OutsideprideMix Cactus Seeds - 1000 Pcs Perennial, Drought-Tolerant & Low Maintenance Succulent Seeds for Planting Blooms with Thick & Fleshy Stems for Sunny Gardens & Windowsills

This year, my parodia (I've had it about six years- it was my first cactus ever), flowered for the first time, then grew a couple seed pods that have yet to ripen. In anticipation of trying to sow its seeds, and being afraid of messing them up, I decided to try to grow some other seeds first. Though I keep a ton of cacti and succulents around, I've only really ever done garden plants from seeds (tomatoes, peppers, basil etc.), so I had a lot of anxiety about wasting what might be my cactus' only shot at propagating its genetic material.A thousand seeds sounded like a lot, but everywhere I read said to only expect a 20-30% germination rate, and I was sort of thinking, "eh... Amazon cactus seeds... If I get a *few* out of a thousand that's cool..." I guess I must have bought these at the exact moment when they'd be the most viable, because I had about an 85% germination rate. Which is great. Sort of.... I mean, if I ever think "Y'know what I really need? 850 cacti" again, then I will definitely be coming back for another packet.Here's what I did (sorry I don't have humidity stats or exact temps, but humidity was probably like 100% and the temp probably fluctuated from the low 80s during the on-time to the low 70s during the off-time).Sowed on 7/27/13 in Upstate NY, insideHydrofarm heating mat in approx. 12hr on/12 hr off cyclesMedium light in a North facing windowCoir peat, perlite and pumice, coarse sand, finished with a dash of compost for later, moistened, then nuked on high for about 2 min/quart to pasteurize before sowing (then left to cool forever!)I used sterilized plastic pots and assorted other containers (yogurt cups with holes poked in, take away boxes, those plastic cylinders olives from the deli come in) that I then put in individual ziploc bags.I watered the containers from the bottom with distilled water (or with furious spritzing, for the containers that I didn't poke holes in) before sowing, then just misted the surface to stick the seeds in place after I sowed them.The first one or two seeds germinated within 24 hours, approx. 30% of the total that came up were up in 6 days, by 2 weeks about 80% of the sprouting was done, and now (8/30/13) I am still getting one or two stragglers popping up here and there. I'm new at this, and I have had 7 seedlings die in the last two weeks - three "damped off" and the other four shriveled up like raisins. I'm sure I will lose more, because they are all smushed together now too, but that is my fault for not trusting that they'd come up, really, and sowing too close together. I had a little success transplanting them, but there are three in particular that I moved that look a little sad now....Oooh I almost forgot. Since this was sort of an experiment, I tried slightly altering what I was doing in about half of the containers. Generally, they didn't seem to care much one way or the other, but I noticed they were REALLY unhappy with having a dusting of fine sand on top of them (it was MAYBE one millimeter thick in places), which seemed counter intuitive to me, but hey... These trays generally had under half of the seeds come up, and one had no seeds come up (I scraped as much of the sand off as I could with the butt of a pair of steel tweezers, and that seemed to help them a little, though they still aren't as good as the totally not-dusted ones- lurking around 60% after the scraping, and definitely not as vigorous looking). It looks like the sand kind of becomes a hard sheet and the seedlings can't get through it.Anyway, hope that is helpful,Best,AToad

I’ve had good success growing these. I’ve been experimenting and so far have gotten up to about a 50% germination rate. With 1000 seeds that should grow all the cacti you want. You may be able to get higher than 50% germination rate, too.The key seems to be keeping the seeds moist, in addition to giving them plenty of light and warmth. Here’s what I did to grow the ones you see in the pic (these are about 7 days old).First, get some actual cactus potting soil. It goes for about $5 for 8 quarts, which should be all you need. Put it in a container with lots of holes for drainage. It doesn’t need to be all that deep, and in fact you’re wasting soil by making it as deep as you would for typical plants.Give the soil a good soaking, making sure water comes out the bottom. Sprinkle the seeds over the soil, and then press the seeds into the soil with your fingers. Spend some time doing this, as it seems to make a difference. Don’t cover the seeds with soil, since they need light to germinate.Then, take a spray bottle on fine mist and give the seeds a good misting. After that cover your pot/container with clear plastic, and this is important. Note: be sure to leave an inch or two between the soil and the top of the pot/container, so that the cacti have some room to grow while remaining covered.Place the container under a grow light. It’s fine to leave it on 24 hours. Check the temperature of the soil after it’s been under the light for a few hours. Now, I’m just sort of guessing on this, but 80 to 85 seems to be fairly ideal. I don’t think you want to go much higher than about 90, because it’s hard to keep the soil moist at that temp, even when it’s covered with clear plastic.Remove the plastic and moisten the seeds a few times each day. Do it last thing at night and first thing in the morning to prevent the seeds from drying out too much while you sleep, especially if you leave your grow lamp on.From what I can tell, as long as you have good light and warmth, keeping your seeds moist seems to have the biggest effect on germination rate. They seem to be able to dry out fairly easily. Also, having them pressed well into the soil helps with this.If you leave your light on 24 hours you should start to see germination in 2 to 3 days. More seems to follow in waves, over the next 5 to 7 days. Since this mix contains different species, my theory is that these waves of germination represent different species, which germinate more or less quickly than others.After a total of about 10 days, from my experience, everything that’s going to germinate will have. At this point I think it’s a good idea to remove the plastic and let the soil dry out a little, to prevent the roots from rotting. At this point you should have algae growing, as the result of keeping the soil so moist and giving it so much light. Under these conditions roots can start rotting.From this point you basically give these cacti the care you would normal cacti. You can give them frequent waterings, but it’s wise to let the soil dry out in between waterings to prevent root-rot.None of mine have gotten big enough to transplant, but I’ll plan on transplanting mine outside in a few months when they’re 2 to 4” (just a guess).

I planted all the seeds at once in large trays and followed the directions. Had grow lights to simulate long "sunlight". 2 maybe 3 started to sprout and died out. 3 out of the many that was sent. I buy many seeds online for different plants and this is another seller with bad seeds.I don't think any of the seeds were really viable. Pass on this , and pass on the selling.

I can't imagine that all these other reviews are wrong so I'm sure I'm doing something wrong in trying to get these seeds to germinate.First, my first order of these seeds never arrived, so I had to wait an extra shipping period to get a replacement.I've tried to germinate a small batch of these seeds 3 times over the period of weeks. No luck.I have sowed them on a 10x20 seedling flat with drain holes, dropping them on top and lightly pushing them into the soil, around 3-5 seeds per divot. Covered with humidity dome, put on heat mat, and kept in my zipped up little greenhouse module outside in Los Angeles, CA, agro zone 10a-b. Checked on them today and all I got is some fluffy grey mold and green algae growth. Makes me sad. I want to keep trying but I don't yet want to spend money a new packet of seeds. I'm just discouraged :(What am I doing wrong???-UPDATE: 7/27/17: After almost a year and 3 rounds of sowing in the same cells, 30 of my 50 cells have germinated. The main thing I changed was the temp, instead of letting greenhouse temps skyrocket I moved it to the shade. In the picture I attached I pulled out any cells that were barren so you can see 30 remain