather use the same media for this additional thin layer. i don't like applying different layers, as layers made out of different media, will create layers of different water holding abiletys.

i use normal potting mix for lophs, the cacti mix dries out too fast.....

Edited October 2, 2008 by planthelper

[mutant]

On lithops

Given up on them.

second time I hear this from a cacti person