Harvesting Echinocereus rigidissimus v. rubispinus seeds

[Ozgur]

Hi folks,

After ~15 years of raising E. rigidissimus, I finally had some seedpods form after my plants flowered. I have a question regarding harvesting the seeds: Should I wait for these flowers fall and pods open themselves or am I supposed to cut the pods off the plant and open them myself?

Please look at the photo: I removed one already (circled area) cut it in half and it is indeed full of seeds but not sure if they will germinate. Will appreciate any advice.

Thank you.

[MikeInOz]

Definitely wait until they're ripe. Beginning to split or melt away. Protect from mice and rats!!

[Ozgur]

Thank you MikeInOz.

[A_G_R]

Protect from mice and rats!!

And ants! Here in Tucson they take the seeds and leave a sort of exoskeleton formed by the spines

[Ozgur]

Thank you Alejandro, I'm in Dallas, TX and will keep an eye on the ants as well.

[Ozgur]

Just wanted to provide an update here in case anybody else searches for this issue and ask a question:

I saw some of those pods were cracked open so I harvested them by scooping them out.

E. rig. cracked 1.jpg (24.31 KiB) Viewed 3485 times

E. rig. cracked 2.jpg (24.84 KiB) Viewed 3485 times

E. rig. scooped 1.jpg (28.86 KiB) Viewed 3485 times

E. rig. scooped 2.jpg (28.14 KiB) Viewed 3485 times

My question is, are the seeds I collected ready to be planted or should I wait for them to completely dry out?

seeds.jpg (14.25 KiB) Viewed 3485 times

Thanks in advance!

[keith]

you should rinse the seeds of any pulp before you plant them to avoid fungus problems

[Ozgur]

Thank you Keith - haven't thought about it.