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?
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.
Cool macro shots!
what's your medium for germinating cactus seeds?
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