Is that generally true of most cacti? I have a Melocactus matanzanus popping fruit too. I picked some of the fruit as soon as it seemed no longer attached to the cephalium. Tried to germinate them without success. Should I have waited?
Too late anyway, when I got home from work I found both the fruits lying alongside the plant in the pot. Should I still let them dry out or do it Faslimy's way? That's how I did the Melocactus seeds. Just squished them out onto a paper towel then rolled them around with my finger to free them from the flesh of the fruit. Let them dry about a week and then tried to germinate them.
Faslimy do you get a pretty good germination rate with your method?
I got my first Epithelantha plant last year and harvested the seeds a few months ago, I'll be sowing them next month probably so I can't say yet sorry.
I'm going to say that, generally as long as that kind of fruit is ready to come off of the plant with little or no resistance, it is ripe. The seeds can be harvested directly out of the still juicy fruit or let it dry. The potential problem with letting it dry is the outer portion of the fruit can rot causing fungal problems with the seed. It's better, I think to get the seeds out and dry ASAP.
I think that I told Franj in an earlier post that my M. matazanus were slow. Even with bottom heat, they waited until the ambient temp went up to germinate. I think I have almost 100% germination. This is from seed that was produced last season over a 5 or 6 month period.
So my advice is, get the seed out of the fruit, it is perfect timing as it fell off on its own. You should be able to germinate them right now.