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[semaphore]

great writeup one question could one use a 50-50 coir/sand mixture (New Wisdom seems to like coir, Lukas seems to like sand.. ) and pressure cook it in a glass jar for an hour for sterilisation in order to skip the overnight bleach soak?

I have not bleached my sand i threw it in the oven for two hours. This will kill organic matter but not endospores. Two hour min PC will destroy possible endospores.

[New Wisdom]

I now use 80% sand 20% worm castings.  It seems to be the very best mixture for growth. Very nice healthy fat seedlings come from it. But you don't want to bake it with the worm castings in. Sterilize the sand then add the worm castings afterwards to keep the nutrients alive.

1 Like fairdinkumseeds likes this.

[Shpongle Lover]

I microwave my sand in quart jar(s) with the lid on lightly while the sand is wet to "field capacity."  The water eventually boils away leaving damp to nearly dry sand.  Seems to work for me.

S.L.

[TBM]

What material are the lids for those quart jars made of that makes them microwavable? I can't imagine metal lids being a good idea to microwave...

[Shpongle Lover]

White plastic.  Made by Ball, the same company as makes the jars.

S.L.

[TBM]

I know exactly what lids you refer to, that makes things a lot easier

1 Like happyconcacti likes this.

[Sunshine]

I now use 80% sand 20% worm castings.  It seems to be the very best mixture for growth. Very nice healthy fat seedlings come from it. But you don't want to bake it with the worm castings in. Sterilize the sand then add the worm castings afterwards to keep the nutrients alive.

I think you mean keep the beneficial bacteria alive. Nutrients aren't living.

[Shpongle Lover]

I'm not going to presume to speak for New Wisdom, but to the extent that extreme heat or microwaves can denature proteins, nutrients can be affected.  Think raw egg as opposed to hard boiled...

S.L.

[New Wisdom]

I now use 80% sand 20% worm castings.  It seems to be the very best mixture for growth. Very nice healthy fat seedlings come from it. But you don't want to bake it with the worm castings in. Sterilize the sand then add the worm castings afterwards to keep the nutrients alive.

I think you mean keep the beneficial bacteria alive. Nutrients aren't living.

I know that nutrients aren't alive dude. Lol. You can change the structure or destroy chemicals with heat or radiation. I meant nutrients. Anyways you want a sterile environment for cactus seeds usually. So I usually don't care to keep those alive.

[happyconcacti]

I know that nutrients aren't alive dude. Lol.

I meant what you knew. 

[New Wisdom]

I know that nutrients aren't alive dude. Lol.

I meant what you knew. 

?

[fairdinkumseeds]

I now use 80% sand 20% worm castings.  It seems to be the very best mixture for growth. Very nice healthy fat seedlings come from it. But you don't want to bake it with the worm castings in. Sterilize the sand then add the worm castings afterwards to keep the nutrients alive.

Absolutely the way to go from what I have seen and New Wisdom and Nanashi are on the money it seems.
In a side by side test I saw recently, that had many cacti varieties from many vendors the difference was truly amazing.

Straight sand was about 20% strike, and growth so slow it wasn't even noticeable. He said he was very disappointed and wouldn't bother doing that again.
Sieved oven baked commercial/premade "Cacti mix" was 33% strike. Reasonable growth and none of the algae and fungal issues he had expected. He had assumed all would probably die, was pleasantly surprised, and said I should definitely try that if I cant get worm casings.

But the oven baked sand with uncooked worm castings was the winner by far.
57% strike rate!(and some of the varieties NONE of the seeds had struck in the other mediums)
All were fat healthy little seedlings that looked about 3x bigger than the others.

The dude had split the whole test into 6x individual 96liter clear plastic "roller boxes" with lids, each containing 77 disposable shot glasses with a hole in the bottom for drainage.
462 individual "pots" for about $7.00 he said, which sounded pretty good to me.

All of the containers were being opened and watered 2x a day, with 3 of the containers being treated with "Fongard" systemic fungicide(250g/kg FURALAXL) in a sprayer.
The other 3 being sprayed with normal rain water 2x a day.
None of the boxes had any algae or mold issues, and the chemical had no effect on germination or growth rates, so he said he wouldn't bother using chemicals in the future, which made me happy. lol.
I hate all that chemical nonsense and it was nice to see I wouldn't need it if I ever moved south and decided to start some cacti seedlings myself.
 
20% casings 80% baked sand, clean sterilized box, good drainage(he had the little shot glass pots sitting on an oven rack about 2inches off the bottom of the box).
Definitely the way to go!
I might even start a few dragonfruit and opuntia seedlings like that, as it obviously worked really well.
Sort of copied his setup and am going to try growing a few of my more expensive seeds and rare passiflora like that, and run a bit of a test with the acacia later on, then move them out into pots once they get a decent root down.

5 Likes isaak, New Wisdom, happyconcacti, Greentoe and PermieGing like this.

[New Wisdom]

Pishkal. I don't like coir for loph seeds, I used to use it for trichocereus seeds. Now I use 80% sand 20% worm castings for both trichs and lophs.

[chums of chance]

I'd like to add that Lophs seem to be positively photoblastic, so lots of light might be beneficial for germination. Seedlings are another story, though.

1 Like New Wisdom likes this.

[Blackvine]

I'm about to embark on my first attempt at germinating Trichocereus, and have some questions:

Regarding plastic bags to use as a cover, could I use those translucent plastic bags found in supermarket fruit and veg sections, or should I get large transparent ziplock bags?

Could anyone give any advice regarding lighting and temperature?

Should I invest in an electric headbed (I don't have a hotwater cylinder).

Also, it's autumn where I live, should I wait until after winter?

Also, is 80% plain sand and 20% worm castings still the current recommended germination substrate?


If all goes according to plan, I will create an easy to follow pictorial with credit due. Cheers