Hardest species to grow?

[Licespray]

Short and sweet: in the cacti world what species (can be plural) are regarded as the hardest to grow/keep alive?

I don’t mean slow growing, I mean one where a drop of water at the wrong time will kill it type fussy

[ElieEstephane]

For me, schlumbergera
For the general populous, echinomastus maybe?

[esp_imaging]

Some of the Sclerocatus / Pediocatus relatives are meant to be very tricky.
Rimacactus lauii is also meant to be very difficult on its own roots.

[TimN]

Sclerocactus papyracanthus,nis the one I've heard.

[Edwindwianto]

According to Lifle

Mammillaria herrerae and Ortegocactus macdougallii are not easy on their own-root

[Aiko]

I assume we are talking about plants on their own roots, growing them from seedling stage to adult flowering stage?

I would say Whitesloanea crassa. Water sensitive, cold sensitive and probably not a fan of draft or prolonged dryness as well.

[keith]

Echinomastus and Sclerocatus very hard for me to keep alive. I have a few Echinomastus mariposensis tiny from seed I hope will survive.

Mammillaria herrerae not hard for me , occasionally I will kill them but not like Mojave desert cactus.

[Edwindwianto]

Mammillaria herrerae not hard for me , occasionally I will kill them

Please tell me your experience of growing M. herrerae
Thanks.

[Fatich]

Mammillaria herrerae not hard for me , occasionally I will kill them

Please tell me your experience of growing M. herrerae
Thanks.

I grow some herrerae albiflora from seed, the thing you need to care about is watering. If they stay wet for a long time they rot. Actually its like most of other cacti species.

For me Pyrrhocactus umadeave and Echinomastus mariposensis is the hardest from seed.

[DaveW]

Yes Pyrrhocactus umadeave is hard from seed. I have set quite a few collected seed and had no luck. Roger Ferryman has set hundreds of collected seed in the UK under heat with little germination, but when posted for a time to manage his firms office in South Africa he took some with him and it germinated like weeds. What were the different conditions he could not work out, but it must have been something to do with climate etc.

Also Pyrrhocacti don't seem to like their roots disturbing whilst small, or large come to that. Of course in habitat nobody transplants seedlings, they grow where they germinate without any root disturbance.

As always hard is what will not grow for you. In the right climate you may wonder why others find them hard.

[keith]

M. herrerae seeds are on the big side of cactus seeds and hard to harvest as they grow in the plant body under dense spines. Once I had 100% germination and the few other times I have had maybe 10% germination from my own seeds taken ( difficult I use an eye loupe and tweezers if the seed pod comes out intact easy if it splits and the seeds fall in the spines difficult) from my plants.. Once up they grow slow but not super slow and as adult plants they just need to have well draining cactus compost and dry air if possible or the spines turn grey. I think the seed pods should be at least 1 year old before harvest. They flower reliably unlike M. albiflora which almost never flowers for me.

I have a seed growing post called Escobaria minima but have all my seed growing there and have herrerea seedlings pictures. Probably should change title ?

[Edwindwianto]

I grow some herrerae albiflora from seed, the thing you need to care about is watering. If they stay wet for a long time they rot. Actually its like most of other cacti species.

Thanks for sharing

M. herrerae seeds are on the big side of cactus seeds and hard to harvest as they grow in the plant body under dense spines. Once I had 100% germination and the few other times I have had maybe 10% germination from my own seeds taken ( difficult I use an eye loupe and tweezers if the seed pod comes out intact easy if it splits and the seeds fall in the spines difficult) from my plants.. Once up they grow slow but not super slow and as adult plants they just need to have well draining cactus compost and dry air if possible or the spines turn grey. I think the seed pods should be at least 1 year old before harvest. They flower reliably unlike M. albiflora which almost never flowers for me.

Thanks for sharing

The interesting part of the "Cultivation" part in Lifle about this cactus is, it precisely says "don't use limestone, the media should be acidic"
Well...this cactus lives in limestone in it's habitat
So...why would Lifle say it?

What do you guys use as a media?

As always...i go with limestone (so that it mimics the habitat), but i add extra pumice in it for extra aeration...and let's see what will it become...
I hope, it will survive...hahaha

Yes Pyrrhocactus umadeave is hard from seed. I have set quite a few collected seed and had no luck. Roger Ferryman has set hundreds of collected seed in the UK under heat with little germination, but when posted for a time to manage his firms office in South Africa he took some with him and it germinated like weeds. What were the different conditions he could not work out, but it must have been something to do with climate etc.

As always hard is what will not grow for you. In the right climate you may wonder why others find them hard.

Interesting that what one finds difficult, may not be difficult for others from other side of the globe
Thanks for the story

[DaveW]

(difficult I use an eye loupe and tweezers if the seed pod comes out intact easy if it splits and the seeds fall in the spines difficult)

What you need is a Pooter Keith. Usually used for catching insects, but they are ideal for sucking up seeds from the crown of cacti, particularly in habitat and from among the spines. Even those you spill on the bench when you are setting them.

These videos say you have ask your parents before using tools. It does not mention at what age you have to stop asking, so be sure to ask.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHv7ur8Yoks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5CTak_zkDk

[keith]

pooters I've seen them in books best for tiny dry seeds I think. I removed the seed pod out from the big herrerea on the right. Had to crop a few questionable cactus out of the picture so its kinda half hidden. it came out intact so easy. 20 seeds to the pod.
I should trade them for another rare mammillaria cactus seed I have enough herrerea right now, you can see the little ones on the left center. not hard just slow. And the germination rate is often poor. Maybe they need to be soaked overnight ?
I used to pollinate them like crazy but got rot low down on a few stems because of old seed pod scars so now I just do a few flowers.

the Mammillaria theresae is a lot harder IMO you can just make out my last sad looking Mammillaria theresae, 3 stems because I cut the main one off for some reason probably rot. It just sits there, used to flower used to grow fine but then they died one by one and I have this sad little punk left and a couple tiny seedlings. Mammillaria dehertiana same story have one left. I had to change soil mix to save both these species but the herrerea you can grow that one in crusty sand based diatomaceous powder with pumice. no problem. same with ariocarpus.

pumice with organic "saved" the theresae and dehertiana the organic would probably kill the herrerea so its still in crusty sand based soil with diatomaceous powder and pumice , desert dirt = crusty stuff. the big one is still crusty in a clay pot looks OK to me.

I add organic to crusty cactus soil if the cactus species does poorly, turns yellow, doesn't grow or just dies or is from south America. Lithops get crusty soil conophyums do not they get added organic. The organic is whatever sells at big box as potting soil . I saw Coir for sale but really expensive probably for pot growers IDK ? Super soil is pretty good but this last stuff I bought ( not super soil ) smells like bay leaves mixed with Christmas trees and ammonia. Supposed to be forest products and peat.

Not in the picture but Echinocereus ridigimuss gets organic Echincereus pectinitus cteniodes does not. In the picture the M. carmenae gets some organic the T valdezianus does not and I forget what the T. Alonisi is in its the last survivor the others died. Trial and error and some dead cactus.

One last word ( and this is wordy for me) organic attracts sciara fly and root mealie bug so I don't use it unless I have to. Most cactus would probably want more organic but i don't like sciara fly or root mealie bugs or scale. spider mite that's different doesn't care about soil.

[DaveW]

If they grow OK don't worry what they grow in for you!