T. polaskii fruiting behavior

[Steve Johnson]

Got a question for y'all. Although I've seen plenty of flowers from my Turbinicarpus polaskii "family", I never expected to actually see fruits out of it. Well, here's a first -- 2 of the polaskiis flowering at the same time on Memorial Day weekend:



Then they pollinated each other -- yep, those are fruits:



From flowers to fruit in less than 2 weeks -- is that some sort of cactus record? Anyway, when I pluck out the fruits for "harvesting", I'll photograph the fruits and the seeds. I don't want to be premature if the seeds aren't viable yet, so does anyone know whether or not they are? If not, I'd appreciate some advice on how long I should keep the fruits on those fertile polaskiis of mine before they're ready for my tiny harvest.

Thanks!

[TimN]

They are usually ready when a gentle nudge with a tweezer or something dislodges them. Most of these Turbis also split the fruit when the seeds are ready.

I don't know at what point the seeds are viable. I generally leave them until the fruit falls off.

Great looking plants you have there!

[CactusFanDan]

A number of (perhaps all?) Turbinicarpus fruits dehisce, or split, down the side of the fruit when they are ripe, usually spilling the seeds down the plant. That's why you might often see old plants with a number of babies at their base. As Tim said, give them a poke and if the fruit dislodges easily then it'll likely be ripe.

[Steve Johnson]

A number of (perhaps all?) Turbinicarpus fruits dehisce, or split, down the side of the fruit when they are ripe, usually spilling the seeds down the plant. That's why you might often see old plants with a number of babies at their base. As Tim said, give them a poke and if the fruit dislodges easily then it'll likely be ripe.

Okay, that would explain how I got 3 of those polaskii seedlings to begin with. Here's what started it all -- an old polaskii that came to me from the California Cactus Center in Pasadena 2 years ago:



Then the poor old thing pranged about 3 months later due to orange rot:



At least the seedlings survived, and those are the "babies" that went with my polaskii from CoronaCactus in April of last year. The family does seem to be doing pretty well, doesn't it? By the way -- I just checked on the fruits, and they're not ready to let go yet. In case anyone would like to see polaskii fruit and seed photos, I'll post 'em up when the time comes.