My first try...

[wbruan]

I finally scraped together enough courage to attempt growing cacti from seeds for the first time. I bought a packet of mixed cacti seeds. You can see my attempt to sort them by size and colour in the picture below.

Seeds

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I decided to try two different growing mediums. The brown one is just a mixture of plaster sand and coarse building sand, and the black one is a mixture of commercial succulent mix and very coarse grit. I am not sure which one will work better.

Growing mediums

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I sowed the seeds and only covered them with a thin layer of growing medium, and then placed them in zip lock bags. They will now live on a sunny windowsill in my living room.

Zip-lock bags

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I live in South Africa. It is summer here now and it can be both very hot and very humid. I don't know if the seeds will sprout, but I am expecting mold. I know someone who grows stapeliads, and he usually lightly sprinkles some sulphur powder on top of his growing medium to combat mold. Would that work for cacti as well?

Any comments? Did I already do something horribly wrong even at this early stage?

Any input would be greatly appreciated by this utter novice.

Ruan

[Wilk]

Any comments? Did I already do something horribly wrong even at this early stage?

Yep. You asked for tips AFTER you sowed them !

Apart from the mix and the lack of sterilisation it looks perfect. I think you might have been better mixing the two types of mix together. If it goes badly wrong you could specialise in growing species of mould.

[wbruan]

Haha! Well, if it all goes very wrong, I will try your suggestion of mixing the two together . Let's hope something sprouts apart from mould

[KittieKAT]

It's November 25th .....Did YOU just say it's summer time in Africa!!
You lucky thing YOU! !

Don't worry about them, I've tossed seeds in soil Just laying around an go a bunch of little tiny cacti sprouting, And then I've babied seeds making sure Everything was perfect for them an only have one sprout! Soo they either sprout or don't you never kno what's gonna happen till it happens! It depends on weather And where you are and temperature. .etc...etc Goodluck hun

[iann]

The soil will probably go green quite quickly, but mixed cactus seed is usually the bigger species so I don't think that will be a problem. Bring them out into fresh air when the soil goes green or it will get ridiculous.

The soil might be a bigger problem. Neither mix looks very encouraging but I think the sand-only combo will be a problem especially for seedlings.

[wbruan]

Hi everyone! First of all, let me say thanks for all of the valuable feedback thus far. For a total amateur such as myself, it is amazing to be able to go to a little corner of the www where everyone is not only willing to help, but actually want to help. I love this forum .

Is now day 7, and (surprise!) Two seeds have actually germinated in one of the 6 containers. I did not expect any germination whatsoever, so though it might not sound all that great, I'm feeling mighty proud

Here they are!

Babies!!!

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No mould in sight so far, which is quite surprising as well.

Now the questions: how long do I keep these little babies in here for? Do I take them out of the bag already, or still keep them sealed? Do they have any other requirements apart from sun and moisture in my humble windowsill at present? And, most importantly, can they be ID'd yet??? Hehehe.

Ruan

[KittieKAT]

Congrats! That's better then what i got after sowing!! Lol
I'd leave them in the baggy till you are sure all the seeds have germinate and they get a little bigger, they are getting a little Sun fussy (u can tell by the red coloration) Not to worry just put them in a few hours or indirect light if possible for a little bit before working them up to stronger light conditions, no idea what they are but they seem to be a columnar type of cacti! Soo happy you got some growing, I'm sure more will come! Don't give up after a few weeks, it took a while for my Pilosocereus seeds to sprout and theirs only one so far!!

[Wilk]

Nothing to add to the previous post which sums up my thoughts. Keep the sun lotion handy or give them a bit less direct sunlight.

[wbruan]

Thanks guys! I'm going to move them to a more shaded spot today, where I'll keep them for a couple of days before slowly reintroducing them to direct sunlight.

I will post any updates here as and when they come .

[KittieKAT]

Great! Goodluck hun, can't wait to see what pops up