A lazy way to grow cactus from seed | Episode 4: Two month update - acclimation status
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- Опубликовано: 21 янв 2023
- This is a PSA that if you've ever had any desire to grow cactus (or any plant) from seed, don't wait, start now! I can't believe it has already been 2 months since I sowed these Copiapoa, Ariocarpus, Mammillaria, and Turbinicarpus seeds! Time is passing so fast! Let's see how the seedlings are doing after the last video showed issues with fungus and rot. Did the mold clear? Are the seedlings still dying? Let's find out...
Video Series: A lazy way to grow cactus from seed
• A lazy way to grow cac...
Connect with me on Instagram: / cookiescacti
DISCLAIMER: I am a beginner grower. Take anything I say with a grain of salt. The only way to find out what works for you is to try. I have yet to find a growing process that works consistently for me, so it's a constant learning experience. This video series is more of a vlog on this leg of my cactus growing journey. With that said, enjoy!
ThreeDeserts on Etsy: www.etsy.com/shop/ThreeDeserts
1020 Trays without holes:
www.greenhousemegastore.com/c...
Tall clear dome for 1020 tray:
www.greenhousemegastore.com/c...
Disclosure: The links to Amazon are affiliate links, which means that I earn from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate. There is no additional cost to you. I encourage shopping around as always.
1000mL (33oz) squeeze bottles
amzn.to/3XKbo4o (paid link)
Grow light without dimmer: SPIDER FARMER SF1000D (this is the one I use)
amzn.to/3OSPR6c (paid link)
Grow light with dimmer: SPIDER FARMER SF1000
amzn.to/3STyRyJ (paid link)
Physan 20 fungicide
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It's a pleasure to see your seedlings update. You are so brave to confess that you are beginner, but you are successful..
I'm so glad you enjoyed this seedling update! I am still very much a beginner trying to learn what works and what doesn't. Let's hope this round ends up okay!
absolutely love these video updates the easiest solution on the algae in your water container is keeping the container somewhere dark like a cabinet. Clean with bleach, then store in dark.
with fertilizer It’s usually the best habit to mix it and use it because all those nutrients make it easy for other things bad things like pathogens to grow. I absolutely love what you’re doing. Thank you so much for your videos I’ve also fixed algae problems in other types of growing situation using 4 mL per gallon of 34% hydrogen peroxide in all your water but with my cacti seedlings i’ve just been covering any algae with sand and trying to air my soil top out of a little more. Hope this helps.
Woah this is great advice! I never thought about keeping my bottle out of light to help manage the algae. Thank you so much for sharing!
Everything is looking great! You have inspired me. I have recently made my first order of seeds from Mesa garden, Which I discovered from watching your content. I also recently bought a heat mat, grow lights, and seedling tray and all I have left to do now is to sew them. Keep up the great work and great vids! 👍👍👍
I'm so excited that you're going to try growing from seed, Angel! This is so exciting! Which seeds did you buy from Mesa Garden? You have to let me know how things go!
I have never seen tap water turn green like that. I have my own well outside my house, 120 feet deep.I've never tested it. I sprayed my seedlings from a spray bottle a few times a day. I had the same green stuff around the seedlings, a few mushrooms, and a bed of moss grew in a few pots. I left it all there except the mushrooms and the seedlings were never affected. I used native(NY) dirt/topsoil with decaying sticks and leaves in it, much different than what I see in AZ and what most say to use. I forget the name but I also lost a bunch of one variety once they grew to 3-4 months. Thanks for the update✌🙂
I heard that mushrooms are a sign of healthy soil, so that is awesome, Jimini! You know what? You just gave me the idea of perhaps trying to grow a few pots with native soil, or perhaps with some native soil mixed into my growing medium at the very least. Maybe I'll try with the finicky Ariocarpus that I've been struggling so much with... hmmmm.... ideas....
Try whatever you can find. If it grows grass and weeds, cacti will like it. I add live earthworms to a lot of my cacti pots every Spring. They find their own way in through the bottom of the pots if left on the ground. Not sure if AZ has earthworms? I also have access to farm dirt with aged farm animal manure, I mix it with whatever other dirt is available. It usually starts growing grass and weeds in 1 week if watered daily. Good luck👍🌵
Love the seedlings update !!! Please keep us up to date on the progress!
Yay! I'm so glad you enjoyed the update! I will definitely give an update on these babies at month #3 (and be horrified again at how fast time is passing lol).
Dear Jenny,
Seedlings look very good. As for the reddish-brown Ariocarpus, you can help by moving them away from the light, or shading them with the single layer of paper tissue (they usually come in three layers). If the seedlings are slightly reddish, it is no problem, but when they turn that shade of reddish-brown, they generally stop growing altogether.
Also, I would strongly advise that you use deionized/demineralized water for the seedlings instead of tap water. You can lower the PH by adding the acid, but there is also a great deal of mineral salts in the tap water (beside the PH, there is issue of hardness of water) which greatly interfere with the cation-exchange capacity of the soil.
Best regards,
Nino
I appreciate the information, Nino! I put some shade cloth on the domes to help reduce the light intensity. Let's see if those Ariocarpus seedlings can regain some normal color. With regards to the hard water, indeed, the water here is very hard. Unfortunately, I don't have easy access to demineralized/deionized water so the plants are stuck with tap water. I can't justify using my drinking water for the plants - it's so much work refilling the bottles at the store and carrying the bottles for the humans and cat alone. Maybe someday I'll install a reverse osmosis system in the house, but it won't be happening in the near future. How do you handle water for the plants?
I do collect rain water though. That's probably much better with regards to minerals. However, there's a lot of contaminants in the rain water because it's collected as run-off from my roof so I only use it on my adult plants. I don't have the means and time to sanitize rain water unless there's some easy additive I could add to my rain buckets to sanitize. How would you handle this?
@@cookiescacti I have easy access to demineralized water since my good friend whith a greenhouse and sizeable collection of cacti has high capacity RO system installed. Also, demieralized water is readily available in general stores and is quite cheap (approx. 1$/5l bottle). It takes some work to haul all that water to my apartment, but the results are well worth it.
As for the rainwater, it is obviously the best and most natural water for most/all plants but I have no means of collecting it effectively in quantities. I think that only way to purify rainwater collected from roof would be to filter it from debris (organic matter) and then boil it to kill any harmful microorganisms. As you have probably guessed by now, I'm not partial to adding chemicals to my plants unless I absolutely have to, so I can't recommend you any additives for conditioning water.
Best regards,
Nino
@@Nino_G I need to make a friend who has an RO system 😁 Preferably a neighbor. Thank you for the information, Nino! Maybe a good experiment that won't require too much work for me would be to sow a few pots with bottled water. It's such a pain to carry all the water home for the humans and cat alone.
Thanks for the video. Things are looking great. Can't wait till the next update. 😁
Thank you, Dean! Let's see how they do!
Keep at it with the ariocarpus! You may find more success keeping them in a separate tray/dome, so that you can dial in the conditions (extra shade, higher humidity for the first year or two).
This is such a true statement and a good reminder that it's better to separate the genus of plants because their needs are usually different. I used to sow a bunch of different genera of plants in the same pot, that was a quick lesson to stop doing that lol. Okay, I won't give up! Thank you for the encouragement!
Yay! Looking forward to the updates! I'm sowing a bunch now and many of the same as yours, so this is helpful. BTW, how much vinegar you put in 5 gallon bucket? Thanks!
Yay! I can't wait to hear how your cactus babies do! I just recorded the 4 month update today. Time is flying!
nice work,... in my experience a PH of 7.5-8 is great for cactus and a higher PH will get rid of that mold problem... Just keep doing what your doing with the vinegar, but perhaps when they are about a year old instead of when you are sprouting... the high PH of the water should be ok until your cactus is a year, then keep PH 7.5 or a bit lower. Algae is always a persistent foe. I just tried cinnamon powder for the first time, and I hope it works well to keep the mold down as well...
That is a very interesting comment about higher PH levels for seedlings. Where did you get this tip from? This is the first time I've heard this trick. That would actually be much easier because our water is all higher PH. Algae is so difficult to control, I have a lot of respect for it now that I see it can resist just about everything. Good luck to your growing! Let me know if the cinnamon powder works for you!
Awesome video!
Thank you so much, Cactus Dan!
I grew cacti from seeds 3 years ago, they got a number of problems including root mealy bugs. Now they look exactly the size as your 4 months old ones 😂 i was so discouraged from that experiment that i didn't try that again.
But now i want to.
Yes! You must try again! What part of the country/world are you at? What kind of cactus did you grow from seed? My first cactus I ever grew from seed was Astrophytum. I made so many mistakes that led to stunting their growth... but they're still alive! That's all that matters!
Thanks for the motivation 🥺
I am in pakistan and we have severe summers but mild winters. I tried melocactus, some astrophytums and gymnos (seeds from my own plants). They germinated really fine but got root mealies and fungus (although the soil was sterilised). I tried to treat them but they were just covered in mealies, so i discarded the astros, melos died due to fungus and i some 100ish gymnos were saved. They didn't grow much in last years so are just like you 3-4 months old ones 😅
I'll check if they are pest free, but if they have rootmealies, maybe i should discard them too and start with better precautions this time :(
Gosh root mealies are the worst! I think fungus is truly unavoidable. Are there ants nearby by any chance? Whenever I see ants, I'm almost guaranteed to see mealies.
Your findings are similar to what I have. I never get ariocarpus past a certain point. My other little guys are hanging tough.
My grandson was looking at the garden, he is three. He looked and asked where the poke plants were, I had moved them for winter. I was surprised he noticed and remembered I told him they would poke him
That's interesting, Steve. I've now heard from several people that they experience the same when growing Ariocarpus from seed. I also posted on Instagram that I'm about to give up on Arios and received messages from several people that they're in the same boat too. Gosh, no wonder the adult plants are so expensive. It's so frustrating when I get them to grow several tubercles and then they just wither away, ARRGGHHH! So frustrating.
That is so cute that your 3 year old grandson already knows the poke plants! That is so adorable, oh my goodness!
@@cookiescacti I want to graft the ariocarpus
@@cookiescacti I had no problems growing Ariocarpus from seed (I have only tried A. fissuratus so far, I have 3 survivors from 10 seeds package - they are 4,5 years now and close to 2cm in diameter). In fact they are much easier, and faster growing than Aztekiums and Strombocactus', for example. Certain protocols need to be respected, though: Sterile, air-tight growing containers, sterile (100% mineral) substrate, sterile water, seeds treated by H2O2. After sowing containers are sealed, placed under a suitable conditions (warmth/light) - and then you forget about them for at least a year. After that seedlings are big and strong enough to begin cracking open the lid and introducing fresh air (gradually!). After the substrate has dried, you can add the very weak solution of liquid fertilizer for the first time. Key word here is patience.
Best regards,
Nino
@@stevevaughn2040 Now that is a great idea. I've seen even the tiniest Ariocarpus seedlings grafted successfully. I have yet to get into the grafting, I think it's a good skill to have.
@@Nino_G I tried Strombos at one time, gave up immediately after the first pot failed. Talk about challenging.... I have some Ariocarpus seedlings that are still magically alive outside in the shadehouse. Now it's a matter of seeing which ones survive the winter...
Hi, I am glad to see that you can deal with mold and algae!
Just as a comment, the fertilizer tend to lower even more the pH of water, so maybe you should check the pH after adding the fertilizer.
Looks like good 'ol fresh air does the trick better than anything else! Thank you for that information, I never thought to test the water with fertilizer added, I will do that! Good thing my pH levels are not that low even with vinegar added.
You is the best thank you
Nahh you are the best, Osama!
What is your ultimate goal for all the cacti that you are growing? Since they are looking pretty successful, you are going to have a boatload of them!
Ohhhhh that is a very good question, Nancy! I often ask myself the same question. I have dreams of having tables covered in trays of Copiapoa and I think my dreams might have a chance of coming true. After the dream comes true and I run out of table space... well... then we'll see lol. (I literally just grew for the sake of growing with no end goal in mind.)
@@cookiescacti me too. I would love to sell them at the swapmeet for a good price. Lots of time goes into them but its such a great hobby!!
@@danielventura2538 yay! I'm so glad I'm not the only one! It's just so much fun to grow from seed and I keep telling myself I'll deal with the consequences (which are good consequences) in the future 😂
What kind of fungicide do you use? Thank u in advance! Your videos are always nice and fun. I would like to try seeds this spring
I'm so glad you enjoy my videos, Marcos! I've been using Physan 20 which I bought off of Amazon (I included a link to it in the video description). The jury is still out on its effectiveness in the seedling pots. I know for sure it works as a general disinfectant on my bottles and buckets because it clears up the gunk that grows there, but I'm still not sure on the seedlings... hmmmm... onward with experimenting!
I started my cacti collection last sommer where i got and old neglegted collection that had some old seeds so i sowed some seed in august with no grow light i sowed some ferocatus and some astrophytum i can see i should have given them a light the one i have i smaller then yours
Don't worry about the size of the seedlings, Anders! The only thing that matters is that you grew cactus from seed in the first place. And whatever seedlings are still alive, that's the important part! I swear the slower the plants grow, the longer they can potentially live.
Hi cookie 🍪 😻
Hi Tim 😺🍪🌵