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Some Cactus Seedlings

dvg

dvg

Here are some cactus seedling pics of A. caput-medusae, (seeds sown march 5, 2011) showing it's first tubercle growing out...

...the seeds for these plants were going for 20 Euros a piece a few years ago... :eek: :eek: :eek:

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and from today...
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And these are some pics of some Mammillaria luethyi seedlings that were also sown on March 5 of last month...

...M. luethyi link

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dvg
 
Wildfire Chilli Australia said:
Nice one. i have many cacti in the garden but none I have grown from seed. Tried it once with not much luck but that was about 15 years ago. any tips?
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Have you tried the 'baggie method' before?

Cactus seedlings love moisture, so they do very well if sown in pots that are sealed in resealable kitchen bags...aka Ziplock bags.

If the media is kept just moist, the seedlings can live quite happily in the baggies for from 6 months to 4 years, but you should check in on them, because Ziplocks breathe and will dry out in time.

The slower growing the cacti is, the better it will do, over the first few months or even years, growing inside a sealed bag.

Then after a few months, depending on the cactus, the bag can slowly be opened a bit more each day, until the cacti are hardened off enough to be outside of their artificial wombs. ;)

Cactus seeds can also be started under clear plastic propagation domes, but they will need to be watered more often and will have to greater chance of meeting insects and other pests versus had they been inside a sealed bag.


siling_labuyo said:
Cool macro shots!

what's your medium for germinating cactus seeds?
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Lately i've been germinating seeds with paper towels or even coffee filters, and transferring them over to a planting medium in pots.

But they can also be sown on media and allowed to germinate that way.

For those, i like a very airy, mostly mineral mix (65-90%) and though i do use organic components in my mixes, I try to stay away from Peat Moss...fungus gnats and other nasties seem to love it.

Some mineral components i have to choose from include...a couple grades of coarse silica sand, perlite, vermiculite, pumice, volcanic rock, even some clay particles that i purchased from a bonsai dealer.

I'm aiming for a very well draining and airy media mix, and use what is available to me locally, and growers from around the world successfully use different media components that are locally accessible to them.

dvg
 
Thanks for the info.

I think when I did it I just put it in a pot with glad wrap on the top in front of my bedroom window. They germinated but I think when I took the plastic off they died.
So it doesn't matter that there is lots of humidity in there? Do they like to be kept moist or wet? What about temperatures?
Sorry for all the questions. If you don't want to answer I can just research it when I go to do it, but it seems like you have a lot of knowledge with it already.
 
Wildfire Chilli Australia said:
Thanks for the info.

I think when I did it I just put it in a pot with glad wrap on the top in front of my bedroom window. They germinated but I think when I took the plastic off they died.
So it doesn't matter that there is lots of humidity in there? Do they like to be kept moist or wet? What about temperatures?
Sorry for all the questions. If you don't want to answer I can just research it when I go to do it, but it seems like you have a lot of knowledge with it already.
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They do like to be moist, if they get too wet some of them are prone to rot.

So it is a bit of a balancing act between keeping them just moist, but not too wet.

As far as temps go, they do like it warm, between 25C to 30C, and a seedling heat mat can help them develop their roots faster.

Once they have a bit of a root system and a little size to them, they can slowly be adjusted to drier air.

Very young cactus seedlings are susceptible to drying out and red spider attacks, so leaving them in a bag for a few months or so will allow little maintenance, until you decide to harden them off.

And you can tell if the seedlings are getting too much light...

...they'll turn dark red, but if they are just a shade of pink, they'll be okay with that.



dvg
 
No worries...what cacti are you growing in your garden?

And do you like cacti for their flowers or their spines?

dvg
 
dvg said:
No worries...what cacti are you growing in your garden?

And do you like cacti for their flowers or their spines?

dvg
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Umm I have lost all the tags from my plants and had most of them for 15+ years. I have just had a look through a cactus book so at a rough guess would say some of those big Saguaro or fence post type ones, a few mammillaria, Austrocephalocereus dybowski,Peyote,Cleistocactus,discocactus,echinocactus,Epiphyllum, hmmmm might be easier for me just to go and take some photos!
I really have not cared for my cacti for the last few years especially since I started my chilli business. I just spent more time looking after my chillies so my cacti have been really neglected and need a boost of nutrients and some weeding I think.
I will go take some photos and upload them later. Don't judge them for what they look like now cos they were once fine looking specimens :)

Oh and the spikes are what got me first sucked in because I like evil things :hell: but now I also appreciate them for the flowers. Some arer so amazing and I like that they are so special that if you don't keep an eye on them and wait for them to open that you could miss them for another year.
 
I believe you when you tell me you once had nice looking specimens...but cactus are one group of plants that can take a little hardship. ;)

Sounds like you have a good collection of them too...

...i like the heavy dense curved spined covered cactuses, although i do have a few small softies that produce great flowers.

For the last couple years i had also gotten away from cactus, while i really concentrated on Carnivorous Plants, but that addiction has since stabilized and i've taken a renewed interest in growing cacti from seeds again.

Best of luck to you with yours too!

:cheers:

dvg
 
dvg said:
I believe you when you tell me you once had nice looking specimens...but cactus are one group of plants that can take a little hardship. ;)

Sounds like you have a good collection of them too...

...i like the heavy dense curved spined covered cactuses, although i do have a few small softies that produce great flowers.

For the last couple years i had also gotten away from cactus, while i really concentrated on Carnivorous Plants, but that addiction has since stabilized and i've taken a renewed interest in growing cacti from seeds again.

Best of luck to you with yours too!

:cheers:

dvg
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Yes they can take a bit of hardship but no attention for years unfortunately results in quite a few dead or yellow looking ones :(
Even though they don;t need much water, when it is summer you still need to give them some and the ones in the front garden were lucky to get a drink once every few months.

We must have similar growing interests as I have just ventured into the Carnivorous plants (only have 4 to start with until I know what I'm doing.) I have 2 Venus Fly traps and 2 Pitcher plants. They have died off but I now know (didn't know many years ago when I tried growing them) that they come back! So I can just see little shoots happening now and have just placed them in this cool looking biodome thing that I need to add some medium to and then plant them into it. Am also trying to grow a couple of Orchids as I love the flowers on them! Have an awesome blue and purple one, hope that reflowers again next season and I don't kill it before then :)

Anyway have taken a few quick shots of my cacti (didn't practice any good photography) just some to give you a basic idea of the types I have and if you want to see any up closer can take them again. Will post soon. hey if you have some nice ones post more pics, your macro work on your seedlongs looks great.
My favourite is a barrel type cactus that must be 30years old now but I also love the big tall ones that produce the massive pink flowers.
 
Here are a few other pics I managed to resize

This is one of my favourite. i love the look of it when it is just starting to bud. It produces beautiful yellow flowers
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This one closest to the right is my facvourite biggest one. i actually picked it up off someones front lawn about 6 years ago and have planted it twice. Some idiot kids had gone around on Halloween and chopped down all their Cacti :crazy: I asked the owners what they were doing with it and they said throwing it out, so I loaded up my little subaru impreza (had only just bought it) and stuck it on the back seat not caring how dirty i was getting my car or how many spikes might of ended up in the back seats! They thought I was crazy but I saw it as worth the risk and a bargain.

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biosphere for Carnivorous plants
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Carnivorous plants. You can see the 2 empty pots just starting to sprout
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I was just making myself a tea and thought you might be interested in looking at some Cactus mugs I picked up in Singapore
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Wildfire Chilli Australia said:
Here are a few other pics I managed to resize

This is one of my favourite. i love the look of it when it is just starting to bud. It produces beautiful yellow flowers
IMG_4184.jpg


This one closest to the right is my facvourite biggest one. i actually picked it up off someones front lawn about 6 years ago and have planted it twice. Some idiot kids had gone around on Halloween and chopped down all their Cacti :crazy: I asked the owners what they were doing with it and they said throwing it out, so I loaded up my little subaru impreza (had only just bought it) and stuck it on the back seat not caring how dirty i was getting my car or how many spikes might of ended up in the back seats! They thought I was crazy but I saw it as worth the risk and a bargain.

IMG_4175.jpg


biosphere for Carnivorous plants
IMG_4191.jpg


Carnivorous plants. You can see the 2 empty pots just starting to sprout
IMG_4190.jpg


I was just making myself a tea and thought you might be interested in looking at some Cactus mugs I picked up in Singapore
IMG_4188.jpg
Click to expand...


That's a very healthy looking Ferocactus, i have one like that, but it needs repotting and probably a good drink to fill in

it's ribs.

And your Opuntia is very impressive, with it's big spineless pads, but i bet it still has glochids...

...do you eat the prickly pears that it makes...i heard they make for good jellies?

I see that you have a Sarracenia and a Nepenthes (ventricosa or ventrata) pitcher plants...

...once you get going into those, you'll be looking to complete the full set...Heliamphora, Darlingtonia, and Cephalotus, which i believe is situated in habitat not too far from you at all...;)

And after seeing how cacti grow right in your backyard, i realize how different our climates really are...

...we have cacti growing naturally on a hill just a couple of miles from here, but they are exposed, at times, to -40C

temps in the winter...tough lil buggers (Opuntia fragilis)

dvg
 
Thanks.Yes the Ferocactus is great apart from all the weeds around it. They are so hard to pull out so I took a risk and sprayed poison on them the other day. It killed half of the weeds. I have some really awesome photos somewhere of it flowering!

This is actually the first time the Opuntia has fuited. I had a whole heap of similar ones with the little red hairs but way too many times have people been hurt. Once when my son was about 1yr old he touched it with his hand and we had to sit there for 2 hours pulling each spine out with tweezers whilst he was screaming. It took so long that he ended up falling asleep as we were doing it. So they all went in the bin.
I have tried the fruit before but if I remember correctly there are heaps of seeds inside which makes it hard to eat, plus you have to deskin/despine the outside first. I will try these again but I think with all the effort involved it's not worth it.
What I want to know is which one do they use for eating the pads (nopales?) I tried it in a mexican restaurant once and have had it pickled. I know you can't just use any pad as some of them have that milky sap in them which you can't eat.

Wow I'm surprised that they survive in -40 degrees! Where do you keep your cacti then, in a greenhouse or just outside?

Yes I will get heaps more carnivorous plants, once I know what I'm doing properly. There is a really good site I found that will post them to me and they have heaps of varieties including some rare ones, but they can be very expensive so I didn't want to start with them and then loose them all!
 
Hey! Awesome pics there! Can I have your camera? :D
I too am a cactiphile! I always had trouble growing from seed, (they'd go yellow during hardening off) though that was a while off, maybe I should try again. I have mostly columnars and minis. (trichocereus, lophophora, etc).
 
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