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Forager
Mycophile

Registered: 02/15/11
Posts: 440
Last seen: 3 years, 4 months
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My plan for planting Trichocereus bridgesii seeds
#15798181 - 02/12/12 03:06 PM (12 years, 3 months ago) |
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I recently acquired ~100 Trichocereus bridgesii seeds, and am just about to plant them! I've got my whole setup ready, just need to get my seeds in the soil. As this is my first time after growing cacti from seed, I want to run my setup and plan by you people and see if there is anything I should alter.
I have a two foot, two bulb fluorescent grow light from Hydrofarm with T5 bulbs, which emit 6400K. I also have a seedling heat mat with a seedling flat and a seedling humidity dome. For my soil I got some Black Gold Cacti and Succulent Mix.
I plan to plant one seed per seedling cone in the seedling flat, following Cactusdan's Cactus Germination TEK, but with the use of my seedling flat with humidity dome instead of the Solo cups with plastic baggies.
I will mist every day and put my light on 12-12. I'm also thinking about putting my heat mat on the same 12-12 schedule. Will this photoperiod be sufficient, or should I shoot for more like a 16 or 18 hour photoperiod?
I'm also considering putting some sterile perlite on the surface of my soil to cover the seed, as I read this is a good practice here.
For informational purposes, it is generally around 68F in my house, so the seedling mat will probably help (?) to increase germination rates.
Any thoughts or criticism would be appreciated. Definitely looking forward to getting these seeds going and having myself some beautiful cacti which I grew!
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Always looking for interesting active prints (especially Gymnopilus spp. and sclerotia producers) and cacti and poppy seeds.
Edited by Forager (02/12/12 03:13 PM)
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Pilgrim
Hand of Doom



Registered: 08/17/11
Posts: 51
Loc: Mojave
Last seen: 11 years, 6 months
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Re: My plan for planting Trichocereus bridgesii seeds [Re: Forager]
#15799284 - 02/12/12 06:22 PM (12 years, 3 months ago) |
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Black Gold 
A 12-12 schedule should be fine.
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SWIM Jr
SWIM SWAM

Registered: 02/14/11
Posts: 131
Loc: In The Pool
Last seen: 11 years, 5 months
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Re: My plan for planting Trichocereus bridgesii seeds [Re: Pilgrim]
#15842374 - 02/21/12 12:07 PM (12 years, 2 months ago) |
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You seem to know what you are doing!
Perlite on the top may be good. It may be too large for the seedlings to push away, I don't know. I use a thin layer of light colored sand so that the light can still get through. I have lots of sand, so that is what I use.
I use an old tv or a fishtank light fixture to heat the seeds, but if you already have a heating mat, that is fine. I do 12 hours under the light and 12 above. I doubt the timing needs to be exact.
Good luck.
-------------------- I am mighty tighty whitey, and I am smuggling grapes.
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Ieponumos
Mycophile/Phytophile


Registered: 09/02/09
Posts: 4,850
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Re: My plan for planting Trichocereus bridgesii seeds [Re: SWIM Jr]
#15842798 - 02/21/12 01:48 PM (12 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
SWIM Jr said: You seem to know what you are doing!
Perlite on the top may be good. It may be too large for the seedlings to push away, I don't know. I use a thin layer of light colored sand so that the light can still get through. I have lots of sand, so that is what I use.
I use an old tv or a fishtank light fixture to heat the seeds, but if you already have a heating mat, that is fine. I do 12 hours under the light and 12 above. I doubt the timing needs to be exact.
Good luck.
Quote:
Cover the surface with a layer of sand, perlite about twice the thickness of the seeds
The part in bold is the key phrase about the perlite. Note that, if you do use perlite, you will want to crush it until it is fine in consistency, OP. Any larger and it will be detrmiental to them.
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