Germination

[RichR]

I have some seeds of Echinocereus, Mammillaria, Astrophytum, and Escobaria that I planted 6 weeks ago that haven't germinated. Should I assume they never will at this point? They may have gotten up over 100F inside their zipper bags, although there were many others from that sowing that did germinate. I used C&D's method of using Physan and Chinosol after microwaving the soil so I don't think there is anything going on with fungus or bacteria.

[Aloinopsis]

How old were they?

[RichR]

Anywhere from a couple of months to a year. They were from Mesa Garden and SuccSeed.

[jellycacti]

I can't speak for your seeds specifically, but I've had fresh seed that only germinated after three months in the bag, and right after we had a 115°F day, so it's always possible that some of those seeds are waiting for a particular growing condition to get started.

[supergodzilla]

Can't speak for all of those genera, but Astrophytum will usually start germinating within days. If they haven't come up in six weeds, I'd expect that the seeds aren't any good.

[keith]

Dry them out and try again sometimes that works.

[RichR]

Okay, thanks for the suggestions.

[Theral]

I bought a large batch of seeds from SuccSeed around the same time and two different species never germinated at all. All the others are growing like mad, so I think sometimes it's just kind of hit and miss. They may have been a little older since I bought them near the end of the year.

I'm going to try drying out the cells that never germinated and give it another shot, maybe that will work for you?