One Seed Growing Approach

[Queenofnightcacti]

I just received these seeds of the night blooming cereus the name is cereus hildmannianus only have 50 seeds. i am trying to find out what is the best way to care for these seeds to where I will have a successful plant. a seed that will grow. I have read so many different ways that I do not know where to begin. I'm going nutz trying to figure this all out. Please can you give me accurate information on what has work for you for these seeds. I was hopeing that I was getting the Night Blooming Cereus ,, but it makes me a little nervious that its a different name. and to find out there are several different species of this plant.

I live in Montana so most of the time this plant will be inside probley with a basking light at times not all the time. And be placed around the front window where sun light comes in half the day.
Granted we do have hot summers here that only last afew months only , . I really do not want to screw up because I don't want to set myself up for disappointment if you know what I mean.

Please help me with this. I would very much appreciate it.,

Sincerely,
Tamra
QueenOfNightCacti username

[promethean_spark]

Those guys are easy to raise, follow the standard 'baggie' instructions exactly for the first 4-6 months then keep them overpotted (large pots) and they'll be the size of your thumb in a year, a banana the year after and your arm the year after that.

[springsinger]

I don't know it this is proper etiquette, but I watched a video on YouTube.com made by a guy who calls his Channel
'Cactusmain', growing cactus from seed. It merits a brief perusal, and is similar in many ways to the suggestions
contributed by others here. I recently employed his technique with good results. I found some saguaro cactus on
ebay and they are doing great. Only problem is I have too many to pot up when the time comes to transplant.
Sure wish I had known about metromix too, but I'm having good results with sand and soil mix.

[iann]

Gratuitous link:
http://www.youtube.com/user/cactusmain" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kam]

As terracotta pots are the norm in this part of the world and I have a pile of broken pots, can I use ground terracotta in my mix for seeds?

[coldcactusmontreal]

How do you grind the pots?

[iann]

As terracotta pots are the norm in this part of the world and I have a pile of broken pots, can I use ground terracotta in my mix for seeds?

"Crushed" fired clays are a good coarse material for drainage in cactus soils. However, with seeds it is usually best to keep to a fairly fine material, so do you have a way just to get nice 1mm-2mm pieces of clay?

[1bigfruit]

This is great I use an almost identical method. I have stopped using daylight though as the conditions become too eratic. The trays heat up too much in the sun or it doesent get hot enough in the cloudy weather etc.. I use a propagator in the kitchen with seed light tubes. One drawback is that you have a max of six weeks before the trays get problems with fungus. There isnt enough UV in the tubes to keep it at bay. By then though they are usually well onwards. One thing I can reccomend though is to microwave the soil. It has to be damp first. Its very quick.

[peterb]

Yes, I rarely try to use daylight anymore and have a propagator set up indoors, it is more controlled. I agree now also on heat treating the soil until it steams. It has made a big difference.

peterb

[CactiJim]

What an amazing post; so much beneficial information.

Quick question: do you guys think spraying neem oil on the soil mixture before sowing seeds would have a negative impact on the seedlings, or would it just help prevent fungus/mold?