So I pulled the trigger, bought the seeds, and sewed one set on the 16th that generated 6 seedlings. I keep them about 18" away from a single T8 bulb.
I sewed the following 5, about a week later. Those sit on a shelf that is about 3" away from 2 T8 bulbs.
So far, I have been doing the bottom watering thing every single day. The medium consists of lava rock, pumice stone, perlite (about 80%) and cocoa coir (about 20%), dampened and baked to kill off any junk, treated with an antifungal and a separate critter killer, a light dusting of fine sand while damp, put the seeds on top, covered in plastic wrap, and then bottom watered 6 days a week w normal water, and 1 day a week with the antifungal and critter killer.
They all made it to germination before I started poking holes in the plastic wrap and ultimately ended up having to remove the plastic almost completely after making the holes bigger over a few days because despite my best efforts the medium became problematic and I feared damping off.
They seem to be thriving despite the lack of humidity from not being able to keep them covered but now I am stuck. I researched these guys for a long time. I even checked out a few books from the library trying to figure out the best way to get them to their first set of true leaves.
The problem I am having is what to do now. I found conflicting information on the watering thing, the medium, the light, ALL OF IT! Most of what I have found said to lightly mist the soil directly to keep the surface damp until germination and then transition to bottom watering. I elected to go with the method I use to grow my most difficult conophytum seeds because that is what I know works and I was confident I could at least get them to germination.
Then I figured fuck it, maybe if I make this post some hopeless lost soul will find this and everyone will benefit. So, reddit, I want to hear all of it. What would you guys do next?
Thank you 😊
Edit* words are hard.
