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US Customs seized and destroyed that shipment and left me a little note.

Seeds they don't like seeds ?? I guess not

Hello! It took a while for me to find some time to sow the next batch, but here are the results!

Batch 5 was sown on April 3.

Purchased from Mesa Garden
Ariocarpus scaphirostris (SB829)
Ariocarpus trigonus 'elongatus'
Copiapoa longistaminea (KK194)
Copiapoa uhligiana (KK1398)
Echinocereus fitchii 'reichenbachii' ssp. bergmannii (L1061)
Gymnocalycium spegazzinii var. recii (JO820)
Lophophora diffusa
Mammillaria lasiacantha (SB1063)
Pyrrhocactus villicumensis (DJF362)
Sclerocactus mesae-verdae (SB1010)
Turbinicarpus pseudomacrochele ssp. minimus (FO259)

Purchased from etsy
Geohintonia mexicana
Gymnocalycium mix (bonus gift)

Every pot has sprouts except A. scaphirostris, both Copiapoas, the Lophophora and the Pyrrhocactus. The Pyrrhocactus actually had 5 seeds germinate within 3 days of sowing but I killed them! My propagation box was getting crowded so I decided to upgrade to a larger one. I figured since the new box was much larger it would be a good idea to add another halogen lamp (2 total!) to properly heat the whole thing. You can probably guess what happened: the seedlings cooked! I lost the newly germinated Pyrrhocactus seedlings along with the Neoporteria reichei f. duripulpa and Mammillaria schumannii v. globosa pots. Thankfully, everything else was unfazed by the heat (except the algae!), though I am beginning to think the seeds that haven't germinated yet may have been cooked too. I will give them one more week before setting them out to dry and trying again. Either way, I've since replaced both halogen lamps with LEDs since temperatures are consistently over 70F during the day.

Here's a few of the seedlings at 2 weeks:

Geohintonia mexicana


Ariocarpus trigonus 'elongatus'


Echinocereus fitchii ssp. bergmannii


Sclerocactus mesae-verdae. I tried chipping half the seeds as shown by the video Steve-0 shared and two of those germinated!

Your seedlings look great! The soil mix, moisture and lighting must be very close to ideal. My first and thus far only attempt at seed grown cacti started in mid September last year and the quickly advanced from covered to open air. Now I'm going to consolidate all into one container and move them to a windowsill before putting them outdoors in the shade.

Hello! Batch 6 was sown on April 10. These are the last of the seeds I have planned to sow this year. I sowed a total of 59 different species, 11 mesembs and 48 cacti (over 1380 seeds!)

Purchased from ADBLPS
Epithelantha bokei (SB416)
Frailea atrobella (VoS08-322)
Gymnocalycium bruchii v. niveum (WR727)
Leuchtenbergia principis v. trachythele
Mammillaria sanchez-mejoradae
Rebutia albidula (RH1098)
Sulcorebutia heliosoides (LH1544)
Weingartia kargliana (M48)

All pots had something germinate within 2 weeks (first time this happened!) Here are a few seedlings at 2 weeks:

Gymnocalycium bruchii v. niveum


Leuchtenbergia principis v. trachythele. Looks like I may have 2 albinos.


Mammillaria sanchez-mejoradae. 4 out of 5 germinated, not too bad!


Weingartia kargliana. Is that a double-headed seedling I see?

Hello! It's been over 3 months since I've sowed Batch 1 (sown Feb. 16) and here are the update pictures!

First the Conophytums. Almost all of the pots have some seedlings with obvious signs of the first true leaves growing!
Conophytum mixed species.


Conophytum bilobum 'brevisectum' (RR1136)


Conophytum calculus ssp. vanzylii (SH434)


Conophytum herreanthus ssp. rex (DH637)


Conophytum ratum. The only pot I can't spot the true leaves growing within the cotyledons. In fact these look a little sickly to me.


Next are the other mesembs. I was surprised to see the true leaves form in only a couple of months after germination!
Cheiridopsis peculiaris (SB770)


Didymaotus lapidiformis. These started growing the true leaves about 2 months after germination.


Dinteranthus vanzylii. These are difficult! I've seen about 10 pop up in these 3 months. Most died within a few weeks of germinating and only 2 are alive now, with 1 of them quickly fading.


Diplosoma retroversum. These were the first to grow their true leaves at 1 month after germinating. Interestingly, these were the last of the mesembs to germinate! These are my favorite mesemb seedlings so far!


Mitrophyllum grande


Lithops gracilidelineata var. waldroniae. 1 of 2 pots (CandD Plants are quite generous with their seeds!)


Since summer is quickly approaching, I may move these in what will be an air conditioned house. Temperatures can rise well over 90F/32C in the middle of summer inside the garage where these are growing now and I doubt the mesemb seedlings will be able to handle it!

Dinteranthus vanzylii. These are difficult! I've seen about 10 pop up in these 3 months. Most died within a few weeks of germinating and only 2 are alive now, with 1 of them quickly fading. "

yes I found if I watered them they died , they have to be kept from drying out but not wet ? Most of my Conophytum seedlings didn't make it through the first summer dormancy. Going through the second one now . Yours look good

I have one Gibbaeum cryptopodium from seed left its growing apparently doesn't go summer dormant .

Thanks keith, here's hoping these conos make it through the summer.

keith wrote: ↑Tue May 25, 2021 9:26 pm I have one Gibbaeum cryptopodium from seed left its growing apparently doesn't go summer dormant .

Oh, I like the stress colors of that Gibbaeum. It looks similar to C maughanii. I don't have any Gibbaeums, so I'll definitely sow some next year!

Here is the 3 month update (well, 3.5 months to be exact) of Batch 2!

Ariocarpus fissuratus


Ariocarpus hintonii


Aztekium ritteri


Discocactus horstii


Ortegocactus macdougallii


Strombocactus disciformis


Only the Discocactus pot has had any damping off going on so I may graft 2 of them and hopefully have a seed producing pair at some point. Perhaps the Strombocactus has had some damping off too, but I never counted them so I don't know for sure. I killed all the Neoporteria reichei f. duripulpa seedlings by cooking them under 2 heat lamps. I did try grafting a few of the firmer seedlings, but they failed. Nothing from the Turbinicarpus jauernigii pot germinated. I have dried and rehydrated it twice, with the most recent rehydration (after a month of drying) occuring a few days ago. Nothing has come up yet.

Because I kept track of germination data, I decided to share some of it. I'll also post data for Batch 1 here.

Turbinicarpus jauernigii huh no germination ? I sprouted a bunch of them years ago they seem easy. Could be luck IDK ?

Strombocactus disciformis I tried these nothing came up . However your seedlings all look really well grown

Because I don't use plastic anymore my seedlings get stressed and often have a check in growth but they do grow tremendous roots .

I also pretty much have run out of room .

Thanks keith!
I have set the T. jauernigii pot to dry (again) since the seeds still look viable (as in they haven't grown mold). Hopefully something pops up!

I was planning on doing a 3 month update for every batch, but time slipped away from me so it'll have to be a 4 month update now.

Batch 3, sowed 4 months ago.

Copiapoa lembckei (KK70). This pot suffered fungal attack (the only one in all the batches, thankfully) and I lost 7 other seedlings. I'm really liking that extra woolly seedling in the middle!


Coryphantha echidnoidea 'schwarziana'. Lots of algae. The seedlings don't seem to mind.


Echinocactus horizonthalonius (SNL94). These blue, chubby little guys are my favorite of the group. I wonder what's going on with that round one on the left. It almost looks like the stem is growing inside the cotyledons?


Gymnocalycium schickendantzii (P17A). These are actually a couple weeks old. I dried and rehydrated this pot twice before anything popped up. It's been a month since I last rehydrated the pot, but nothing else is popping up.


Lobivia haematantha v. rebutioides (R585A). Only 3 seeds germinated. I grafted one seedling that looked sick (orange-rust color at the base).


Mammillaria pectinifera. I bought these out of curiosity since the picture Mesa has for these (https://mesagarden.com/product/mammilla ... nifera-827) doesn't look anything like the M. pectinifera I know. I did some light research and didn't find anything about another Mammillaria having been described as "Mammillaria pectinifera", other than Mammillaria solisioides of course. If anyone knows what's up, please do tell! Anyway, I like the pink spines of the cactus shown on the listing, so if mine turn out looking like that I won't be disappointed!


Pediocactus knowltonii (SB304). I grafted one sick looking seedling and removed the remaining seeds since they molded over.


Pelecyphora strobiliformis.


Turbinicarpus booleanus.


Turbinicarpus schmiedickeanus v. flaviflorus.


Here is some germination data. As you can see, germination was pretty low for this batch. I lost the only Sclerocactus papyracanthus seedling that germinated about 2 weeks ago. It probably damped off from being inside a closed bag with dead seeds that molded over. I have started opening the bags of this batch to avoid more damping off. The Turbinicarpus valdezianus v. albiflorus (SB205) pot only had 1 seedling germinate that promptly died and nothing has popped up since. I've done 2 cycles of drying and rehydrating to no avail. Since the seeds haven't molded over, I will keep trying.

Mammillaria pectinifera. I bought these out of curiosity since the picture Mesa has for these (https://mesagarden.com/product/mammilla ... nifera-827) doesn't look anything like the M. pectinifera I know."

the picture its wrong . Your seedlings look very good .

That's reassuring keith, thanks!

Here's an update for Batch 4, sown over 4 months ago.

Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus v. macdowellii.


Blossfeldia liliputana (RH2054b). At one point I had 16 seedlings but they've steadily been damping off and now there is only 5 left.


Frailea cataphracta v. duchii CS 668.1 334 (OR). These guys were stretching, so I placed them in brighter light and have since turned this super bright pink that didn't come through very well in the picture. Since there is a hint of green on the tops, I will be leaving them in the brighter light.


Lobivia famatinensis v. bonnieae.


Mammillaria saboae ssp. haudeana. I was surprised by how massive this seedling is, about 3cm in height and just under 1cm in diameter. I'm not sure if the height is due to etiolation, so I don't know if I should place this outside in stronger light. I'll probably need to repot this soon, since the container it's in now is rather shallow.


Mammillaria schumannii v. globosa. This pot was one from the group of seedlings I killed with too much heat. I managed to save 2 seedlings from this pot by grafting them. I dried and rehydrated it over a month ago. The second batch of seedlings that came up took longer to germinate than the first batch (14 days vs. 10 days).


Yavia cryptocarpa.

I'm pleased with the results of this batch so far, but I was hoping to get at least 2 seedlings of Mammillaria saboae ssp. haudeana. The majority of the seeds molded over and I discarded them. It seems rather pointless to graft the single seedling I do have so I'll be leaving it on it's own roots and hope for the best.

Did you sow the haudeana seeds directly or treated them with acid?