So I decided to sow

[mmcavall]

Here are some more pictures for the End of Summer Review of the seedlings.
Pictures of the plants since October (Spring) till now (end of Summer). You can see the development of the plants.
(some has been posted here and there in the Forum)

Euphorbia horrida





Pachypodium horombense





Euphorbia meloformis




Hoodia gordonii



Euphorbia tulearensis

[mmcavall]

Some pictures more (and a question):
Those were sown in August, 2016
Echinocereus fitchii


Lobivia haematantha var. corrugata: does it looks normal ? I’m sure it is not etiolated, but looks like to elongated…


Lobivia aurea:


This one sprouted this week, 8 months after sowing (Nananthus wilmaniae):

[Robb]

Don't worry about the Lobivia seedling; it looks great! Some Lobivias just grow weird like that and elongate a lot before fattening out. I had some Lobivia pentlandii grow VERY tall and now 3 years on they look normal.

[mmcavall]

Don't worry about the Lobivia seedling; it looks great! Some Lobivias just grow weird like that and elongate a lot before fattening out. I had some Lobivia pentlandii grow VERY tall and now 3 years on they look normal.

Thank you Robb, good to know that!

[mmcavall]

New batch (March 12th). Seeds from Mesa Garden.
The sowing mix is more porous than the previous ones. Surface sowing but I added a little vermiculite over each seed to assure imbibition.
Good results overall, but I’m disappointed with the Pachypodium….none of the seeds sprouted and I wanted it so badly.

[mmcavall]

Some notes on my sowing set up showed in 14th February (viewtopic.php?f=16&t=37654&start=45#p329698), when I used seed trays to sow.

Although I can save lots of substrate when sowing in seed trays when compared to pots (even small pots), there are some trade offs:

1. As the volume is very small, the substrate dries out too quickly, so it is hard to control humidity

2. The seed trail cells get crowded very quickly, but the plants are still too young, too small to be repoted safely

3. The seed trail is not a safe and robust recipient, disasters can happen easily

As a conclusion, I would'nt use this method with more "precious" species, or with species that grow slowly. But for the species I have lots of seeds and that I know are easier to grow, I can use this method sometimes.

Some pictures of the 14 th Feb sowing:

Parodia ottonis:



Mammillaria grahamii:



and the crowded ones, sowed in September 2016 (those have been repoted, but I dont think they were ready):
(not so crowded in this old picture, but it is just to give an idea)

[greenknight]

They make ones with larger cells. I use ones which have 32 cells to a standard 1020 tray (8 4-packs) where the small cells are 72 to a tray, the 4-pack cells are about 6mm square.

[mmcavall]

You're right Spence, larger cells would help a lot. There must be intermediate cells that are larger than mine but not so large in such a way that you have to use as much substrate as an average pot.

[greenknight]

There are a couple of sizes in between those two, nursery/greenhouse supply places carry a wide assortment. Here's a place that has a full range (not recommending them, maybe you can find a closer source) - http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/prod ... ys-inserts

[Armen Tsirunyan]

Don't worry about the Lobivia seedling; it looks great! Some Lobivias just grow weird like that and elongate a lot before fattening out. I had some Lobivia pentlandii grow VERY tall and now 3 years on they look normal.

I second that. I was so disgusted by the way my Lobivia maximiliana looked after one year of sowing that I threw away 60% of my seedlings. Not only were they horribly etiolated but also kept leaning one way or another (I had to employ toothpicks to support them). They all took very normal form by second year and I regret my decision.

[mmcavall]

Don't worry about the Lobivia seedling; it looks great! Some Lobivias just grow weird like that and elongate a lot before fattening out. I had some Lobivia pentlandii grow VERY tall and now 3 years on they look normal.

I second that. I was so disgusted by the way my Lobivia maximiliana looked after one year of sowing that I threw away 60% of my seedlings. Not only were they horribly etiolated but also kept leaning one way or another (I had to employ toothpicks to support them). They all took very normal form by second year and I regret my decision.

That's interesting. I have only one Lobivia seedling, so thanks for that information; Rebutia pygmaea also looks the same...

[Armen Tsirunyan]

Don't worry about the Lobivia seedling; it looks great! Some Lobivias just grow weird like that and elongate a lot before fattening out. I had some Lobivia pentlandii grow VERY tall and now 3 years on they look normal.

I second that. I was so disgusted by the way my Lobivia maximiliana looked after one year of sowing that I threw away 60% of my seedlings. Not only were they horribly etiolated but also kept leaning one way or another (I had to employ toothpicks to support them). They all took very normal form by second year and I regret my decision.

That's interesting. I have only one Lobivia seedling, so thanks for that information; Rebutia pygmaea also looks the same...

Indeed, Rebutias also looked elongated and leaning during the first year. All of them went perfectly round the next year and even bloomed. Your seedlings will be fine, you'll see.

[mmcavall]

Indeed, Rebutias also looked elongated and leaning during the first year. All of them went perfectly round the next year and even bloomed. Your seedlings will be fine, you'll see.

many thanks, Armen!

[mmcavall]

Some pictures of the batch of March 12th.

Euphorbia schoenlandii

(they look healthy in the picture but they are gettin yellow...what can it be?)

E. pillansii (this one just dyied... not sure why)


E. inermis


Stapelia flavopurpurea


Huernia reticulata


Huernia erectiloba



Coming soon: new batch of Turbinicarpus

[mmcavall]

This weekend I transplanted the E. schoenlandii, and I was surprised to find a very long root, about 4 time the size of the plant. I had to find a very deep pot to harbor the seedling.