Hi Hana, I have a random question. I'm not sure you've mentioned this before, but what is grafting in Japanese? What's the term they use?

Almost there

My biggest Gymnocalycium friedrichii LB2178 about to bloom Show should peak in a few days

All thanks to you Hanazono. I read your posts about growing Astrophytum and Ariocarpus intently, and tried a few ideas and in my own sowings =D Excellent results for me thus far! I do hope they do flower in about 3 years time. Thank you again!

Sowed exactly 16 seeds in this pot and I got at least 10 to germinate around 8 months back (I no longer remember the exact count)... Then, when I was checking more than a week ago, I noticed there was a new tiny green blob on the side. I thought the rest simply died while sprouting/right after sprou...

I noticed the pot was ever so slightly bulging, and I thought I might dig around a bit to check underground, and holy moly, I got carrots! Or radishes, if you prefer those. And these were sown only last April (2016)! I followed Hanazono's lead in taking care of these, and I'm impressed 8 months old ...

Our cooler and (significantly) wetter monsoon season has made this one lush and plump-- it is evidently in active growth now compared to a couple of months ago when it looked like an emaciated piece of plant matter

Thanks snarfie =)) Wasnt able to do much grafting last month (the irony is I conducted a grafting workshop just last week haha) but I need to catch up since the weather here has cooled up and a lot of plants are in active growth =D

Turning two months in a few days

George, its quite hard to find documentation of this technique in the internet but all I managed to read basically indicated that it was indeed possible, so I gave it a try =)) Escobaria abdita seed is quite large (for a cactus seed) hence why it was what I used. Ill try progressively smaller seeds ...

I grafted this one as an embryo (unsprouted seed!) 05-08-2016. I just soaked the seed in water for more than 24 hours then very(!) carefully removed part of the seedcoat, made a thin slice using a new razor blade and grafted as you would a tiny seedling. This is my second time doing this technique =...

Anybody tried this yet? Neat technique, I'll take a few photos of a couple I did more than a week ago at a later time.

Hey Ian, how does one learn when to "break dormancy" in mesembs? Is it part informed trial (from written literature and other hobbyist's experiences) and part careful observation of the plants in question throughout the year?

Ah well, I can always try as long as seed/planting materials are available :lol: It's only been recently that more and more people are becoming interested in Mesembs here (and the vast majority have their eyes on Lithops, even if there are other kinds that are significantly easier). At least now I k...

I checked Silverhill Seeds (a South African enterprise selling native plant seeds and books) on a whim and lo and behold they have it on stock. It's been years since I last saw this offered (I check a few times a year, randomly), so I thought I might share for those who are interested. :) http://www...