Loph seedlings

[lhb2444]

Hello all,

I've got some loph seedlings that are about 4 months old now and are coming along well (they've been under fluros) I'm going to try a few grafts onto pereskiopsis but ive only got enough peres for about half the seedlings so I'm thinking i'll plant the rest out individually and let them do their thing.

So my question is should I leave the ones to planted out for a while longer in their current environment under the lights or should i repot them into some a better soil mixture and leave them in a more permanent position on a nice warm window sill? (most of them are about 5mm across)

If I do report them whats a good soil mixture for lophs? For my trichs and things I use roughly 50/50 good quality cactus soil and perlite with a little organic matter thrown in but I know trichs are much less prone to rot than lophs. Would this mix be suffice if I'm only watering once they've dried out?

Sorry for the poor quality pictures.

[bogfrog]

i just did some repotting of my seedlings around the same size, although it made them take up less space, i found i accidentally killed quite a few of them in the process, so if you do repot them - be very gentle!

i use 50/50 fine pumice and sieved potting mix with mine

[congojack]

i say do it! but be super carefull.

i use tweezers when repotting my seedlings, seems to work well enough.

good luck

-Congo

[woof woof woof]

skip the organic for seedlings in the future. if you still feel like adding organic add 20% max for loph's. (and most other cacti)

and when you take the seedlings out for repotting,... dig up sufficiently around the seedling and lift it with the clump of dirt. The clump is usually bigger when you have allot of organic material in the soil.

[Marcel]

Wow, is that moss in there with the seedlings? I didn't realise that loph seedlings could survive in such conditions. Amazing!

[planthelper]

yep, it's amazing how young lophs, like those very wet (humid) conditions, but if you get that "moss like wet surface" than they are in danger of dying, and many might die once you repot.

one has to try to avoid, this surface layer of wet gunk, because it, leads to rot, and on top it makes that the roots of the loph are short and under developed.

i still use a humidety dome on young lophs, but i try to make sure that, the soil dries out on the top and rather stays wet at the bottom. this is not so easy for me to achive, but i think, i'm on the right track, using, a dome with air holes, bottom watering into saucers, and varying the watering regime....

Edited September 28, 2011 by planthelper

[Evil Genius]

Moss is the cancer of the soil. At least for a cactus grower. I hate it so much i wanna piss fire on it. You need to repot the Lophs asap. Give em a mineralic soil and they will thrive.

Also you should think about sterilizing or pasteurising the soil. Moss is one of the worst in enemies of the cactus grower as it rapidly overgrows the seedlings, taking away the warm sunlight and causing mold and other infections. Moss is the reason i just switched to a much more expensive soil. There are some cases of good moss...but its a good rule of thumb to avoid it like the plague. Yours is still a good distance away but its a good opportunity to repot before it gets close and you carry the mosssperm with you. bye EG

[lhb2444]

Thanks heaps for the replies. I was a little tipsy when planting them and super excited I received my loph seeds so just put some in what I soil I had about. Thankfully my peres is pretty well good to go for some grafts so I will trying my hand at that in the next few days.

There will be a few seedlings left over though so I think i'll do as Eg has suggested and give them a good mineralic soil and transfer them to a warm fairly sunny window.

I also think I'll take a different approach to planting out the rest of the seed

[SaBReT00tH]

I've done some loph seed germination before and also found my main and number 1 problem is the moss killing the seedlings through rot. Even after sterilizing the sand, using boiling water etc, cooling then planting the seeds, putting in a humid container for ages and not opening, I noticed the moss/fungi would still grow. After this I had tried spraying a very diluted fungicide over it too and the moss still didn't competely go away and lots of the cacti perished when I tried to dry the moss out through slight ventillation cause they'd get too dry and weren't quite ready. Will be experimenting with germination again this summer. Evilgenius -> what is the more expensive soil and does it have enough coarseneess and water holding properties to allow for drainage/moisture holding?

Edited October 3, 2011 by SaBReT00tH

[lhb2444]

So I've finally potted up my loph seedlings after living through the moss and what not they don't appear to be in to bad condition. Fingers crossed some suitable soil, a terracotta pot and a warm windowsill should keep them happy.