How do you prep your seeds for sewing?

[EliWhitney3140]

I am new to sewing cacti seeds and realize everyone has their own way of doing it. I would like to know how you sew your seeds and what is your success rate?

[Steve-0]

I'm a first time seed grower myself.

This video really helped me understand the process and gave me better results than some other sources. It may not completely apply to all species.

I tried no seed pre treatment and got zero germination out of 30 seeds. Then tried the picking method prescribed in the video with better than 50% results. Then on a whim tried just poking the hilum...with 75% results.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGG2-YpGDWA

Lots of ways to sow seeds with success. I feel the pretreatment of bleaching them first is paramount to my success rates. Some of it seems a bit much. But then I saw another video in which the guy said something like over 2,000 seeds in nature don't sprout to the One that does and survives.

I think it was this guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TlhTgscsnw

best of luck to your endeavors!

PS... since germinating a few species from Nov 20 about 6 have died.

[EliWhitney3140]

Steve good to see you on the board. These are great videos and I am excited to try them out.

It's funny, before I did all of this research I would just try and grow seeds to see if it would work. A dragon fruit from the store, a mammillaria that was fruiting when I bought it, some random seeds as a gift, etc. No mold, no issues at all. It's funny that sometimes the more you learn about something the more complex it becomes.

[EliWhitney3140]

What is your bleach to water ratio Steve?

[7george]

Soaking in water for 24 hours + disinfecting in light solution of H2O2 or KMnO4 for 10 - 20 min. Success is unpredictable.

Some seeds also go into the freezer or just outside for several weeks.

[EliWhitney3140]

Thanks George, What species usually get stratified?

[Steve-0]

50/50 bleach and water...and I used tap water. Then a very thorough rinsing a few times. To me the idea of bleach seemed toxic since it is a very powerful agent at full strength and still strong enough to damage clothing and living organisms at 50 %. But that's what the video prescribed...and it seems to have worked. The no treatment seeds were 100% zero germination.


Another thought comes to mind that many seeds in nature are consumed by birds or rodents and pass through the highly acidic digestive system of said animals and have a great germination rate. Perhaps Nature's way to get seeds to sprout. I have never witnessed levitating cactus seeds nor reversal of gravity regarding seeds. Yet, every visit to the desert or mountains shows me the physical evidence of seeds going up to great heights, sprouting and growing in rock crevices which they could not have reached any other way than by animal transportation. Maybe a rare occasion of a whirlwind/dust devil picking up a seed and dropping it on top of a rock....but my little brain says- nope, a bird pooped that Echinocereus coccineus seed up there and it then grew into that cluster I'm looking at.

[EliWhitney3140]

That makes sense Steve. Which the thought of what seeds go through is very amazing to me.

I will be honest 50% seems so high, I will experiment but that is a lot of bleach. I used a 20% ratio of bleach and even that seemed very intense. To the point where my fingers were oily from the bleach. I guess trial and error will have to play out...just maybe not with my copiapoa cinerea until I have it dialed in.

[Steve-0]

The 50/50 ratio is straight from the first video for Sclerocactus parviflorus seeds. So I went for it. Also had to either pick or poke the seeds with a needle. Otherwise this species is a bugger to get to germinate. I have a bunch of two month old seedlings doing their thing. Lost a couple ..probably from mold so they came out into open air this week.


PS ...my first time growing from seeds so anything I say...grab the salt.

[EliWhitney3140]

But if you are getting good results I am all ears.

I did want to ask you Steve, you said you used the picking method and then you poked the hilum. How do you poke the hilum? I was curious what the difference was. I like the added results you got.

Have you ever tried this method with smaller seeds? I didn't even try with my eriosyce esmeralda.

[Steve-0]

I used a curved dental probe...needle sharp...hook shaped. Also used these clip on magnifying lenses to see better to do the poking.

The video instruction says to pick the pointy part of the seed carefully. I did 15 of those this way and about half sprouted.

Holding the seed with tweezers and pulling at the point can cause the flying seed syndrome....it did. I put a large white dish towel under the wet paper towel and caught most of those.

Still a bit of a tedious process.

Next batch was hilum poked. Very easy, more delicate but the results were 75% sprouting seeds. The poke is very soft into the hilum compared to nicking the seed coat. A light touch pierces it. Heavier handedness kills the embryo I suppose.

This pic is low res but shows the hilum. You've seen the hilum on any bean..the eye in black eyed peas.

Hope this helps. I watched the video several times to emulate their process exactly for similar results.

[EliWhitney3140]

Well that definitely helps, thank you.

Do you use a heat pad when growing seedlings, or does that do more harm than good?

[7george]

Do you use a heat pad when growing seedlings, or does that do more harm than good?

Depends on the species. If your environment is rather cool and you are sowing heat lovers like many Mammillaria, Ferocactus, etc. you better use it. For many succulents and southamericans this will not be needed or even will lower germinating because these will need low minimum temps.

Cold stratification will be helpful for seed of species having colder period after fruit ripening and next growing season in their habitats. Some northamerican Opuntia, Escobaria, Pediocactus or some high-mountain species. There is no harm to seeds from the cold so better give them some first than to try to figure out what is wrong after the firs failure and wonder how to alter the setup for next ones...

[Steve-0]

I waffled on getting a heating pad. Even thought of using the one for my back when I need it. Then I put a soil thermometer in my laundry room where they're growing. 78-82. Don't need no stinking heating pad with those warm temps. And this is Nov- Feb ... so far so good. I have Escobaria, Sclerocactus, Pediocactus and Agave under the lights ATM. All doing well.

Disclaimer: first time rookie could be doing it all wrong.

PS - what 7george said

[EliWhitney3140]

So I am mostly sewing Copiapoa and Eriosyce/ Chilean cacti. I do have a few other species but those are the ones I am really trying to pump out. I unplug the heat pad every night when the lights go off. I know Copiapoa like 75 degree days with a 30 to 40 degree drop every night. Is it a bad idea to use a heat pad with Chilean Cacti? I guess I can try both ways and see. There are just so many factors for sewing that it is sometimes difficult to figure out which ones caused what end result to happen.