35 replies to this topic

[tersor]

Some of my half year old bridgessis is a little brown/grey/darkish at the top. Them stem is allmost transparent like. What is this? Owervatering? Think sunburn looks quite different from this, and they dont get direkt sun and the sun isnt that hot. I have been watering too much i think. 2-3 times every 2 weeks and the temperature havent been that hot outside yet. They are just half year old so i thought they needed that much watering even thou its not hot summer outside yet.

I have a hard time think its because of too little light cause they get atleast 14 hours of light shaded with tissuepaper in front for shading. They stand directly in the south window

And if its rot, will it help stop watering for a while and they will recover? Some of the bridgesii's looks really health, but there is this one that has a wery grey transparantlike stem and the top is darkpurple

Edited by tersor, 10 April 2010 - 06:46 AM.

[teesus]

if they are a little bit red the discoloration could mean they have a little bit to much sun.

[tersor]

No, not red. i would say they kinda get darker on the top, not red.

[tersor]

And how often do you water your half year old seedling? When the soil has been dry for some days etc?

Thanx for the help

[tersor]

The lopho looks strange, i like it!

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[MagikF]

Wow, that looks like your seedling had a pup, WTF? The others look good.

[tersor]

Yep, it looks like it has gotten a pup, and it looks like anotherone is on its way. The seeds is supposed to be just normal peyo, but the one on the pic + another one behaves like caespitosa.

[demetrius shardson]

wow that little baby throwing pups is awesome :eusa_clap

[Northern Haze]

Hey fellow scandinavian!

Nice work with those, looks really good :eusa_clap

I recently started a little grow op from seeds myself, couple of months ago. I have been struggling a bit. To find the right balance with moist, temp and drenage in soil.

Looks like you done a good job, they look really nice! I look forward til my look that good. Here is a couple of pics. :)

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[roc]

Looks like a pretty good start to me...

[Northern Haze]

Looks like a pretty good start to me...

Thanks roc :)

They have been pretty miserable, but it looks like I've found the right combo now. Still struggling with som green on the dirt, but dunno if it matters...?

[roc]

A little bit of natural light should take care of the green...

[Northern Haze]

Thx roc! :thumbup:

I will do that.

[tersor]

Hey Northern Haze!

Your seedlings look nice. You have to find a balance as you say. My seedlings has had some different colours, one time someone allmost turned purple and other times transparent. I found just the right ammount of light early this summer, used toiletpaper to make diffuse sunlight. If you see that your seedlings turnes blackish/redish/transparent etc it is most likely the lightconditions. I tried to make shade with plasticbag, but it seemed they didn't like the light that got filtered throu the plastic so i went for toiletpaper thinking this is a natural material. After a coupple of weeks they started to get a nice green colour, it takes some time for them to recover so be patient when you make changes in lightconditions. I'm impressed how good they are at recovering from stuff. And you have to see how much toiletpaper you have to cover it up with, 1ply, 2 ply etc. My dome stands just below a window, so the light they get is from the sun. I have had some green stuff growing on the soil, but it wanished when i covered the soil with aquarium gravel. I allways have a little spot that isnt covered with gravel so that i can see if the soil is dry or moist. When i first started to grow cactis i used boiling water to sterilise, but now i think the microwave is the best solution, or a regular oven.

As i have learned they really like high humidity and moist soil when they are seedlings. I water everytime i see that the earth is starting to dry out at the surface, maybe as much as 4 times a week with a spraycan. When i feel i can afford it i give them bottled water, Imsdal or Olden. If i give them tapwater i let the water stay in the spraycan without the top of the spraycan on for some hours, so that it gets "aired" and roomtempered. After the seeds germinated i poked about 8 small holes with a nail, just to get a little air in without me opening it. Then after a coupple of months i expanded the holes just a little bit. Now i have aprox 15 holes. I open the dome allmost everyday to check out the condidtions, i have opened it allmost every day since the seeds germinated. Since winter has started here in scandinavia, i use a heatmath that leans on the side of the dome, makes it maybe a coupple degrees hotter. I just grow in normal roomtemperature 19-21 degrees celcius. Newer used any kinda heating exept for the heatmath that leans on the dome. I have placed the cactis in the windowsill as far away from the window as possible, because it can get pretty cold near the window. And remember to turn the pots as the cactis turns toward the light, they can turn fast!

If you ever gonna start with new seeds i advise you to use pots and place them in a humiditydome. I have sown seeds three different times during the last two years and i desidied to use claypots and place them in a dome this last time. It has been the best and easyest way. And i allways drill extra holes in the pots for drainage. If i was supposed to sow new seeds now i don't think i would use claypots cause it has started to grow some green stuff on them. Does'nt seem to infect the soil or damage any cacti thou, but a little bit scary anyway. Bet it is some kinda alge or fungus.

This summer i started to notice some pests in the soil, many small transparent like larvas was cravling arround. Googled them and found out they where most likely the larvas of small black flys. I hung up some flypaper and now i dont have the larvas anymore. Got theese larvas in the dome and in the soil of the little bit older cactis that isnt in the dome. The flypaper has caught 100+ small black flys. So if u see theese larvas use flypaper, lots of it. And i have theese really small insects, kinda shiny looking and jumpy. I think they come from some of the other housplants and thrives because the soil is allways moist. I took a good piece of tobacco, the type u use to roll cigarettes, and i had it in that small cup thing you eat soft eggs from (dont know the english name). I boiled some water and poured ower the tobacco, then i stired arround and let it cool before i poured the brown tobaccowater in a plasticbag. Then i made a little hole in the plastic bag with my nail and let the tobaccowater dripp ower the cactis and the soil. I gave them a good soak with this. Seems like it killed them little pesty fuckers!

Yep, that was pretty much the way i grow! :D

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Edited by tersor, 31 October 2010 - 10:57 AM.

[Northern Haze]

Hey Tersor! Thanks for sharing all this with me! Really cool!

The toilet paper was creative solution. Next time I plant seeds I will for sure use something else. Part of my problems is that this thin plastic things I have planted in, have dried out all to fast. And the soil probably was to fast draining also. Would probably be a good soil for older cacti.
But right now they seem to thrive, they are getting greener and it even popped up two new ones. Several months after planting, not bad.

They are in a humidety dome, or one of those small greenhouse seedling starter things. Problems early on was that it got way to hot in there, it got up to 32 - 33 degrees. But now I found a good spot. They are under 2 cfl's, 18 w each. I try to use bottled water as much as possible. I have used Olden, but now I use the cheaper First Price water. It's 6,90 for one and half liter and works like a charm.

Maybe I should get some fine gravel to put on top, to keep some algea and other contams out. I havent had any problems with flyes yet, knock knock, but I do see some ants crawling around now and then. But I dont know if they are harmful to the cacti and plants.
I heard about the tobbaco thing before, but had forgotten about it. Thanks for bringing it back to me :)

How do u go about with watering. Do u keep it the same year around? Or do you give them like a resting in the winter.
I read that u should do that, but these folks live in warmer climate and grow outside or in greenhouses. So they are growing in the more natural cacti condition and its natural too give less water in the winter.
But we are growing inside and the conditions are more uniform, more constant.
The seedlings I will probably keep in the dome for at least 3 more months before I start gradually introducing them to more light and drier conditions. But I have 2 other cacti I was wondering about how to water throu winter. (pics) These two I bought together with the seeds.

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[tersor]

Glad that you liked the info :)

Ok, so you have them in domes, then you have been clever. I totally agree that the heat made problems for you in the beginning. And the soilproblem you deskribe, i have had that myselfe on the previous batch. It dried out way to quick and at that time my mom took care of them. She didn't bother water them every 1-2 days, just a coupple times a week max. Therefore they allmost stopped growing for about half a year, some where even purple when i got home. But they recovered when i got back and took care of them :)

You could visit a petstore and buy aquarium gravel, its cheap. It helps keep pests and fungus away froum your cacti, but it is no guarantee that it will keep them away. Anyway it helps support them. Just use a thin layer of gravel, but remember to keep an open spot, it makes it easier to see when you must water.

And about the dormant period. Seedlings should never go dormant. I water my seedlings the same way all year round. But cactis wants to go dormant when the temperature drops a bit so i place my seedlings where the temperature is allways arround 20-21 degrees celcius. Since i just use natural light and grow them in the windowsill, it takes about 1-2 years before they start to mature so i water them as seedlings all this time. Mine grows in pretty different tempo, some is three times bigger than some of the others. Don't know what causes this. They mature in different tempo so i have to treat them individually.

I started to treat my four first lophos as older cactis when they was about a year old. They was still pretty small and my soil had wery good drainage so i watered them still about two/three times a week. Now they are two years old and they can go pretty long time without water, coupple of weeks+

My four oldest lophos from seeds stands in the southwindowsill in the livingroom, so i dont think they will go dormant. The temp is allways about 20 degrees celcius. I water them about 1 time every 7-10 day. I'm watching them too see if they get any discoloration and soft spots near the bottom, a sign of rot. I allso check if i water them to seldomly, but it seems i have found the right amount.

I'm thinkings this: Im looking at each cacti, each batch and see how they grow. My cactis are still wery young. But if my cactis is still really "seedling looking", even thou they would be two years old, i would treat them more like a seedling than an adult.

I dont have that much experience with cactis during winter, but i have had a non active columnar cacti for many years. It stands in the north window so it dont get much sun during winter and the temp is about 15 degrees celcius in the windowsill. I know this one goes dormant so i just give it a little bit water max once during a month. It has grown nice and fat during the last 10+ years, it hasn't got that etiolated growth they can get if they don't go dormant and is growing when the growconditions is poor. I had my four peyotes under a spotlight last winter, watered them as i do at summer. No dormancy.

I have two really old lophophoras that also lives in the north window that i pretty much haven't watered at all the last two months. I will give them just a little sip of water a coupple times until spring arriwes. It seems like they have gone dormant and is resting peacefully :)

And about your two cactis, i would treat them more like adults during the winter. I dont know where you grow them, windowsill etc? But if in a cold windowsill i would bearly give them water. Just a little sip once a month or so. If you grow them on a table or something in roomtemperature i would give them a good spray about twice a month. If you grow them under hps etc i would give them water atleast once a week, maybe twice. If it was summer and they stood in a southwindow i would give the lopho a nice sip of water once a week or so. I dont have a clue on how to care for the other you have. Watering depends on the soil, the pot, the cacti, the temperature and the light conditions.

But remember, i'm pretty new at this as well. Just read a bunch theese last two/three years and tried to grow some myselfe, so i'm not the most experienced grower on this forum and i might do wrong some places :)

I had to take all my four pots out of the dome today. I saw some really small spots on the pots, looked like sandgrains that moved!!! Hundreds of them. I torched the pots with a lighter and washed them with dry gin (only thing i could find). I washed the dome and made big holes in it - they have been in there for half a year, now its time for them to get used to normal conditions :) High humditiy most deffenately intvites pests to live there!

Hehe, i can see/read/feel that i'm a bit hooked on growing theese things :D And a tips; dont move the cactis that much arround. Find a good place and keep them there until you have to move them or realised you had a better place for them. In the beginning i changed mines places many times, could see they didn't like it at all. And it's normal that some seedlings don't make it, i've lost about 5 R.I.P.

Edited by tersor, 01 November 2010 - 03:37 PM.