Lophophora alberto-vojtechii

psi · Post by **psi** » Tue May 31, 2011 9:36 pm

Is anyone growing this species? I was putting in an order for some other loph seeds and I decided to order a packet of these. The idea of a dwarf Lophophora sounds interesting, and in the photos I've seen it's neat seeing a disproportionately large flower coming out of a tiny cactus. I haven't grown any Lophophoras in about five years and the prospect is exciting. The only problem is, there is a good chance that Canada Post may go on strike before I get the seeds.

Post by **daiv** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:36 am

I remember the CSSA article on those. I'd bet there must be one or two people here that are growing these.

alkravi · Post by **alkravi** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 8:22 am

I'm growing those from Koehres's seeds, 2 different localities. Germination was about 70%, they are 2 months old.

psi · Post by **psi** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:56 am

I ordered from the same source, my first time dealing with them. Do you have any pictures of those up? Did you use any special technique to germinate? There are so few seeds in a pack that I don't want to do anything wrong. I used to get the odd seed that would go moldy and wreck anything nearby so I'm wondering about treating with dilute peroxide.

alkravi · Post by **alkravi** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 1:16 pm

I used a usual soil mix for seeds, about 70% mineral, sterilized. Let seeds soak in peroxide 3% for 10 minutes, put them on a soil surface and put a transparent lid above. Treated them as usual loph seeds.
They germinated in about 10 days and have no juvenile spines. No photos, sorry.

psi · Post by **psi** » Tue Jun 07, 2011 12:21 pm

Picked up the seeds yesterday, if germination is successful I'll post some pics if I can.

psi · Post by **psi** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 5:04 pm

Well I got mine germinating, 2 out of 10 sprouted and look pretty healthy but another 2 that popped are a lot more iffy looking. Not sure if I will have the heart to try grafting them when the time comes. Maybe I would have had better results if I sprouted them sooner, who knows.

nachtkrabb · Post by **nachtkrabb** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:22 pm

Hi, Alkravi,
why do you use peroxide? The plants won't have it handy in the wilderness, will they?
Ruth

iann · Post by **iann** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 8:35 pm

Peroxide is a sterilising agent. You can also use bleach. If you've sterilised the soil then the seeds are the main source of nasties.

There has also been talk about other effects from peroxide, still in the "to be confirmed" category.

nachtkrabb · Post by **nachtkrabb** » Mon Oct 24, 2011 9:04 pm

hear, hear...

Thanks!
Ruth