I've finally sown my first seeds today: 36 Ariocarpus retusus v furfuraceus from seedsaustralia.net and 38 Trichocereus hybrid seeds from HN to be exact.

Had no problem with seedsaustralia, just need to wait and see if they are viable or not.

Went a bit overboard, got the seeds in a chinese take-away container, in zip-lock bags, in a fish tank! Got them ontop of a heating pad and near a window sill.

I've got a lamp with a fluorescent light bulb in it. Is this suitable if I want to give the plants extra light hours?

Hoping for a 100% germination rate.
Jokes. That would be excellent but I would be satisfied with a 50% germination rate as this is my first go and probably did something wrong along the track.

Is there anything else I have to do now, or just sit and wait?
Do I fert them and do I take them out in 15 months time which will be the start of 2013 spring?

Mitch

mitchell101

If you had sown seeds, you can not do anyting until germination starting.
The successful germination ratio of Ariocarpus is not too bad normally.

I sow Ariocarpus seeds in spring using a heating pad and moved into a normall wet box around20 days after of the germination.
Seedling will grow up to a resunable size until autum.
I repotting seedlings next spring, one year later after germination.

If your seedlings grew a resunable size by Sptember 2012, you can remove heating pad, I think.

The photo is 4 months old retusus v furfuraceus seedlings in a 10 cm square pots.

I hope mine have grown that much by 4 months.
Is there anything special you put in your soil for raising arios by seed?
At the moment I just have them in a propagating sand mix bought from bunnings. It has a mix of coarse and fine sands.

And how does a wet box work? What is it?

mitchell101

I use a normal plant seed raising mix brought form bunnings.
It is organic base but I add 0.5~2.0 mm size of zeorite about 15%.

Since the temperature of the potting mix top is important, I use a thermometer and measure the temperture of potting mix top and set up the heating pad volume.
I use fungicide spray over the top of potting mix before swoing seeds and after sowing seed each time, just twice in total.
I use coarse sands to hold seeds.

I use a flat plastic box which can pack clothes and keep under a bed, 15 cm height.
A capillary mat is layed on the bottom. All pots are on the mat.
I do not feed water on pots but feed over the mat.
When a lid sit on the box, you can keep a wet condition in the box quite long time.

Hanazono

UPDATE:
Checked seeds today and 5 of the ariocarpus have just started to germinated. Hoping for a few more within the next few days.
The tricho seeds are booming though. About 20 have germinated and are already growing nicely. I would say most of them are 3-4mm already. Don't think I will be having the lid on the container for long.

What's my next step?
Just sit and wait. Or is there anything minor I can do to keep up my success rate and not let anything die or get fungus?

Patience my friend, patience These buggers grow slowly. Sit back, relax and admire your work, the hard work has been done now let nature take over and do what is does best. Provide.

Sounds like a good job so far, keep it up.

Got any pictures?

Next time I take the lid of their container I'll take a photo.
Don't know when I'll take the lid off next.
More should be germinated by then though.

Just gave them both a water and counted how many have now germinated.
There's only a few seeds of the trichocereus left to sprout - I think I possibly have 30 seedling at the moment.
The ariocarpus are a bit slower and only 10 have germinated now.

Here's the pics

Ariocarpus

Trichocereus

Sorry about the massive pictures.
Don't know how to make them smaller.

How many Ariocarpus did you plant?

Nothing has changed since my first post; its still 36 ario seeds that I planted.
Hoping that more sprout. It's only been 2 weeks so I think having a third of them germinate isn't too bad a result

For a first timer I'd say that's pretty good. Don't be surprised if a few stragglers pop up later on...

Look at those cute little guys

In these photos they look like little boogers to me.
And I don't think like being called "cute" Trigonus; they told me they're insulted; they want to be known as spiny and verocious. I told them you were only joking and that you didn't mean it because I don't want them to go into withdrawal and stop growing.

They'll get over it.