Opuntia Microdasys v.Albispina failure?

[Bat 'n' Ball]

Hi all,

If anyone is still following this thread, here's an updated picture of the little guy that I've been taking care of.

For a better idea of scale, the cactus is about 12-13mm from the base of the seed leaves to the top.

As tiny and fragile as it is, I took the decision to repot it this morning because I thought the soil it was in was quite dense, and was maybe not good for its growth.

I very carefully handled it by one of those seed leaves, held the roots under a dripping tap to clean it of the old soil. It's now in a small clay pot with a much less dense cactus potting mix and coconut coir. The root, incidentally, was about 30mm long.

Out of 20 seeds, this is the only one which grew. I have another 6 seeds which, as an experiment, I stratified for around 6 months in the fridge. They are now in a propagator so I'll see how I go with those.

Incidentally, the glochids have a red hue to them (which doesn't come across in the pictures too well), which is a pleasant surprise because I actually wanted 'Cinnamon Bunny Ears' seeds but couldn't find them anywhere!! The glochids on the eBay listing were definitely white.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/234549341015

Hopefully the early repotting of this tiny plant won't stress it too much..

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[greenknight]

Opuntia seedlings are tough, no need to worry.

[Bat 'n' Ball]

Opuntia seedlings are tough, no need to worry.

[jerrytheplater]

A friend just gave me three fruits of an O. humifusa from which I extracted the seeds.

Paul: were your seeds old when you sowed them? Tom in Tucson said to use one year old seed when sowing.

Latebloomer asked if anyone had chipped the seed before sowing. I'm thinking that might be a good idea seeing how hard the seed is. I'm kind of wondering if our Eastern Box Turtles eat that Opuntia fruit and scarify it as it passes through the digestive system. Just searched a Box Turtle site and they say the pads and fruit are good for them (it says to remove the spines first, but methinks if they are eating them in our woods they are eating them with the glochids just fine.)

Spence's video link comments had someone say to soak the seeds in Lemon juice before sowing. I'd say that is a kind of a scarification process simulating a digestive cycle.