Outsidepride Mix 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, inside Hydrofarm heating mat in approx. 12hr on/12 hr off cycles Medium light in a North facing window Coir 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).

Do not order these. They will not grow and it is impossible to return them so they cannot issue a credit. Waste of money.

Well I dont believe there were 1,000 pieces but there were at least 3 different seeds. I planted them in miracle gro cactus soil

I love these seeds, I have had great success with them! I planted my first batch of seeds on May 24th, very many of the seeds have germinated. It seems like the teeny tiny black seeds are always the first to germinate in every one of the containers I've set up. After a while some of the other kinds of seeds started to germinate as well. At this point I've planted all of the seeds. And all of my containers are full of odd looking little sprouts. They don't quite look like what you'd imagine, but judging by other reviewers photos it looks like over time they will start to take the shape of a cactus more so. I used cactus soil for germinating my seeds in. I watched a video with instructions on how to plant the seeds, it recommended that you sprinkle them on top of the soil and do not cover them with soil at all. I used a small black tray that was originally a takeout container. I put many holes in the bottom for drainage. I set the tray inside of a larger tray of water and let it soak up the water from the drainage holes for half an hour. After that I took it out and let the excess water drain out of the bottom. Once all that was set up I put the seeds inside of a large plastic bag. I would recommend you fill the bag with air a bit so that way your cacti don't touch the bag when they start to get big.

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

I got a bad experience with a seed mix that i buy in my country that didn't sprout at all maybe 20 of 3000 seed but this seed mix is excellent. After only 2 days of been planted they began to sprout it was really a big joy and now a week i got like 50-60 mini cacti. i will explain the process how i planted these seeds. First i leave the seed in water for 24 hour so the seed will gain some water Second is the mix of black soil with sand 50-50 in an transparent plastic vessel with a top i put it in the microwave for 7 minutes to kill anything that is there or buy cacti soil if they sell it at your country, i leave it to rest and add like 1/3 of clean water so the soil will be humid when i plant the seeds. Third i plant the seed and press it a little bit in the wet soil (no bury then just press) put the transparent top of the plastic vessel and put it a place that the sun give light 4-or more hour a day, remember every week to open the top so the seed will get some fresh air and if there is no good sun light buy an artificial light. the good thing is you do not need water this land for 2 months. update i got 350-400 cactis Tuve una mala experiencia con una mezcla de semillas que compre en mi país ya que no brotaron en absoluto tal vez 20 de 3000 semillas, pero esta mezcla de semillas es excelente. Después de sólo 2 días de haberlas plantado comenzaron a brotar en realidad fue una gran alegría y ahora una semana me dieron como 50-60 Mini cactus. voy a explicar el proceso de cómo planté estas semillas . Primero dejo la semilla en agua durante 24 horas para que semilla ganen un poco de agua En segundo lugar es la mezcla de tierra negra con arena 50-50 en un recipiente de plástico transparente con una tapa que puse en el microondas durante 7 minutos para matar cualquier cosa que está ahí o comprar suelo cactus si lo venden en su país, lo dejo para descansar y añadir como 1/3 de agua limpia por lo que el suelo este húmedo cuando plante las semillas. En tercer lugar planta la semilla y presiono un poco en el suelo húmedo (sin enterrar, sólo presionar ) puse la tapa transparente del vasija de plástico y lo puse en un lugar que el sol da luz de 4 o más horas al día, recuerdo cada semana para abrir la parte superior para que las semillas tomen un poco de aire fresco y si no hay luz del sol bueno compra una luz artificial. lo bueno es que no necesitará regar esta tierra durante 2 meses.

I was worried when I first got this, I had never grown cacti from seed and it seemed rather daunting, but the reviews had good information in them so I bought these seeds. They shipped in the right amount of days and arrived in good condition. In the packet there are lots of little black seeds and a few that look like pepper seeds. I sowed about four fifths of the seeds and got well over one hundred cute little sprouts to my surprise. Planting instructions: I don't have a special heating pad or humidifier or anything like that and my house is around 75-80 degrees, so don't worry if you aren't a master gardener with hundred of dollars worth of supplies and you still want to plant these. All I did was I took three plastic, circular takeout containers from the Chinese restaurant (they still had sesame chicken sauce on them) that were about 3 inches in radius and two inches tall, you can probably substitute some shallow tupperware for them. I filled them with three kinds of soil, just because 1000 seeds is a lot, this seemed like a good time to experiment and find the best way to grow them. One had miracle grow cacti mix in it, another had the cacti mix with about a millimeter of sand on top (the sand under the seeds, not on top of them), and the last had my own cacti soil mix that was about one third of each sand, perlite, and soil. The seedling grew best in the miracle grow sand mixture, then the miracle grow mixture, then my own mixture. I sprinkled the seeds over the top and misted it heavily, then I put on the top of the container and set it in a sunny spot. The seeds germinated in the first week and are still looking happy a month later. The only bad thing about the mixture is that there are maybe seven distinct varieties of cacti in there, or at least that's what it looks like at this point, lots of plants look the same at the beginning though. I am very happy with this purchase and I suggest it to anyone who's interested in cacti-its very rewarding and they already have the first couple of baby spines on them and there's so many they're starting to crowd each other out and I still have seeds left over!