All seedlings dead...

[Quixote]

Well, today my last surviving Lophophora seedling succumbed to mold and died. I had around 5-6 seedlings, but lost them one by one.

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do differently next time.

Had them covered by plastic film, and poked holes in it day by day to make the air less humid gradually. I guess I wasn't poking enough holes rapidly enough.

Or maybe I should only keep the plastic wrap until the seeds sprout and the seedlings turn green?

It seemed to me the seedlings would quickly develop in the beginning , but then their development would just stop. They would sit there without changing until mold kicked in.

[PhoenixSon]

as you said to humid, pictures of your set up would help people give better pointers

[DiscoStu]

maybe your substrate had too much organic matter? i wash mine in sulphur water water before laying the seeds and no mould on fairly organic soil (for trichs),

for a more chemical free approach an addition of cinnamon prior to laying can prevent mould, as I'm led to believe.

[Foo]

Try the takeaway tek.

[Dreamwalker.]

they grow really super slow on their own roots...best to graft them asap onto pere....before they damp off...easy to graft as small seedlings

[Gunter]

I suggest not using anything to increase humidity except misting once or twice daily.
I used to keep them humid using covers until spines/tufts appeared, but found it was not required.

They grow fast enough on their own roots for me to be happy.

[zelly]

I've observed seedlings growing on their own right next to the mama plant the seeds fell from, and they fer damn sure didnt have any humidity schemes to get them started.

what really blew me away though was finding an E obesa seedling growing next to an ario fissuratus.....and the closest obesa mama was 20 feet away.

just goes to show that mother nature is quite successful without any human intervention whatsoever

quixote- try putting 1 cm of sand on top of your seedling mix & germinating your seeds on the sand, misting as needed, using distilled water

[Quixote]

Thanks for all advice. I know it would be better to show some pictures of my setup, but I threw away the soil in great disappointment before I thought of taking any pics.

Next time I will try the open setup with sand and misting a couple of times daily.

[Evil Genius]

Hi Quixote, it´s impossible to help you because we can only assume what caused your seedling´s death. I mean, when i started, i assumed that Fungus killed my seedlings, when i was actually not watering enough, or too much, or in the wrong Periods. Or too much Heat or too few. Wet Feet. And so on. In the rarest Cases, it was actually Fungus and usually, it was my own Incompetence. So yeah, please post a pic of the setup and then we might be able to post something helpful.