31 December 2008
What’s in the propagator?
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Other Succulents; Propagation .
To give an idea of the space issues I’m going to face with the coming orgy of seed sowing, here’s a view of my “propagator”.
It’s a rather Heath-Robinson affair, with an Envirolite and reflector dangling from an old wooden towel rail that seems just about up to the job. For germination I have the base of an old electric propagator to provide bottom warmth; everything else relies on the ambient temperature of the room.
I know that I could, and probably should, improve this set-up. After all a lot of the light is lost to the room, and this could be remedied easily by making some sort of enclosure. However, results over the past twelve months have been encouraging, as I hope to show…
One of last year’s seedlings that I was determined to keep growing through the winter was this Pygmaeocereus bieblii. This valiant little chap was the only one to germinate from a pack of 10 seeds from Koehres.
I know that other growers have had better luck from the same seed source, and indeed the two other packs of this species which I’ve sown recently have yielded four and five seedlings each. I just didn’t want to lose this one!
The ambient temperature is also absolutely fine for getting cuttings rooted. Here are some of the tacinga cuttings I’ve mentioned previously.
You’ll see that although the Envirolite provides plenty enough light for seedlings to grow by, the new growth that the tacingas are putting out is a little on the lanky side. What I intend to do is remove this growth in spring and root it for circulation of this documented material to other opuntioid enthusiasts.
I had never grown any kind of epiphytes from seed before, so when I saw last winter that Koehres were offering Epiphyllum anguliger, I jumped at them.
If you search back through the archives of this site, you’ll see that I had some trouble with growing them on, and as I’ve said in my “things I’ve learned” post, don’t grow them in loamy compost. They hate it. As you can see these are now in a mixture of normal peat-based multi-purpose compost and grit and romping away.
Lastly, here are a few other pots of seedlings that I’m quite pleased with. From left to right, Eriosyce subgibbosa ssp castanea, Frailea santaritense, and Ariocarpus retusus SB68. Obviously, Ariocarpus retusus is larger-growing than many of its immediate relatives, but it’s still a revelation to me how much growth these chaps have managed in the past year. By contrast, the eriosyce were sown in May, and the fraileas are just a few months old.
One Comment so far...
Blossfeldiana » Last year’s seedlings - part 1 Says:
3 January 2009 at 4:09 pm.
[...] from the seedlings that are in the house under lights, there are of course hundreds of tiny spiny plants in the greenhouse. These are the ones that I [...]