Seedling photos

All about seed grown plants. How-to information, progress reports, show of your results.
peterb
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Seedling photos

Post by peterb »

I recently shipped off about 300 seedlings to forum members Darryl and Jen for them to grow on and sell through CoronaCactus, but of course kept some for myself. The cool thing about growing from seed is the great abundance of plants one ends up with, even if a lot of stuff rots, fries, or otherwise expires. :-) It's also a fairly painless way to grow some plants you just can't buy anywhere.

Not sure if I'll do a sowing this year as we are moving at the end of June, but here's some from the past two years. I learn something new every time I do this. I highly recommend seed growing! It's one of my favorite parts of the hobby.

These are all 2 years or 1 yr. 9 mos.:
Echinocereus waldeisii, a tuberous-rooted Wilcoxia type first described back in the '90s and then lumped completely erroneously into poselgeri:
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Peniocereus greggii from the Peloncillo Mountains, very red but fairly robust:
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Long, leggy, lanky Wilcoxia albiflora (Echinocereus leucanthus)
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Mammillaria cerralboa, great spine colors:
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Mammillaria tayloriorum:
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Echinocereus maritimus:
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Echinomastus acunensis:
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Mammillaria tetrancistra (very touchy from seed! really needs to be dry a lot of the year, but loves winter moisture with cool temps and quick drying soil)
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Fouqueria diguettii, "Palo Adan," seems very slow in the Phoenix climate, in a pot anyway. This is the growing season, through June or so:
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Echinomastus unguispinus:
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Echinomastus intertextus:
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Astrophytum coahuilense:
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Astrophytum myriostigma columnaris:
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Echinofossulocactus multicostatus:
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Closer view of the wildy tuberculate E. multicostatus (this is the true form and will eventually have probably more than 100 ribs):
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Astrophytum capricorne crassispinoides, wild cat whisker spines:
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Echinomastus warnockii:
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These are all 9 months old, from last Feb:
Astrophytum capricorne senile, my plant seems to have selfed:
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Echinomastus johnsonii lutescens:
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Echinomastus acunensis:
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A couple of views of Echinocactus parryi:
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Ancistrocactus tobuschii:
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Coryphantha robustispina robustispina:
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Mam tetrancistra:
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Echinomastus erectocentrus:
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Echinocactus polycephalus Inyo County:
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E. polycephalus Resting Springs:
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E. polycephalus Newberry Springs:
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Paler spined, almost yellow Echinomastus intertextus from Santa Cruz County AZ:
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I also have a lot of Escobaria from two years ago, but will photograph them when they start growing again in the spring.

happy Thanksgiving all,

peterb
Last edited by peterb on Fri Nov 27, 2009 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kevin63129
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Post by kevin63129 »

Great collection of seedlings.
Addicted to crackti !
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king_hedes
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Post by king_hedes »

all them seedlings look like there doing well
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Matt Ivy
peterb
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Post by peterb »

Thanks, it's great keeping up with them.

peterb
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Christos Cyprus
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Wonderful

Post by Christos Cyprus »

Beautiful seedlings Peter. I agree with you that growing plants from seed is fantastic. One actually can become addicted to it. But then again, what a pleasure, a feeling of accomplishment really, in seeing a seed germinating and then the seedling slowly forming into a plant.
A cactus is a terrible thing to waste.
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hoven5th
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Post by hoven5th »

Peter, weren't you saying in another thread how if you grow from seed you have to expect a lot of failure? Well, it looks like you've gotten over that part! :lol:

Beautiful seedlings
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Andy_CT
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Post by Andy_CT »

Lots of neat stuff there, the Astrophytum capricorne crassispinoides is pretty rad
peterb
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Post by peterb »

Hoven, this past year was particularly bad with lots of mistakes. I had some great germination for a bunch of things I've wanted to grow for a while, like Mammillaria viridiflora, Echinocereus "milleri" from Coke County TX, Ancistrocactus brevihamatus pallidus, Echinomastus hispidus, etc, and then I went to Pennsylvania to see family during high summer here. Never really talked with the pet sitter about fogging down the plants a couple times a day with temps near 120F and when we got back...mmm, delicious fried cactus!

I also made the mistake of transplanting a lot of the Baja Mammillaria I sowed two years ago into a very basic soil I dug up near a construction site here. I tested it this summer and the pH meter said it was 9.5! Anyway, that corroded a bunch of those poor things.

Lots of watering mistakes, too. I try to grow a lot of very touchy plants from seed, as these are the same ones that just aren't commercially available. I had a nice two year old Ancistrocactus tobuschii that just rotted off last week, watered too late in the season. Last spring I watered some other touchy ones too early in the season.

So it can get pretty gruesome around here!

peterb
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iann
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Post by iann »

Lots of interesting stuff there, Peter. The Echinocactus polycephalus don't look very advanced. Are you babying them too much, or do they just go to sleep all summer. Mine do most of their growing in spring before other cacti even get watered.

I'm trying M. tetrancistra from seed this year. I figure I can keep it alive at least as long as the E. polycephalus seedlings.

Do the Baha species even want basic soil? I didn't think there was so much limestone down there.
--ian
peterb
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Post by peterb »

A bunch more seedlings, again either 2 or 1 year olds. Included here are some of the ones that aren't precisely thriving, just to offer a well-rounded picture of the perils of propagation.

one of the uber-stressed Mammillaria aff. hutchisoniana, perhaps rescued from alkaline demise soon enough:
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Mammillaria hutchisoniana proper:
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M. fraileana:
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Echinocereus ferreirianus lindsayi:
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Mammillaria brandegeei:
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Cochemiea maritima, gamely trying to regain color after the alkaline bleach:
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Echinocereus poselgeri, still tiny after two years. I keep wondering if I'm doing something wrong with it. But it's still alive!
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Mammillaria dioica:
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Cochemiea halei:
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Echinocereus (Wilcoxia) schmollii, easier for me than poselgeri, go figure:
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A few of the NM/TX Escobarias:
Escobaria organensis:
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Escobaria orcuttii macraxina:
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Escobaria dasyacantha:
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E. albicolumnaria:
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E. villardii:
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E. sandbergii:
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E. guadalupensis:
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white flowered Echinocereus "coccineus" (actually X roetteri, I assume)
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Echinocereus russanthus davisii:
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Epithelantha micromeris from near Belen NM:
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Coryphantha scheeri v. valida:
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Echinofossulocactus zacatecasensis:
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Astrophytum sp. (I lost the tag! Looks like some sort of capricorne):
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Astrophytum ornatum, eternally stressed out here:
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A. myriostigma strongylogonum, likewise:
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slightly strange looking A. myriostigma quadricostatum:
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A. myriostigma tulense:
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A. myriostigma potosinum, again a bit too sunset-colored for my taste. I'll try a different soil for them when spring comes:
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Mystery Echinomastsus, came up in a pot of durangensis but looks pretty different. Maybe warnockii?
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Sad little Ancistrocactus scheeri. I sent some nicer ones off to a better home. :-)
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Echinomastus mariposensis:
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Echinomastus durangensis:
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Cochemiea poselgeri:
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Harrisia species:
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Mystery Ferocactus, maybe cylindraceus, from Baja seed:
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Ferocactus sp., seed from cool plants north of Loreto.
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here's the mom: Image
Another Fero with mom, from near Santa Rosalia:
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Ferocactus emoryi rectipsinus:
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peterb
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peterb
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Post by peterb »

I agree the polycephalus are sort of limping along. I have high hopes for them when late winter arrives here, I'd love to see them really bulk up. The alkaline soil for the Baja Mams was a terrible mistake! I don't think they'd want very acidic soil either, but a nice neutral mix is probably best.

With M. tetrancistra, I'd recommend trying to follow a roughly Mojave-ish watering schedule. These seedlings are from near Wickenburg, which has a counterintuitively dry spring. (http://www.weather.com/weather/wxclimat ... undeclared) The seedlings I have rotted off have almost all died between March and July, here. I don't usually worry about replicating seasonal precipitation in cultivation but the tetrancistra seem rather narrowly adapted.

peterb
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iann
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Post by iann »

M. tetrancistra is considered by most people here to be impossible on its own roots. I don't believe a word of it of course :) I firmly believe that no cactus is difficult, only mistreated.

They say the same thing about Pediocactus on their own roots and some at least are really quite straightforward. Some I wouldn't like to make too many claims about yet, but maybe next year ...

The only time I've seen E. polycephalus respond dramatically to water was in March. A somewhat shrunken plant watered for the first time after winter must have risen about a quarter of an inch out of the soil overnight. Probably that means January for you! Here's perhaps my most impressive result in a single summer. I'll check this spring's sowings at the weekend, but I don't think there are any better ones.
Image
--ian
peterb
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Post by peterb »

that's spectacular, Ian, great growth. I hope the polycephalus here really beef up this late winter.

peterb
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DWDogwood
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Post by DWDogwood »

Attack of the North Americans!
Great stuff, and anybody that grows Cochemiea halei is " A-1" in my book!
peterb
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Post by peterb »

Thanks! Yes, my interests are definitely very heavy on the North American side. I guess this has been mostly determined by climate. I also think the strange diversity of cacti up here is interesting. Then there's the challenge of growing them.

I love South American plants too, but figured I had to draw the line somewhere. For now. :-)

peterb
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