Time to come out the bag ?

philwilliams · Post by **philwilliams** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 9:08 pm

Heres some photos of E grusonii and Ferocactus seedlings. Grown using the baggie method, they are about 5 months old. Are they big enough to open up the bags ? Its just coming into winter here daytime temps in the 30's 10 at nights. My concern is that during winter they will be too cold and damp and prone to rot so i need to get them hardened off. Coldest month is July average low being 8 degrees c. Thanks

Also does anyone know what the red colouration is, my guess is a fungal disease.

iann · Post by **iann** » Mon Mar 21, 2011 11:44 pm

Yes, possibly a fungal infection. Possibly rust, or maybe something else. Or maybe mites, although the damage doesn't look like mites.

You could try them in the open air. These are both large vigorous species. It should stop any fungal problems getting worse although it wouldn't help with mites. The affected seedlings will either grow out of it or not.

How are you going to get them through winter? I guess you have good enough natural light to keep them happy? I like to get them bigger than that before winter comes around but then winter here is just six months of storage unless they can go under lights.

philwilliams · Post by **philwilliams** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:26 am

Cheers for your reply Ian, I think i'll open the bags now. If I dont i'll probably loose the lot of E grusonii to the fungus anyway.

cyansky · Post by **cyansky** » Tue Mar 22, 2011 4:07 pm

Phil:

What are the ones with the vertical red stripes in the first photo? Ferocactus?

Thanks.
Andrew

philwilliams · Post by **philwilliams** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:15 am

yeah they are Ferocatus, seed was bought from cactus-seeds.com.

promethean_spark · Post by **promethean_spark** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:31 pm

They could have probably come out of the bag a long time ago. Stays in the bag over a couple months is generally only for slow growing species.

philwilliams · Post by **philwilliams** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 9:24 pm

Does anyone know the reason for the stunted growth of some of the seedlings? Some seem to be streaking ahead yet others are only making their first spines. [/center]

TimN · Post by **TimN** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:17 pm

philwilliams wrote:Does anyone know the reason for the stunted growth of some of the seedlings? Some seem to be streaking ahead yet others are only making their first spines.

I thought that's just what they did! It seems like some species have very variable vitality or there are micro-micro climates at work here!

Some species all seem to grow in lockstep, others, not so much...

jamesfe · Post by **jamesfe** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 9:29 pm

promethean_spark wrote:They could have probably come out of the bag a long time ago. Stays in the bag over a couple months is generally only for slow growing species.

promethean_spark, I have always thought that you could leave them in a bag for up to a year with no problems.

Now I have always been impatient and open the bags maybe 5 or 6 months and and my success rate has been low. I have ended up with some seedlings but over all most perished under my neglect. I have learned some hard lessons about growing from seed in a cold climate with no greenhouse. So this year I promised myself that I was not going to open the baggies for a year. Now you have me second guessing myself.

iann · Post by **iann** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:32 pm

As long as you can keep them in the bags without problems then the plants will benefit. Just a very few really don't do well in the constant humidity. If you want to introduce them to the sun then it is difficult to keep them in the bags without cooking them. I use saran wrap over the pots and remove it when the seedlings press against it, which generally means they are big enough to survive in the open. Big ones like Opuntias, Echinocactus, etc do more or less as well in the open.

Mainzer · Post by **Mainzer** » Sat Nov 19, 2011 8:35 pm

Hi..Philwilliams
I don't think this is infection.. probably signs of physiological stress.. many plants produce red or violet pigments when they are exposed to some environmental stress.. you can acclimatize them gradually in the right growing season by making holes every day in the bag..just worth to give it a try
regards

philwilliams · Post by **philwilliams** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 1:17 am

Mainzer wrote:Hi..Philwilliams
I don't think this is infection.. probably signs of physiological stress.. many plants produce red or violet pigments when they are exposed to some environmental stress.. you can acclimatize them gradually in the right growing season by making holes every day in the bag..just worth to give it a try
regards

Yes you are right, those photos are quite a few months old it was just coming into winter, the E grussoni went a lot redder but I left them out of the bag over winter to try and avoid rot. I though they would return to growth this summer but they didnt they just stayed red with not a lot happening. So I put them back in the bags and they turned back green and started growing well. The atmosphere is very dry here in summer so I can only assume its something to do with that. So the is rule- at least in my environment if it turns red its back in the bag. I had some echincereus with the same problem and the change was even more dramatic, the Feros however seemed quite happy to be left out the bags from the beginining.

Mainzer · Post by **Mainzer** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:06 am

By the way.. the soil in the pots looks soggy.. I advise to you to use some course sand or perlite to decrease humidity..
all the best

Time to come out the bag ?

Time to come out the bag ?

yup

Re: yup

signs of stress

Re: signs of stress

soil