Windowsill seed raising - Small Cacti and Mesembs

[IrisA]

Avonias aren't difficult from seed, although the seed doesn't seem to store for long.

Looks like my seed was fresh . Now it's all on me. How long do you recommend they stay in the baggy Ian? Should they get more mesemb-like treatment?

Also I have a question about ariocarpus, I found these to be quite light-sensitive (went red easily). Other posts seemed to recommend keeping them green, they are getting significantly less light than my other seeds. Wondering about the color of these and if I should consider upping the light a bit at this point, or just keep them as is:



Update on pseudolithos, they seem to have grown a few bumps!:


My astros are now out of the bag as I noticed I was losing one to rot. This is a trick of mine that has worked well for me transitioning from baggy to open air; I put the pot in a plastic cup, and I then spray water down the sides of the outer cup to effectively bottom water every few days, it keeps a higher humidity but keeps the surface dry enough to stop the bad stuff:

[iann]

Perhaps I should have mentioned that Avonias can also germinate very quickly I've had A. alstonii germinate the same day I sowed the seed. On a very hot day! Avonias can stay at 100% humidity until they start to grow the first stem. After that they need stronger light and more ventilation. Treat them more like mesembs than cacti.

Ariocarpus seedlings are surprisingly light-sensitive. They have a distinct transition from thin upright juvenile leaves to flatter thicker adult leaves, although that won't be for a long time yet. Until they get adult leaves, and to some extent even after that, they will grow best in subdued light and constant warmth, with regular water. You can increase the light until they start to colour up.

[IrisA]

This is all good to know, thanks Ian! I'll start upping the light slowly for the arios.

[IrisA]

I can now add a few more species to my list of germinators:

B. Liliputana- already bigger than my new dinteranthus seedlings, though I suspect they may get overtaken, hopefully my sterilization will hold up, I guess this is a waiting game now, hopefully I can make a nice arrangement with a bunch of penny-sized plants in a few years.

Geohintonia- these are bigger than the blossfelida. These are in the heatmat and seen to like it.

Fenestria- I was losing hope on these it's been more than 3 weeks and finally 1 came up. Hopefully more follow.

Things that I have given up on:

Rhipsalis mix
Gibbeam mix - this seed germinated last year but seedlings did not thrive and eventually all died off, I hear these are tricky, may hold off until I someday have a greenhouse.
Lithops gesinae
Gymnocalycium michanovicii

Still waiting on Aztekium hintonii it's been a little over a week now.

This year I am taking my chances and leaving the lithops in the bags a bit longer, it's been a few weeks post germination, I'm quite pleased with the results so far. Hopefully they won't all drop dead one day. I think I'll take them out next weekend.

And I lost an other astrophytum asterias to rot, and they are out of the baggie I think I'll have to try a pure pumice sowing next time.

[IrisA]

Just spent some time taking a bunch of my mesembs and avonia out of their baggies, I definitely sowed more this year than in the past and its tiring to check on everything. Hope to have some good pictures in the coming weeks. While I was at it I repotted some of my astrophytum from last year, and this is definitely my best set of roots yet -pumice has done wonders!



Looking forward to spring

[IrisA]

Hope you like Macros!

Here are some of my yearlings, first:

Dinteranthus vanzylii, these were kind of stuck,I backed off the water on iann’s advice and they finally hatched. I gave a few of the bloated ones a little help.
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Dinteranthus wilmotianus, a few more of these hatched as well.
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Some big fat conos! (Okay the largest is still smaller than a pea, but they look big to me.)
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Had to take off the macro lens for these guys, my Monilaria pisiformis seem to be enjoying the winter watering. (Hoping these are looking right) :
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Onto the babies!

Dinteranthus seedling from mixed sowing:
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Astrophytum asterias, no more losses recently, have been keeping them drier:
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Geohintonia mexicana, these are by far the largest of the tricky cacti I have sown, they dwarf the aztekium and blossfeldia. Plus I got great germination:
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Pseudolithos migurintus, now with 4 warts! Anyone else growing these? Not quite sure what to do with these, growing slow but not dead:
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The green pixel in the center of the image is an Aztekium hintonii. These guys are smaller than my Blossfeldia really hard to see. I also find they take a long time to green up, most other cacti do this in a day, for the longest time I only had one sickly pale yellowish translucent speck, I feared I had baked it, so I took it off the heatmat, a week later it decided to go green, they are now back on the mat and 2 more have germinated.
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This morning’s new discovery! Found with macro lens:
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These little babies are from my own plant. Mom just made another fruit, but I noticed some new RSM damage so hoping I can deal with that. At least I have 9 adorable little backups:
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Mixed Turbs:
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Ariocarpus fissuratus, noticing some red again, I guess I overdid the light:
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Parodia magnificus, these guys are also a little light sensitive, but seem to be growing well:
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Can you guess this one?:
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Unidentified lithops, I was quite sloppy with my pot labelling this year so I am not quite sure what these all are, but they would be from the small set of species listed in the post above, I think they should all be fairly distinct so hopefully it won’t be hard to sort this out when they get true leaves:
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More Lithops:
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Another species:
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Mixed aloinopsis, wondering if I should raise these as winter or summer growers when they get older?:
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Mammillaria carmenae slow to germinate, but growing nicely now:
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The avonias, starting see some early scales. So far so good, these are out of the bag:
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Again mixed these up one pot should be papyracea the other albissima. :

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My single Copiapoa cinerea, doesn’t seem to mind being alone, probably my biggest cacti seedling from this year’s crop:
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Blossfeldia liliputana, finding these guys are more robust than aztekium:
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Whew that's all. Advice is always welcome!

[iann]

I see L. olivacea, L. dinteri, and L. otzeniana in your list. These are all pretty much identical at this stage, but from the colour I'm going to guess L. dinteri for the first one, L. otzeniana for the second, and L. olivacea for the third. They'll be obvious once they get true leaves.

The mystery seedling looks a lot like P. nelii.

Monilarias are vigorous but thirsty. Keep it cool, sunny if you can, and water like a normal houseplant. Stop watering completely when it gets warm.

Dinteranmthus are really tough once they go smooth and grey. Get them in the sun and don't water too often. They can still be boiled, but it takes some effort and a lot more sun than you can find in January. The little green bubbly ones are really touchy, just try to keep them moving until they grow real leaves.

[Aiko]

Monilarias are vigorous but thirsty. Keep it cool, sunny if you can, and water like a normal houseplant. Stop watering completely when it gets warm.

The leaves start to droop when it wants water, so one might use that as a key.

[IrisA]

I think that riddle was to easy for you iann, it indeed should be P. Nelii. I think it's adorable how quickly it starts looking like it's adult form. If only my lithops would hurry up and do that. Pretty sure you are spot on about the first pot, the Dinteri got it's own pot 2 different varieties sown there. I'll let you know about the others in due time.

Will be on the look out for droop Aiko, so far this strange plant is full of surprises, really wasnt expecting that much growth.

[IrisA]

Finally got around to taking some pics for a springtime update:

Copiapoa cineria, only have one but he's doing good:


Mixed Turbinicarpus:


Last year's Euphorbia obesa:


Melocactus mix, I've upped heat and humidity and it seems to be working:


Mammillaria carmenae:


Avonia (sorry for the bad pic!):


Fenestria, my lone seedling just got some new friends!:


Alinopsis mix:


Plesioplis nelii:


Geohintonia mexicana, these are by far the biggest of my "difficult cacti" I still have 2 Aztekium hintonii and 7 Blossfelidia going but they don't look too interesting:


Copiapoa ? I forgot the species need to check my list:


Last year's Dinteranthus vanzylii and wilamotianus the few survivors are doing well, sowed some this inexpectatus year which I kind of messed up by getting sloppy with soil and needing to air out early, still hope to salvage a few:


Pseudolithos migurintus:


Some mixed lithops from last year:


L. dorthea last year as well:


Monilaria, its been getting warmer so I've started letting these as well as my conos dry out hope I timed that right:

[IrisA]

Looking forward to the new year and new seedlings!

I've pretty much settled on my list for the new growing season, and I've even started a few pots early. I'll be doing a few big batches over the holiday break. Here's my list:

Agave parrasana
Ariocarpus retusus
Ariocarpus furfuraceus
Astrophytum asterias - I have had terrible luck getting these past a year or so- thinking of experimenting with my soil for these this year.
Aztekium ritteri
Aztekium hintonii - still have 1 little guy going in a baggie from last year, bought more seeds this time hoping to get a good batch going
Conophytum calculus -sowed all the conos already, these all seemed to germinate quick and easily
Conophytum minutum
Conophytum pillansii
Conophytum uvaformae
Copiapoa barquiensis
Copiapoa tenuissima
Dactylopsis digitata
Echinopsis subdenudata
Eriosyce mix
Escobaria vivpara
Euphorbia polygona - already sowed no germination yet
Gymnocalycium brunchii
Gymnocalycium pflanzii
Lithops fulleri
Mammillara plumosa
Obregonia denegrii
Parodia ayopayana
Pachypodium rosalum -sowed 1 germinated
Pachypodium sandersonii - sowed good germination
Pseudolithos migurintus - still have 2 going strong, lost 3 from last year to the summer windowsill sun, really would like some more backups. Made impulse ebay buy this morning, 50 seeds sent from Thailand hope this goes well, my first ebay purchase, its quite hard to find these elsewhere
Strombocactus disciformis - These may be the tiniest cactus seeds I've ever seen, guessing these will be slow
Sulcorebutia mix
Turbinicarpus mix

Now I just have to hide my credit card so I cant buy anymore!

[greenknight]

You guess right about Strombocactus disciformis, look forward to babying them for quite some time. I read that they're not difficult once they reach 4mm in size - but that may take a couple years! I've got some growing, 4 months old - little green beads.

[Aiko]

You have some tough species to grow, seeing Aztekium, Strombocactus and Dactylopsis. Aztekium and Strombocactus are highly adviced to sterilize the soil very well and after sowing growing them via the 'baggy method' and keeping them well locked in for maybe two full years. Otherwise don't expect too much for these species when grown from seeds. After these two years they are not hard, just terrible slow.

[IrisA]

Yep, I've got a few difficult ones in here for sure. I am probably getting a bit ahead of myself but I figure if ever want a decent Aztekium on its own roots I need to start sooner than later The Aztekiums and Strombocactus will be getting extra careful sterilization treatment, I'll be leaving them in the baggie as long as possible and not expecting too much.

Really don't know too much about Dactylopsis, I just thought they were neat and the seed was cheap. Any advice?

[greenknight]

I can't find a lot about Dactylopsis, just that it's another Mesem and germination needs are like other Mesems, and one site said it's a winter grower. Treat it like Fenestraria I guess.