I've recently starting growing cacti from seed and I'm doing quite well, but I was thinking of upping my game and getting a small propagator and light because my seeds generally go dormant over the winter months (I'm in the UK).
Is it worth doing, or should I stick to the cling film/ windowsill approach? Thought it might speed up their growing, but then the set up I've got at the minute seems to work quite well. I'd just like them to continue growing around this time of year.
I'm in the UK too. I find it invaluable to keep seedlings growing over the winter with warmth and supplemental light. There's a big difference between having 1cm plants at the end of October, followed by no growth for 5 months, compared to having 2-3cm or larger plants at the start of spring with a full summer of growth ahead of them.
I use a heating mat with thermostat set to 80 degrees F (about 27 degrees C), 24 hours/day. I have my lights on a timer turn on at 6 am and off at 10 pm. All of my seedlings are under 10 months old.
It definitely makes difference if we keep seedlings growing continually for first 1 or 2 years. Mine go dormant even for 6 months otherwise. Plus the risk of killing them by drought being too small to overwinter or over-watering during cool/cold months. I use minimums ~ 20 C and maximums ~ 30(-35) C and 12 - 14 h day length.
If your cacti mess in your job just forget about the job.
°C = (°F - 32)/1.8
esp_imaging wrote: ↑Mon Nov 04, 2019 2:51 pm
I'm in the UK too. I find it invaluable to keep seedlings growing over the winter with warmth and supplemental light. There's a big difference between having 1cm plants at the end of October, followed by no growth for 5 months, compared to having 2-3cm or larger plants at the start of spring with a full summer of growth ahead of them.
This was going to be my answer. Having a simple T5 grow lighting system is not expensive, takes up little space, and is a joy to maintain during the otherwise cold and dreary months. Plus, the head start you get on spring growth is incredible!
Probably a good idea . My seedlings are outside in a cold frame and they go dormant and I expect it really slows down the growth year over year.
Fortunately it never gets too cold here I just have to keep the rain off them.
I keep it inside a 48L plastic storage box with the insides covered with white sticky vinyl to reflect the light back. Testing the light level at the moment to see if 50W is a okay, one seedling developing a little red patch so might drop it down to 25W.
Edit: A couple of weeks of 13hr/day at 50W and my seedlings are growing like crazy, particularly the Hildewintera colademononis.
