Here I describe the essential materials for growing succulents and cacti from seeds!!! It is including several important points (my top secrets!!!), and please enjoy reading.
Basic things
Pot, Water tray, Soil (sand), Name tag,
Advanced
Heating equipments, righting equipments
Let's start from Basic!!
I often use square 6.5cm pots and recycle some food tray as a water tray underneath. Most people misunderstand that cactus and succulents doesn't need water much. BUT NOT FOR SEEDLINGS!!! They are baby, and need plenty of water. That is the first misunderstanding about cactus and succulent seedlings, which happen to many people.
Soil : I was using general seed and cutting soils previously, but this time is horticultural sand (I was looking for river sands which I was using in Japan). It seems working well with very low cost compared with other soils. Downside is heavy and taking space if you are not planning to use it so often!! To be honest, soil is not extremely important. I sometimes even use cactus soils from the beginning to reduce plantation steps.
I forgot to write down this important part!!
Please add plenty of water first from the top of sand/soil and let them go through the pot. Discard the water with debris, add fresh water to the tray (a few cm).
Then keep that water same height for a month or more.
We cannot add water from the top because the seeds will move away!
Name tag: This is so important, because some cactus seeds takes nearly one year to come out (seriously...). I reused unsuccessful seedling pot for other plants, and the cacti came out 2 years later!! That is why, keeping the record is essential. Even if your seedlings came out immediately, we can't remember and judge because some of them might be only noticed by flower several years later. So keep your record clear!!!
Finally how to sow seeds. I just put them on the surface of soils. Some of the seeds are good size to handle by hands, but some are extremely small. even smaller than 1mm. I sometimes use wood pick to spread them. or simply spread the seeds by making pouch upside sown carefully on the pot. (Please dealing with such a small seeds indoor without any winds!)
Generally, large seeds are recommended to put inside water 24 hours before sawing, but I haven't seen huge difference if the sand/soil are wet enough. Quick germinating species (adenium, fockea, etc) start moving even from 24 hours later!
One of other important measure is freshness of seeds. For example, Anacampseros species are germinate almost 100% if it was the day you harvested but it will drop less than 10% rate within a few days. Fresh seeds, good results, that applies to most of the plants.
Please check my previous blog f or which companies are good!
I will talk about advanced technique especially temperature and lighting in next blog!
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