Shmaroams humble seed diary

[greenknight]

Take a pair of tweezers and dig out a gob of the substrate with the moldy seedling. Once they get really rotten, that's the only way to get the whole thing - and that one is really rotten.

Don't worry about the algae, it's not a problem. Watch closely for any spread of that mold, though.

[Shmaroam]

Take a pair of tweezers and dig out a gob of the substrate with the moldy seedling. Once they get really rotten, that's the only way to get the whole thing - and that one is really rotten.

Don't worry about the algae, it's not a problem. Watch closely for any spread of that mold, though.

Yeah that fuzzy seedling is done, past any kind of recovery point I think. Just pull it out so it doesn't cause any more trouble. I've got a few bags with algae in them that doesn't seem to bother the seedlings but your algae looks kind of slimy, don't know if that matters or not.

Thanks both! I removed the fuzzy one and scooped out as much of the substrate that looked to be contaminated and put the pot in a fresh zip bag. Will be keeping an eye on the bag but hopefully there wont be any more problems.

[Shmaroam]

A 7 weeks update incoming!
Now its starting to show that some seedlings have fallen behind their big brothers and sisters being unable to keep up in growth. Keep fighting small ones

Also have a question about the Pleiospilos nellii. Specifically if I should treat them differently from the cacti seedlings and soon open up the zip bag? During the weeks I was away from home my Lithops julii v. fulleri C062 died out, only have 2 seedlings left out of 21 ooops . All the rest turned transparent/white and died out from apparently being too long in the closed zip bag so the high humidity was too much. Will that happen to the nellii as well? When is it time to let them out of the zip bags?

Other than that everything is running on autopilot with timers for the growlights.


Pleiospilos nellii picture above



Stenocactus multicostatus picture above



Mammillaria hahniana picture above



Gymnocalycium baldianum picture above



Turbinicarpus schmiedickianus v. schwarzii 'polaskii' picture above



Astrophytum asterias picture above

[greenknight]

The Pleiospilos should come out of the bag. Most Mesembs won't tolerate 100% humidity for long, and should be un-bagged soon after they germinate. Lithops are an exception, they will usually be fine staying in the baggie for a while - they won't produce true leaves until you let them dry out, though, they'll retain their seed leaves and just be little blobs. Don't know what went wrong with yours, sorry to hear about that.

[Shmaroam]

My Turbinicarpus alonsoi bag is still having troubles with another seedling getting consumed by mold, once the mold get onto the seedlings it seems to just explode. Two days ago no fuzzy mold was visible and now its already gone I really need to transplant the still living seedlings ASAP into new fresh substrate and pot - and then ill make it a bit more gritty as well. Will do it once I get home from work tonight. Probably should soak the other seedlings in water to try to wash away any other mold spores.

[DodoBrooke]

Yes, I have also experienced it with about 40-50 of my M.Huitzilopochtli seedlings that germinated. Only 2 were left so far.
Mold seemed to killed all seedlings in just few days. I have tried to open the bag but I think I should have left the bag open immediately after I spotted the mold. What I did was open it to dry the substrate and then close it again. And by the way it was about the hottest period in a year at that time

[Shmaroam]

Im BACK! 3 months since last post... its been a while!

My seedlings are now 5 months old! Planned to do updates more often but other things came in the way
Some seedlings died during this time period, but this time not from mold. I managed to get that under control so have seen zero fuzzy mold in these last three months. Not really sure what they died from but it was like they melted, so probably rot? Looked like the seedling was cut in half with only the top part remaining. That was too bad, since those that died where of the bigger size compared to the survivors. Other than that everything is going good I'd say! All seedlings are now out of the zip-lock bags, breathing normal air!

Id love some opinion on the bottom two pictures! Are they too red and need to cool down a bit further away from the grow light?


My Astrophytum asterias are one of my favorites right now, love the deep green color they have going! Theres some variation in the patterns and it would be cool if they keep it that way.


Mammillaria hahniana are also growing nicely, probably the fastest growers here!


Quite a few of them are very pale so when I transplanted them I put them in a separate pot. Are these varigated and need to be grafted to survive?


Pleiospilos nellii have grown very fast! I think at least... when I compared to some other nellii seedlings I've seen online at this age. Finally a couple of them have gotten their true leaves and I'm super happy with that! Think one of them got a bit burned from the grow light tho but its nothing big.


Stenocactus multicostatus have turned quite dark red in color and have been like this for a couple of weeks now. Is this too red? They seem to grow quite nicely and the spines look good I'd say but dont want to keep them too stressed. Ive moved them now a bit further away from the grow light.


My Turbinicarpus schmiedickianus v. schwarzii 'polaskii' is the other one that have turned quite dark red in color. Same questions as above.

Thats all for me this time! Hopefully my next update is sooner than 3 months haha Got a new phone with better camera so think the pictures have better quality, and I tested this time to crop the pictures to only focus on the seedlings, less background stuff in the picture. Tell me what you think!

[greenknight]

The pictures are very good, nice job!

Yes, seedlings melted = rot. Happens to the best of us sometimes. Overall, your seedlings are doing great.

The Stenocactus multicostatus look totally fine, the growing part is green. The red on the sides is not important.

Some of the Turbinicarpus do look a bit too red. They're not as far along, since they're slow-growing, perhaps a bit less light might be in order. On the other had, my only experience with the genus is some Turbinicarpus swobodae I started in 2016. Of the 6 that came up, 4 were brick red, 2 that were shaded by the label were green. I lost a couple, one of the red ones and one green one. The largest one now was quite red when it was younger. So, maybe it's not a problem.

[Shmaroam]

The pictures are very good, nice job!

Yes, seedlings melted = rot. Happens to the best of us sometimes. Overall, your seedlings are doing great.

The Stenocactus multicostatus look totally fine, the growing part is green. The red on the sides is not important.

Some of the Turbinicarpus do look a bit too red. They're not as far along, since they're slow-growing, perhaps a bit less light might be in order. On the other had, my only experience with the genus is some Turbinicarpus swobodae I started in 2016. Of the 6 that came up, 4 were brick red, 2 that were shaded by the label were green. I lost a couple, one of the red ones and one green one. The largest one now was quite red when it was younger. So, maybe it's not a problem.

Thanks friend, then I'll move the Stenocactus multicostatus back to their old spot under the led lamp and the Turbinicarpus slightly further away. Do you have any thoughts about the pale Mammillaria hahniana?

[greenknight]

The pale Mammillaria hahnianas look like they have enough chlorophyll to survive except maybe that one in the bottom center, and even it's not completely white. It's barely growing, might have a better chance grafted.

Seems like there are always oddballs, most of them don't turn out to be anything special - but variegates do crop up randomly. Just have to wait and see.

[Shmaroam]

Now this was way too long since last update! The thread even got bumped to the 2nd page!
We just passed 10 months since I sowed the seeds, exciting times its been alright! It is starting to get a little cramped in some pots, and mainly the question I have is about just that.

Should I think about repotting these small babies or should I let them continue growing like they are doing now? Pictures are coming below!


Gymnocalycium baldianum 10 months old in a 6cm big pot!
Started with 29 seeds and 75% germinated but had some severe mold attacks on these small guys so these 7 are all that are left! Especially 2 of them are growing much quicker than the rest.


Stenocactus multicostatus 10 months old in a 8cm big pot!
These have really grown some nice spines and mostly stay uniform in size, BUT there is a small weirdo in the bottom right corner. That one apparently decided to grow 3 heads! I really hope this one manages to grow big and strong.


Pleiospilos nellii 10 months old in a 8cm big pot!
They are slightly sun scorched but otherwise look to be growing strong.


Mammillaria hahniana 10 months old in a 8cm big pot!
These are the fastest growers of all seeds I sowed last year thats for sure!

For the other seeds nothing exciting is happening, they have stagnated in their growth I would say. I think my Astrophytum asterias got hit by some pest because they do not look good and havent grown much at all since last update many months ago.

Shmaroam~~