Dodo's first seedlings

[keith]

Thats from sunlight as long as they keep growing its good less chance of rot . If they turn red and stop growing too much sunlight.

[DodoBrooke]

The summer is ending and I’m here with bad news. My sowing adventure is entering a sad ending after all.
We had very hot and humid August in the city and I’ve been away for 10 days during which seedlings have been on their own and all that resulted in big loss.
After being left for 10 days half of them just dried off. I did gave them water but the heat was just too much. They are indoor in shade.
But last 3 weeks we had terrible humid weather, and another batch started to rot, their necks became very thin and soft.
I can conclude maybe 10% of them are alive but I’m terrified knowing winter is coming and don’t know what to do with them.

[7george]

When seedlings reach some 5 mm diameter these can be treated almost like adult cacti and can spend winter with rear watering in cool place.

Maybe you started with difficult species? First seedlings often do not survive. The success comes with repeated efforts through several years. Some practice with unnecessary but easy to grow species. Or maybe just using own seeds, friends' seeds.

Could be just a bad season for you, Dodo. Try to help survivors to grow on.

[DodoBrooke]

Could be just a bad season for you, Dodo. Try to help survivors to grow on.

Thank you George, I feel pretty discouraged. Just because they were all doing fine when I put them out of bag in May.
Next time I try I'll definitely let them grow in bag until at least 1cm. I'm still watching them die on a daily basis and have no clue what I am doing wrong. Sulcorebutia for instance, looked fine and few days ago they just bent over for no reason. They body became soft even there-s no way they had too much water.

Anyway, I'll try again soon and see if I'll have more luck.

[supergodzilla]

Do you have any photos of the remaining plants? That may help others to diagnose the problem.

I had huge losses in my first year of sowing seeds and the plants that survived were incredibly stunted. I learned from my mistakes and made changes in the second year and had far fewer losses, but plants still didn't grow nearly as much as I'd hoped. This has informed my third attempt, and this year I'm hoping to keep most seedlings alive and have them reach a more appropriate size. The point, I guess, is that this is a hobby that is incredibly frustrating (and heartbreaking) at times, but trying to learn from every mistake helps us get better in the long run.

[DodoBrooke]

Do you have any photos of the remaining plants? That may help others to diagnose the problem.

Well I got rid of the most of them.
As i said some of them dried during my absence on hot summer temps, I can understand that. Also some had rotten, I can also see when it happens.
But not sure why many leaned over due to thinning of the base?
Here is the Eriosyce subgibbosa looking terrible, leaning, dried, discolored, soft.
I know they are gone. In fron there’s one of Gymn. tillianum survivor but there are also dried tillianums as well.

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[DodoBrooke]

Just a photo of Turb. graminispinus growing well but in front all Turb. alonsoi dried out.

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[7george]

Yes, seedlings easily dry up when still small (smaller then that Gymnocalycium). I don't go away summer time, taking vacations in spring or fall, so here is cooler and don't have loses for that reason. Some species perish easily than others so keeping them separated by species is also good idea. And another thing: seedlings die for many different reasons (mites, rot, sunburn etc.) before they grow up so quite often just one or two are left form the whole planting. Also Turbinicarpus seedlings don't grow well in my house and I stopped seeding those.
Better grow what is growing well in your conditions and buy other desired plants big (preferably with buds).

[Fatich]

To my experience (at least in my conditions) once Eriosyce species are taken out of the bag they start to get used to moisture free conditions. So if you take them into bag again they will start to rot.