CactiGuide.com

Hello everyone! It's time for another update.

Today I plan on showing you a few of my other seedlings, along with Lophs.

So when it comes to LW, they were in a bag until a few days ago. I saw no harm of it and kept them in longer than I planned. They are plumping up really nicely and getting their recognizable form. The biggest one is around 9mm wide. I had a hard time taking a good pic with a measuring tape.

From Steve-0 I got a lot of seeds, but did not find time and space to sow all, yet. So far I threw a few in a pot. Those were the seeds that, when I cleaned dried fruit, floated and I thought would not be as viable as those that sunk. So I took a little pot, threw in "a few" E. vivipara seeds in hoping for nothing, basically, since they did not undergo stratification, but to my surprise, almost a 100% germinated...So that was a lesson!
I also decided to chip a few seeds of S. parviflorus, Pediocactus simpsonii and E. triglochidiatus before stratification. Only Sclerocactus germinated well, none of the others showed up (they did start to swell up in the pot and just gave up). All seeds are in the fridge for 2 months now so I'll be sowing more, soon.

Aiko's Gymnocalycium is developing really well, they are nice and firm with variations in spine and body color and sizes with one seedling that is taking a very unusual shape and color.

Parodia leninghausii germinated easily and quickly for me, but it is not growing really fast.
E. mirabilis also did not germinate well (under 10%) even though the seeds were fresh. So for another batch I decided to chip it with nail slipper and it germinated like crazy.
When it comes to that Echinofossulocactus suspect, I only got 7 seeds, none of which wanted to germinate even after a few dry cycles so I chipped them too, which was painful and 4/7 germinated. I can already see those central spines rising up.

Looking plump, spikey and happy, J!
Good job on those seedlings!

Steve-0 wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 2:53 am Looking plump, spikey and happy, J!
Good job on those seedlings!

Thank you, Steve!
I'll need to upgrade my setup to be able to cover more pots that I plan to sow soon.

Now, I have a dilemma when it comes to watering. Since my LW are in a 100% organic mix with only a sprinkle of gravel on top, how often should I water? I know it's a vague question.
All of my other seedlings are in 50% perlite and 50% organic so I am not as worried about watering. For example, my 9 months old Astrophytum seedlings are just next to LW pot and I now water them every 10 days. At 25°C the soil dries out well before 7th day so I do it every 10th. Also, their organic soil is not the same type so it did not compact nearly at all, unlike LW's which did compact.
So what is general advice on this? 10 days? I even heard 3 weeks?
I'd repot them if I wasn't scared to hurt them, so I'll stick to this for now.

metsolt wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:34 pm
So what is general advice on this? 10 days? I even heard 3 weeks?

Water when more-or-less dry. Don't waterlog them.
No idea on the timings for your plants, your potting mix, your pots, your temps and humidity.

So what is general advice on this? 10 days? I even heard 3 weeks?
I'd repot them if I wasn't scared to hurt them, so I'll stick to this for now.

Water after your soil look more or less dry. Depends on conditions. Normally 7 - 10 days but it can be even 3 weeks without a harm.

esp_imaging wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 10:23 pm

metsolt wrote: ↑Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:34 pm
So what is general advice on this? 10 days? I even heard 3 weeks?

Water when more-or-less dry. Don't waterlog them.
No idea on the timings for your plants, your potting mix, your pots, your temps and humidity.

7george wrote: ↑Sun Jan 31, 2021 12:46 am

So what is general advice on this? 10 days? I even heard 3 weeks?
I'd repot them if I wasn't scared to hurt them, so I'll stick to this for now.

Water after your soil look more or less dry. Depends on conditions. Normally 7 - 10 days but it can be even 3 weeks without a harm.

Thank you both! Since it's in a room heated for winter, the air is very, very dry.
I'll begin with more spaced out watering to see how they do and if there's need for more frequent watering. Perhaps every 2 weeks for now.
I'll be posting an update in a month.

So after uncovering them, I noticed that the soil started compacting a lot, enough for me to put a thick toothpick all around the sides and reach the bottom.
I wasn't sure if this would cause damage to the roots because the soil was 100% mineral and shifted kinda much, so I decided to repot them now.
I was AMAZED by their root system. They mostly reached 3,cm in length.
The mix I repotted them in is maybe 35-40% organic with the rest being perlite and pebbles (no sand).
I hope they do well now and recover quickly.

This one is off-topic, but I didn't wanna start a new topic for this.

I have Echinopsis mirabilis seedlings growing quite well and I noticed one with some weird growth. At first I though it will be crested, but after a few weeks I think I see just 2 heads now. (Don't mind the moss...)

My question is: How common is this with E. mirabilis? I searched online, but did not find a single evidence of it ever happening. Also, what confuses me more is that all the seeds are from a single plant, self-pollinated with no other E. mirabilis dozens of kilometers around... Then how comes there is variation like this? There are some seedlings from the same batch that have virtually no spines, while most are heavily covered in spines, but I didn't think much about those because they may "grow out of it".

These seedlings are looking so healthy. Looking like little cucumbers.

They are just adorable! I just might have to try sowing them sometime.

So today is 6 months since sowing! It flew be so quickly!

I increased the light to be able to cover more pots that I sowed, but LW didn't mind. It got it's adult color already and grabbed onto the soil very quickly after repotting! It is now as firm as a stone. I notice it growing slower than it's initial burst. I water it once a week, soil being some 40-50% organic and temperatures at 26-27°C during the day and around 15°C during the night. Not much else to say, they seem very happy with their conditions.


There are some bonus pictures below.
First is an Astro from last spring's sowing. I tried to take a good pic, not sure if I did. It started with 5 sides and now more are developing, 3 sides are doubling so it will be 8 in total. This batch of Astros was the first one I ever sowed. Thanks COVID!

Sclerocactus parviflorus and Escoaria vivipara are a gift from Steve-0, a very generous gift I must say! Just when I received them, I decided to sow, not expecting much because I thought Escobaria would not germinate without stratification. To my surprise, almost ALL seeds germinated and I ended up with more than 30 seedlings in this tiny pot... I postponed repotting until I finally did it 2 days ago and their roots surprised me! Sclerocacti are also very firm seedlings, which I did not expect.
With E. triglochidiatus I had some trouble, germination was not the greatest, less than 10% with unchipped. I have another chipped batch and I am still waiting for the results, but it's not looking too bright. All this after 3 months in the fridge at 4°C.

Very good growth. Your E. vivipara with the 2.5 cm body has about 3 body lengths of root. So, 7.5 cm or so? You have your scale right in the photo.

Yes, about that size. I believe that's the one that was on bare edge so it had to look deeper. Not sure though. Other seedlings had roots as big as their bodies.

Nice J! They're ready for the summer growing season! woohooo!

Steve-0 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 24, 2021 8:52 pm Nice J! They're ready for the summer growing season! woohooo!

Thank you!
Yes, only a few more days of temperatures below +5°C and then min. will be +8°C so I can move my pots outside.