As a gift (from my adorable husband for no reason whatsoever) I received a kit called “Grow your own desert!” It contained soil and numerous kinds of succulent seeds, none of which was labeled as to what it might be.
The box said “ages 4 and up” so I was pretty convinced I could grow the little buggers.
It had what looked like regular soil in it, a bit of sand and some rocks. So I followed the directions and now I have multiple different shaped tiny germinated cacti of unidentifiable species.
I’ve read up a little and believe that now I should stop watering them, let the soil dry out and treat them like cacti. But is there anything else they need? One site suggested anti-fungal spray of some kind, which wasn’t mentioned in the “4 and up” version of growing a desert.
It seems odd to let seedlings go without water. Surely they need SOME kind of interference!
I will let someone else chime in about the watering. I have grown cacti from seeds. They are cute and look like miniature versions of full cacti very quickly. But they take forever to grow and are very easy to accidently kill. Next time I actually want cacti I would by plants from a nursery.
If you keep them dry, they shouldn’t need any anti-fungal treatment. If the soil starts to look so dry it goes crispy, you probably will have to water a little, but it might be better to achieve this by standing/holding the pot into a bowl with half the pot’s depth of water for about 30 seconds, then taking it out and letting it drain - that way, the moisture will wick up gently though the soil - the worst enemy of new seedlings is rot caused by wet surface conditions.
Let the soil dry out between waterings, don’t dehydrate the poor things. In nature they’d quickly thrust their little roots down as deep as they could into the soil where it stays cooler and ever so slightly damp, even in hot dry weather. Good drainage is key so the soil is never soggy wet, but you don’t want the soil to completely dry out, maybe just the top half.
Okay, so of course the “ages 4 and up” version of growing succulents involves a plastic container with NO drainage. Can I simply poke a few holes in the bottom of this and set it on a plastic plate for run-off? I know they prefer unglazed pots, but I don’t think I’m up to “Repotting Cacti 101” yet. I think that was in the “ages 8 and up” version.
That explains why they tell you not to water. I don’t have much advice to give you. You could poke holes in the bottom if you wanted, or melt holes in it. I’ve done that before. You just take a pair of pliers and use them to hold a nail over a flame until it gets really hot then melt holes in the bottom, preferably doing that outside as melting plastic fumes are very bad for you.
If you’re really attached to your little seedlings, you’re going to have to advance to “Repotting Cacti 101” eventually though. Now that spring is here, it’d be a good time to do it.
Your local craft store probably carries cute miniature terra cotta pots, sorta like these.
“Regular soil” won’t be good for cacti. If the mix provided stays damp near the surface for more than a day, the seedlings could face rot.
You need fast-draining soil and a pot with good drainage holes. If the soil is relatively decent and you want to wait until the seedlings are big enough to manipulate easily, poke holes in the bottom of the pot as suggested and let the soil surface dry out for a couple days between waterings while the seedlings are small. As they grow larger you can space out the waterings bit by bit. Eventually the plants should go into a sandy/gritty mix suitable for adult cacti and be in clay pots.
Also, don’t give frequent tiny amounts of water, as this encourages superficial rooting and gets the plants in trouble if there’s a dry period later. A decent soaking followed by a period of dryness is better.
I grow cacti for a commercial nursery. The method I most often use is to place moistened sterilized potting mix (from our own mixing) in a plastic container like Tupperware. The container is then placed under florescent lights and left sealed for several months. The water used initially has dissolved fertilizer in it. These containers are kept inside until they are opened for transplanting.
When the seedlings get big enough, they are pricked out and grown in clusters in small plastic pots. When weather permits, they are moved outside under fiberglass covered benches.
Other growers plant outside under shadecloth and mist several times each day until the seedlings are sizable…think the size of a mature garden pea. On occasion I use this method.
If you look for cactus seedlings in nature, you won’t find many. One of the reasons is too little water as seedlings. Very young cacti benefit greatly from normal watering, so here in the desert, many years will find no seedlings surviving.
If you want to discuss this more, send me an email. Good luck with your seedlings.