What to do with Mammillaria seed pods

[catlady]

My M. fraileana has been flowering like it's going out of style, and I now have several seed pods, two of which are long and bright red and have been for a couple of weeks now, and the rest of which are in various stages of getting to long and bright red. What do I do with them? Do I leave them on the plant until they fall off? Do I pull them off and dry them out? I'm not prepared for this!

[greenknight]

Enjoy them! They last for a long time on the plant. You should leave them on the plant until they're completely overripe, when they start to shrivel you can pull them off and dry them.

[catlady]

Awesome, thank you. They are pretty cool looking. I wasn't expecting anything to have fruit, at least not so soon!

[promethean_spark]

Once they're ripe, they're ripe and just waiting for a bird to eat them and deposit the seed somewhere else. Usually I slice them open with a razor blade and pick out the seed (easier than with a dry fruit), and then you can try tasting the fruit too - some are quite good.

[adetheproducer]

Once they're ripe, they're ripe and just waiting for a bird to eat them and deposit the seed somewhere else. Usually I slice them open with a razor blade and pick out the seed (easier than with a dry fruit), and then you can try tasting the fruit too - some are quite good.

Funny enough I was picking the seeds out of some Epithelantha micromeris pods and some where frest so I eat them. Quite sweet.

[LophoFan]

I had some lophophora fruits with my breakfast this morning! I wait til they just start getting squishy but still a bit firm then I pick them and carefully separate the seeds without destroying the fruit. Then I eat them. Loph seeds are easy to pull out of the fruit though, not sure how it is with mammillaria. Super tastey loph fruits are!

[cjbaker]

I was eating a Gymnocalycium chiquitanum fruit the other day and thinking it would make a good jam. The taste and color are good, and I would guess they're high in pectin. Has anyone tried that?

[HP22B]

I had some lophophora fruits with my breakfast this morning! I wait til they just start getting squishy but still a bit firm then I pick them and carefully separate the seeds without destroying the fruit. Then I eat them. Loph seeds are easy to pull out of the fruit though, not sure how it is with mammillaria. Super tastey loph fruits are!

Just out of curiosity what's the alkaloid content like in Lophophora fruit?

[adetheproducer]

Very low I would think, there seems to be little point expending those essensial molecules in a part of the plant designed to be removed. Also they have a bitter taste the fruit would need to be sweet to attract distributors. More sugars should be preset.

[Aiko]

Funny enough I was picking the seeds out of some Epithelantha micromeris pods and some where frest so I eat them. Quite sweet.

I had a taste this morning too. Not so sweet at all with my plant. Maybe it depends on the time and warmth (as the smell of flowers)?

Had a taste of some sugary secretion of one of my Haworthia flowers. Tastes like maple syrup!