What to do with the Fruit of Mammillaria karwinskiana ssp nejapensis

[WayneByerly]

Last Nobember I had a Mammillaria karwinskiana ssp nejapensis flower. With smallish flowers (maybe a half inch wide). This year, in June, it has fruited, overnight sprouting red fruit maybe 1 inch long and less than a quarter inch wide. I removed one, just to see what it's contents looked like. Very, VERY small seeds of a reddish color, in a very wet environment.

Side View Before Flowering

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In Flower

2017-04-14 DSCF7664 (1).jpg (220.8 KiB) Viewed 2283 times

Now I am curious as to what I need to do with the "fruit" in order to insure viable seeds. Should I just leave the fruit alone, and wait for the seeds inside to mature? Will they dry out soon? Will the seeds in the fruit get bigger?

DSCF7766.jpg (203.35 KiB) Viewed 2283 times

[greenknight]

Leave them on the plant until they're totally overripe and start to shrivel. If they're not pollinated, they'll just shrink away to nothing.

I don't know if this species is self-fertile - many won't set seed without a pollinator, but may still produce fruit.

[WayneByerly]

Thanks for the reply. I'll let the fruit dry out and then open them up and see if any will Sprout. If any will Sprout, you will be welcome to some of them if you want.

[greenknight]

You don't have to let them dry up - that works well with a lot of cacti, but I hear Mammillaria seeds are more difficult to separate then.