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Hello guys,
I want to show you my setup for this winter sowing
and ask to those with more experience for some advice !!!
Beeing busy for a while this is what I came up with :
a homemade propagator and a good amount of seedlings of E. horizonthalonius

Then I put pots in My homemade propagator

Ihad first results after few days

Congrats for your babies, they are so sweet.
Good job Mikey!

Now some few questions to those with more experience :
1) When do you take off the bag
a - after germination
b - after a couple of weeks
c - when you see the first spines


2) How often do you water seedling once the bag has gone
(just want to have rough idea )

3) Any trick to avoid rotting

Thanks for your contribution

Does the oven make pizza too?

Those are some big bruiser seedlings!

Provided the compost was really moist when you sowed the seeds and provided the bags are completely airtight, you shouldn't need to open the bags for a few months. Judging by the amount of condensation on the inside of the bags, they are quite moist enough. Looking good so far.

Nice results! What temperature range is there inside there? I've had some E. horizonthalonius seeds 'cooking' for about a week now without any signs of movement, at around 23-28 degrees C. I'm wondering if that might be a tad cool for them.

I have heard that horizonthalonius is hard to germinate. I guess this is only true if the seed is...hard to germinate. :-0

Looking great! I would be inclined to remove all of the baggies in another couple days, because I would be afraid of rot. But people with a lot more experience sterilizing their gear and mix and using this method tell me that even easy rotters like polycephalus can stay in the baggie for months.

peterb

I have horizonthalonius seedlings still in the bag from Oct, doing fine and still growing. If you did a good job of sterilizing the soil you should leave them in there at least until spring - unless you see them start damping off.

iann wrote:Does the oven make pizza too?

Yes makes pizza once a week !

CactusFanDan wrote:Nice results! What temperature range is there inside there? I've had some E. horizonthalonius seeds 'cooking' for about a week now without any signs of movement, at around 23-28 degrees

They need thermal excursion between day and night, and not just a warm environment !

If I'm not mistaken as I understand from promethean_spark I could keep them in the bag for all the winter if the soil has been sterilized , this is a very important information

Anyway looks like both methods (long keeping in the bag and short keeping ) work fine as long as there's no molds or rot

I was wondering, promethean_spark, which method makes them grow faster in the first year

IME, small seedlings, less than 5-7mm diameter, grow faster in the bag. Young cacti larger than that grow faster outside the bag in a greenhouse. Usually I keep them in the bag for 3 months to 2 years depending on how fast they grow - but they almost never come out sooner than several months. Newborn cacti can grow pretty fast until they get stressed by dryness and extreme heat. Keeping them in a moderate, humid environment gets the maximum growth out of that initial growth spurt.

mikey wrote:

CactusFanDan wrote:Nice results! What temperature range is there inside there? I've had some E. horizonthalonius seeds 'cooking' for about a week now without any signs of movement, at around 23-28 degrees

They need thermal excursion between day and night, and not just a warm environment !

Oh yes, I should've elaborated more, they were 23-28 at peak, down to around 15-17 at the least. They've started popping up now, though, so all is well.

I'm still working on seedlings !!!
Some pots show seedlings with roots going the wrong way ,
this often causes the seedling death and the consequent formation of mold ,
so I decided to fix it !!!

One more thing .......
WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THIS PINKISH POLYCHEPHALUS PUPPY ?????????
Could it be a variegated one ???