My little cactus terrarium in MN

[phildo]

Hi everyone! I'm super excited to have access to this forum and excited to share my past and future experiences as well as hopefully getting some advice!
I live in Minnesota and in this area no one really grows cacti from seeds, most people buy them from the store and just take care of them in doors as house plants. 3 years ago i picked up some seeds from an Arizona airport for my kids to try to grow. After several attempts with the 40 or so seeds, I was able to get 2 to grow! My kids lost interest after a few weeks because nothing happened lol

My big trick was creating a little green house with a cup cake container!


After three years I replanted the two cacti that survived and moved them to a fish tank that at one point housed our pet fish.

I then bought some new seeds from the same company (kept the growing instructions manual) that i originally bought from, and started experimenting to start growing out my terrarium.

I started back in middle march, had no luck until the last 2 weeks when i adjusted the amount of water. Based on my experiments it seems the seeds needed a lot more water than i was giving them. Once I started watering them daily (keeping the soil moist with a spray bottle) I started getting results!
(I added a hydrometer so i could keep an eye on the humidity)

You'll also noticed little sprouts on the right side starting to grow!

So a few questions for all you experts out there!
1. Most of my sprouts appear to look the same, so i assume they are all cacti like the two i already have. But I have a few that are a little different looking, any ideas what they are? The ones in question are the tall brown sprout on the right and the little green looking plant on the left side.(see below picture)

2. My two cactus that i have i think are "hedgehog" cacti, is this correct? Is it the same as a barrel cactus?
3. Any advice or suggestions for my terrarium? Comments welcome!

I know someday I'll have to move my cacti out of the terrarium, but at the rate they are growing it would probably be a decade before i have to think about it lol

Phil

[saboten]

Ah! a fellow Minnesotan Welcome aboard. I'm originally from Minneapolis, myself.

How fun to sow seeds and get some attractive little guys like that! Unfortunately, I'm far from being expert, and am just beginning with seedlings, so I can't offer too much advice for you. However, as for that unidentified little green plant on the left, could it just be a piece of grass? I can't tell exactly from the picture, but I know a lot of grass just takes advantage of the opportunity and pops up, depending on where you picked up your soil from.

[Cactusethan]

I am also a Minnesotan!,and I love cacti and collect cacti in MN.Also I am growing cacti by seed.There are probably a couple different species and you will have wait for them grow a little more to figure out what species they are.To me the two big ones look like Ferocacti and Ferocacti are Barrel Cacti.The cacti look very healthy!Just when they get larger,you should transplant them.

[greenknight]

Yes, those look like Ferocacti, can't say what species at this stage. They're often included in seed mixes, and they're pretty easy to grow, so it's not surprising.

As you discovered, cactus seedlings need constantly moist, humid conditions. Not too wet, though, soggy soil leads to rot. Daily misting is fine.

Echinocereus "hedgehog" cacti are also often found in mixes (and also pretty easy), wouldn't be surprised if you have some of those among the younger sprouts.

While cactus seedlings need dampness, it's bad for older cacti. When they're about a year old you should think about transplanting them out of there if they look hearty enough (like the first two).

[phildo]

An update after almost a year and a half. I gave up on the terrarium. I just dont think the grow lights was good enough for my cactus, so rather than letting them shrivel up and die (which is what it looked like was happening), i transplanted them into this vase:


Funny thing is i thought it was a weed that was growing on the side, but i think its an aloe plant or something... nut quite sure. Maybe someone has some ideas.

Once i moved the two cati out of the terrarium they doubled in size over the summer!

Since old post has broken image here's what they used to look like: