Advice for my first seedlings

[Sun_Love]

Hello! I'm a newbie at this and new to the forum I've always loved cactuses but only now decided to try and plant seeds. I've been reading on this forum AFTER I already planted them, so I did not do the baggie method. Instead seeds were planted and have had a plastic film on top of the pots. I have misted the soil every day to keep it moist.
Does the progress look good or not? They are 2 weeks old. The ones in the upper pic, I felt that they grew more in the beginning and less the last few days? Is that normal?
Since I didn't do the proper bag method, should I maybe plant them in a normal pot now and take it from there? Or is that too early? I would like to avoid anymore of that green stuff around them..
Upper pot: Gymnocalycium monvillei
lower pots: Rebutia krainziana

[greenknight]

They look like they're doing well. It's normal for growth to slow after the initial burst of seedling growth, no need to worry about that. Best not to disturb them early on if you don't have to, just keep doing what you have been.

[Sun_Love]

Thank you that's good to know! I'll leave them, and just try to remove the green pieces of perlite.

[greenknight]

You've got some algae growing around the seedlings - it shows more on the perlite, but it's not only there, no point in removing the green pieces of perlite. It won't hurt the cacti, don't worry about it.

[Sun_Love]

OK great, I'll leave it.
Bonus question: when do I start to fertilize and how often?
The weather is finally warmer and the windowsill is warmer so I think they've grown a bit last few days. This is fun

[greenknight]

I think I see some spines starting to appear - that's the thing you look for at this point, areoles and spines developing is the next phase of growth after that initial burst of seedling expansion. Yes, they are growing.

They can grow quite a while on just the nutrients that were stored in the seeds. If the growing mix contains no nutrients, it wouldn't hurt to start adding just a little fertilizer to their water, but there's no rush - you could wait until they're a month old, it would make little difference. It's a good idea to switch to watering from below at this stage, to encourage deeper root growth. Instead of taking off the plastic and misting them, just squirt about the same amount of water you would have misted them with at the base of each pot. If the surface looks like it's getting dry, give a little more.

An added advantage is, by not taking the plastic film off you reduce the risk that mold spores will get in. After a few months, when they look like little cacti instead of green blobs, you can dispense with the plastic film and gradually start letting the surface dry a bit between waterings.

[Sun_Love]

Thank you Greenknight!
I got them a little mini greenhouse. They have tiny spines at the top now. I try to mist the water under the pots, it seems to sit there for a while, I guess the soil is still moist enough.

[greenknight]

As long as you're sure they are taking up the water eventually, that's fine - as long as it's just a very shallow layer of water. The soil will only wick up water until it's thoroughly dampened, there's no danger of it becoming saturated that way. Keeping just a thin film of water underneath them is ideal for young seedlings, keeping the soil evenly moist.

Commercial nurseries use capillary matting under the pots and just keep that wet. This is how they grow huge numbers of cactus seedlings with little labor.

[Sun_Love]

They seem to take the water fine now
On Tuesday it's gonna be 1 month since I planted them. I'm inpressed with the round ones, there were 10 seeds in the package and there's 9 of them
Such cute little spines, I can't wait to see how this develops!

[greenknight]

Looking good, developing just as they should. Don't be concerned that the Rebutias grow elongated at first, they have a strange habit of doing that then they fill out later.

[Sun_Love]

I'm thinking that the algae is really disgusting now, in fact I would rather not have it in my house who knows what grows in there
Is there a safe way to move them now to a pot with a more sandy drier environment? What's the best way to pick them up without hurting them?
I really have no clue about this
They are so cute now, I love them!

[greenknight]

It can be done, I've seen videos of seedlings being transplanted about this stage. Better to wait a couple months at least, they'll be easier to handle and better able to take the stress. You could apply a thin top dressing of dry sand, just bury that algae.

How to handle them is - gently. Squeeze the sides of the pot to loosen the medium, then dig them up with some small implement. Gently pick them up with tweezers or your fingers. To plant, poke a hole in the medium big enough for the root ball, lower the roots into it, and push the medium in around it.

[keith]

Probably safer to scrape the algae away and add dry sand in its place . carefully . Transplanting at this stage can be done but might be riskier ?

I've done both

[Sun_Love]

Thank you guys That's a great idea. I will try to scrape it off and then put small pumice over. I guess I will leave them in there for the summer if it works so they can get stronger and bigger.
But I can remove the lid now, right? ( I have a mini greenhouse) With full airflow there shouldn't be anymore algae?

[greenknight]

Sorry for the slow response - sure, leave them open. They won't grow as fast, but there will be less risk of mold. The surface will be dryer, so the algae shouldn't grow.