Shane's seed sowing

[Edwindwianto]

Leuchtenbergia principis

Congrats Shane
How many seedlings do you see?

[Shane]

Congrats Shane
How many seedlings do you see?

Just one so far. I'm sure there will be more though

[Sarraceniacrazy]

Congratulations on the germination! Always makes me super happy to see my seeds actually germinate. My adfiction to germing seeds has gotten out of hand a lil. 110 different species in bags atm. I dont know what im going to do with them all.

[Edwindwianto]

Just one so far. I'm sure there will be more though

Nice...good luck Shane

[Shane]

Congratulations on the germination! Always makes me super happy to see my seeds actually germinate. My adfiction to germing seeds has gotten out of hand a lil. 110 different species in bags atm. I dont know what im going to do with them all.

Agreed on everything you said. It's so cool to see the seeds actually germinate, because no matter how fast or slow it is, it always seems to come after I start I start to wonder if they'll really germinate. I've also been wondering what I'll do with all mine. I always said they grow so slowly I wouldn't have to worry about it for a while, but I'm starting to see the day coming when they'll be taking up a lot more space than they are now

[Shane]

Update:
I sowed some more cactus seeds March 2nd. They are:

Rhipsalis mix
Astrophytum mix
Cipocereus minensis
Oreocereus mix
Corryocactus squarrosus
Turbinicarpus valdezianus 'Albiflorus'

I'm especially excited for several of these. I'm looking forward to watching the Rhipsalis grow, as few people seem to grow them from seed I'm not 100% sure what to expect. I'm excited for the Cipocereus too. I'd wanted one for a while because of the cool looking blue fruit. And it's a cactus most people don't have which is also cool. I'm also pretty excited for the Turbinicarpus, people have been posting some nice pictures of them recently

Got my heat mat set up yesterday. Put all the newly sown seed pots on it, as well as M. spinosissima 'Un Pico', L. principis and Cleistocactus samaipatanus*. I'm hoping to improve germination in those three as I have had limited success so far. I'm not sure which of the species I planted actually need the heat, but it's only set to 80 F so I don't think there's harm in putting them all there until I can do some research

The result of the Schlumbergera graft trial was 4 successes and four failures. I regrafted two of the failed scions today. I'm wrapping in plastic instead of using a humidity chamber this time. I didn't seem to be able to maintain humidity consistently for successful fusion (but the humidity was good enough for some fungus growth )

Another note here. I transplanted my M. grahamii from my original seed sowing from sand:oops: into a soil mix last month. I transferred a number of non germinated seeds from the original pot too. Low and behold, the seeds are germinating well (though I've lost most of the original plants to damping off / the shock of being transplanted). Everyone says don't give up on seeds, I'm glad I listened

I also grafted the chlorophyll lacking Stenocereus on Pereskiopsis yesterday. My hopes aren't very high for it as it didn't seem healthy, but you never know

Here's the new complete list of my cactus seed sowing so far this year. Bold indicates germination

Echinocactus grusonii- 80%+ germination
Mammillaria spinosissima 'Un Pico'
Ferocactus wislizeni- Sowed for grafting experiments. Eight grafted to Schlumbergera 2/22/2020. Four fused
Mammillaria grahamii- good, lingering, germination
Cylindropuntia imbricata one germination on March 1st
Cleistocactus samaipatanus 30% germination
Stenocereus pruinosus- 100% germination
Submatucana madisoniorum 'Asterium'- 100% germination
Leuchtenbergia principis 10% germination
Pilosocereus leucocephalus- 85% germination
Rhipsalis mix
Astrophytum mix
Cipocereus minensis
Oreocereus mix
Corryocactus squarrosus
Turbinicarpus valdezianus 'Albiflorus'


*I previously called this plant "Bolivicereus samaipatanus" because I lazily copy pasted the name from the seed seller's site. I'm going to go with the accepted name, Cleistocactus samaipatanus, instead. Bolivicereus seems to be somewhat obscure as a (would-be) genus and I think calling it Cleistocactus will be less likely to cause confusion

[Shane]

Time for another update

Here's the new complete list of my seed sowing so far this year. Bold indicates germination
Astrophytum mix- 15% germination
Bowiea volubilis
Cipocereus minensis
Cleistocactus samaipatanus- 30% germination
Corryocactus squarrosus
Cylindropuntia imbricata- one germination on March 1st
Echinocactus grusonii- 80%+ germination
Ferocactus wislizeni- Sowed for grafting experiments. Eight grafted to Schlumbergera 2/22/2020. Four fused
Leuchtenbergia principis- 10% germination
Lithops mix- 40% germination
Mammillaria grahamii- good, lingering, germination
Mammillaria spinosissima 'Un Pico'
Oreocereus mix- 80% germination
Pilosocereus leucocephalus- 85% germination
Rhipsalis mix
Stenocereus pruinosus- 100% germination
Matucana madisoniorum 'Asterium'- 100% germination
Turbinicarpus valdezianus 'Albiflorus'- 100% germination

And now for some pictures:

Leuchtenbergia.jpg (32.14 KiB) Viewed 1781 times

Leuchtenbergia starting to grow tubercles

Pilosocereus.jpg (46.48 KiB) Viewed 1781 times

P. Leucocephalus growing well. Seeds from my own plant

Stenocereus.jpg (63.03 KiB) Viewed 1781 times

Another fast grower, Stenocereus pruinosus

Mammillaria grahamii.jpg (53.07 KiB) Viewed 1781 times

M. grahamii being attacked by some kind of slime

Repot.jpg (125.89 KiB) Viewed 1781 times

Repotted several seedlings that had been growing together (sowed last year). Clockwise from bottom left: Ferocactus wislizeni, Neobuxbaumia polylopha, Neobuxbaumia polylopha, unknown cactus seedling I found growing in a houseplant. Have not idea what the origin is. Don't think it's from any of my plants

Cucurbita foetidissima.jpg (100.65 KiB) Viewed 1781 times

A caudiciform gourd native to the US southwest (albeit a caudiciform that can't live with its root exposed). If Dioscoria can be considered to be a succulent, so can this. I will die on this hill

Turbinicarpus.jpg (55.52 KiB) Viewed 1781 times

Very good germination of T. valdezianus. Thanks to Aiko for the seed (among several other seeds on this list!)

[Aiko]

You have a 100% germination for the Turbinicarpus? That is high!

[Shane]

You have a 100% germination for the Turbinicarpus? That is high!

I'm counting through the plastic bag, so my count is maybe +/- 10% (I planted 23 and several recounts later I have 20-23 seedlings). I was counting on lower germination when I planted all of them in a small pot... I really can't complain though

I treated them with a bleach solution before sowing, maybe that helped?

[Shane]

I put my Setiechinopsis outside today. Some grew quite a bit of moss in the bags. They're definitely not as far along as 13 mo old seedlings should be, but they were part of my very first planting and I made a lot of mistakes

[CactiJim]

Digging the post man.