Growing Ortegocactus macdougallii from seed

[The_Nikon_Guy]

Hi Everyone,
Thought I would post a photo of my 3 beautiful Ortegocactus macdougallii seedlings. Bought 15 seed from a supplier and sowed them on 10-Jun-2019. Out of the 12 that germinated, only 3 have made it to this stage.
Germination Temperature: 23-26 Deg C
Lighting requirement: ~3000 Lux. Too much light turns them shades of red when they are very young. After about 6 months, I transplanted the 3 remaining seedlings into an inorganic gritty mix and kept them along with the other mature cacti - full sun for about 3-4 hours each day. They seem to be thriving.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you'll might have.

IMG_20200518_092241.jpg (158.12 KiB) Viewed 1094 times

[The_Nikon_Guy]

Photos with more detail (zoomed in...)

ortego_detail_02.JPG (79.72 KiB) Viewed 1077 times

ortego_detail_01.JPG (62.33 KiB) Viewed 1077 times

[Aloinopsis]

They look good! I have some that are about 3 months younger than yours and I have not yet taken them out of the humidity.

Some of mine have also become retarded like your smallest one while others grow much faster like the other two.

[The_Nikon_Guy]

They look good! I have some that are about 3 months younger than yours and I have not yet taken them out of the humidity.

Some of mine have also become retarded like your smallest one while others grow much faster like the other two.

I was wondering about the smaller one with retarded growth - I tried searching for more articles on this, but couldn't find any.
Also notice its a slightly brighter lime green colour (atypical of Ortegos).
I'm hope its grows larger an I'm hoping its some sort of genetic aberration

[The_Nikon_Guy]

They look good! I have some that are about 3 months younger than yours and I have not yet taken them out of the humidity.

Some of mine have also become retarded like your smallest one while others grow much faster like the other two.

Thanks for your compliments - are you in a position to post some photos?
Also, I removed them from humidity after about 5 months - not sure if that's what killed off a few more.
I currently have about 12 Aztekium hintoniii and riterrii sitting in a humid container going on close to a 11 months now.
I intend to keep them in that environment for a full 2 years. I feed them a diluted 20-20-20 liquid fert about every 3-4 weeks.