Last summer I committed cactus sowing! I did not plan it; it just happened :p
All the seeds come from my own cacti that bloomed last year. And I really was not planning to sow any, but I cleaned the dry flowers, picked some fruits and didn't have the heart to throw the seeds away. So I sowed them. Mid summer is the last moment to sow cacti. But the very first time I did sow some was in September if I remember correctly (like 8 years ago) and the cacti that grew then are still with me.
What's more... after seeing how they were sprouting and growing I went all nuts and ordered a shit ton of seeds online of cacti I never had and will be sowing those in a few weeks time. And I mean a shit ton! Plus some more from my own plants that I picked later in the fall.
Eh... So much for "I don't want to sow cacti anymore" 🤣
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|Epithelantha micromeris | Notocactus Ottonis
I used the baggy method, which seems to work best for me, especially if I know the very young seedlings will have to survive colder winter (i dont have growing lights or heating mats). The bag and sunny windowsill help a lot and do the job.
So here you see 7 months old seedlings in 4 cm pots.
Two with Aylostera Flavistyla, one with Notocactus Ottonis (the big, light green ones) and one with Epithelantha micromeris*.
I am always tempted to repot them sooner, but it could be the reason why I lose so many seedlings after that. This time I kept them in the pots and more organic substrate until they had no more room to grow (except the Micromeris, but since they all got new pots I switched these too).
The mix is ready - more mineral as they were getting bigger and the larger pots will also stay wet longer.
and..
I almost forgot how tedious job it is to unpot all the little babies, separate them without damaging hair-like roots and then pot them again one by one..
It turns out that there were over 40 Aylostera seedlings growing in those two little red pots :o
I decided to keep the biggest one seperately already (back to the 4cm pot) and the rest went to two community containers.
Notocactus was much easier - less and bigger plants. If a one cm plant is a bigger plant :p
Twelve of them went to the community pot...
And two biggest ones got own pots already.
I didn't shoot the Micromeris after repoting. My bad.
All done and back to the bag greenhouses and off the sunny windowsill. I keep the bags open (except the first month or two) to allow the air to circulate, but keep the humidity and temperature higher at the same time.
And here are the flowers of the blooming parents from some previous years:
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| Epithelantha micromeris | Notocactus Ottonis | Aylostera Flavistyla |
Lastly a little curiosity - this is an older Aylostera that I also grew from seed. It was a single plant when I potted it and it was growing as such for a long time. Then I notice it has two growing tips... and then three! How cool is that? :D
I dont think it will become a crested form (I hope not - I don't like them). But the three... that is pretty interesting :)
The seed was from my own plant as well.
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