My babies are growing up!

I sowed somewhere around 1400 cacti seeds on Feb. 8, 2025. It had been around 15-20 years since I last did it before that.

The seeds were old (bought in 2020), so I didn’t even know if any of them would germinate. Unfortunately, mental health kept me from doing a lot of things that I enjoy. But I eventually got to a spot where I felt I could put energy into a project like this.

These are the ones that came up that are still alive.
Two weeks ago I opened their containers for the first time since sowing the seeds. Over the last two weeks I have slid the lids more and more to the side. Today I took the lids off altogether and gave them all a good watering with some aquarium water.

I must say, I am particularly fond of the crested specimen. That one is a Cereus peruvianus.
So far they have been grown under Mother grow lights that I got for a bargain at a garage sale.

Now the plan is to acclimate them to my stronger VIPARSPECTRA XS3000 PRO 300W grow lights. I think I will get some window screen to put over them. Maybe 4 layers? Then remove a layer every week until they are under full strength grow light.

Then, I will work on starting to get them out of the food storage containers and into pots with drainage, more space, and a different substrate.

I think my usual potting mix will still be too chunky/airy for these babies, so I will get some smaller pumice (need to decide what size) and use my normal 80/20 pumice/peat with a dash of 270 day nutricote and a sprinkle of Starkle G.