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  • Danger Cactus Garden

    Small children and pets are not compatible.  These things are worse than pineapples.

    Why Trichocereus From Seeds? 

    They are columnar cactus which grow monster big.

    Their spines can be wicked fierce and are probably coated in germs. 

    Plant 1,000 cactus seeds, get a 1,000 cactus plants. That's a lot plants to manage.
     

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    Pandemic Garden


     

  • Snowflakes

    There are probably smarter plants to grow in your garden, and that's OK.  Grow what works for you. 

    Trichocereus are Super Fun!

    Growing them under bright lights is a mood booster in the winter.

    Trichocereus have a pretty star shapes when cut sideways.

    Grown easily from inexpensive seed, and not under major threat, Trichocereus make for a guilt-free cactus.

    By planting lots of inexpensive seeds, there are more options to find unique variations. 

    It's what all the cool kids on the Internet are doing these days. 

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    Fun

     

  • Supplies

    Organize tools and materials

    YouTube Learning


    Cactus Quest on YouTube has a great video on using Hydrogen Peroxide to sterilize the potting mix.  Some people feel this is overkill, but we like the technique. Hydrogen Peroxide is good stuff to have fresh and on hand. 

    San Pedro Mastery has are nice technique "How to Germinate Old, Non-Viable Cactus Seeds".

    Hydrogen Peroxide / Spray Bottle
    Physan 20 Sanitizer / Spray Bottle
    Coffee filter 
    Gloves 
    kitchen ware for managing small seeds
    labels and tags 
    soil mix of choice 
    take-out containers 
    zip-lock bags for small pots

  • Seedlings

    Physan 20 Mix Ration
    0.79 teaspoons of mix for per 1-liter bottle of water.

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    Physan 20
  • Soil

    Zap moisten soil with microwaves 

    Don't worry, we have our ham radio license - w3box

    Cook mix low and slow in microwave. Or wash with Hydrogen Peroxide.  Or just wing it and throw some seeds in a nice moist cactus mix.

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    Cook soil

     

     

  • Filter

    Coffee Filters

    Rinse seeds in Peroxide solution.
    We used about 20% ratio here., 

    Clean soak for about 20 minutes then rinse and transfer to a light sugar or coconut water soak.  Soak overnight, then rinse with fresh water using a coffee filter. 

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    Wash
  • Label

    Make good labels and document the status with photos for the record.  

     

    Warm and bright, give them a few months

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    Label

Trichocereus Cactus From Seed

philacactus.org

Special thanks to the Philadelphia Cactus & Succulent Society for allowing DC Laboratory to present on the dangers of growing cactus from seeds.   Remember kids, don't put seeds in your ears, they will sprout.
 

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DC Laboratory | Philadelphia

Steve Groundwater presenting at the Philadelphia Cactus & Succulent Society; February 11, 2024.