It’s been nearly 3 months since these were sown. I need guidance on what comes next.
Someone online states that after 3-4 months, they dry them out until the first leaves have dried to a skin, then resume watering for the next 7 ish months. They say by doing this, you can get multi-headed clusters very quickly.
My only concern — are mine big enough to survive drying out yet? I’ve been fertilizing but growth seems to have leveled off in the last couple weeks.
by Novel_Lie5519
2 Comments
I’m not sure why drying out the cotyledons would make them cluster more????? That’s a bit weird of reasoning lol.
Clustering can be species specific… my ectypums almost always cluster after their 2nd leaf change. Burgeri will most likely not.
Re: watering. They def look like they can dry out a bit! But you also don’t have any algae or other obvious reasons where drying out would be more beneficial. Until their second leaf change my routine is to try to keep them moist as long as they aren’t cracking or getting blisters from edema (signs of over watering), and as long as algae isn’t growing. But they can handle drying out for a day or so between waterings. Learn the signs of thirst.. their skin loses gloss, sometimes there’s subtle wrinkles, wrinkles are more obvious in true leaves and not cotyledons, and you can also very gently prod the leaf with the tip of your finger and feel how turgid they are watered vs when thirsty. I tend to bottom water, then mist them and light waterings until they need the next big soak. Keep this balance of moisture vs algae until about their second leaf change. That’s when I start to cut back on fertilizing them and allowing to dry out more. They should be a year or so by 2nd leaf change and start watering them as adults for the most part. Hopefully that helps!
What’s your germination soil mix look like?