Seedlings stopped growing.

[Tony R]

The forum page shrank my photos.

A TIP - if you highlight the link at the bottom of each photo by moving your mouse to give white text and then do a right click and Open Link in New Tab, you will get the full-size photo.

[SimonT]

Thanks Tony, that's a good tip!

The first thing I do when I want to grow a new type of plant from seed is to get hold of a mature plant (even a related species)
and then work out the best conditions to grow this plant (compost, light, humidity etc). I wouldn't put the plant
in a seed raising area to avoid spreading pests but otherwise optimise as far as possible. Working all this out first makes the seed raising
a lot easier because you know if you can get the seedlings into the 'optimised conditions' then they'll start to thrive.
The you just have to worry about germination and getting the seedlings big enough to be transferred to the best growing conditions.

I grow in baggies and although I find that the compost mix and treatment I use inhibits fungi, I find if I leave seedlings in the bags too
long then they sometimes stop growing, look sick, and then they are hard to recover. Advice of how long to leave in bags seems to vary quite a bit and also depends upon what you grow eg some people leave cacti a full year in bags while many people take mesems out soon after germination. But you have to fine-tune this for your own conditions and what you are growing. If plants come out of the bags and they're looking sick, for me feeding dilute fertiliser recovers them usually, but it can take months and months before they start growing properly again. So I try to get the plants out of the bags as soon as they are large enough and while they are still growing well to avoid these issues. The slower growing cacti for me are the trickiest- it is a bit of a risk but I leave those in bags for a long time and give the occasional feed with dilute fertiliser. I don't use fungicide so I try as best I can to avoid introducing fungi.

Hope this helps!

[Tina]

Hi
I find with succulents an open bag works well so they have greater humidity but with some air they don't rot.
My kumara plicatilis seedlings, its easy to give them a quick spray if they need it.
Cacti I leave in the bag for ages even years.