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Hello,

1. Do you recommend sowing seeds of Aztekium valdezii with seeds of Aztekium ritteri in the same recipient and use baggie method? (because I have read A. ritteri needs a lot of time/years into a ziplock to grow safely)

Other question:
2. Do you recommend sowing seeds of Titanopsis with seeds of Haworthia in the same recipient and use baggie method for two weeks and after that open it (after full germination)?

1
I would not recommend sowing them together, but I can't say you shouldn't. They are not hard to tell apart. I have good experience sowing Aztekium hintonii and A. ritteri via the baggy method. I think I kept them in a bag for at least one full year, could be two years, I don't remember well (take them out when the algae is about to overgrow the seedlings). After which I treated them as seedlings for their first five years. Mine are now passed the age of five years, so despite they are still the size of a pea I dare to put them out in the sun as all my other (and bigger) plants. Of course, make sure you really have cooked your soil very well and never open the bag during the first or first two years. Also check if the soil of the pots is still moist after a few months. The moist could have leaked out as air tight bags are never 100% air tight. I use loam as a substrate, so if I squeeze the pots while they are still in the bag, I can feel if the loam is hard (dry) or soft (still moist). That is a good indicator.

2
No. I tread Titanopsis as winter active plants. Haworthia as summer growers. Although Titanopsis should be fine grown as summer active too. Still, I would not. For these you can use the baggy method, but I would open the bag as soon as the germination rate is fine (enough) and you don't expect anything to germinate anymore. I would not lock them up longer than really needed.

If growth rates are fairly similar and they need the same growing conditions and you can easily tell them apart, then I often do mixed sowings. so:

1. Maybe.

2. No. Titanopsis want good light from an early age, with a decent amount of sun even from a few weeks old. Haworthias like more shade and probably prefer more water.

Depends where you are, but in northern Europe, some growers are insistent that both Haworthias and Titanopsis should be treated as either summer or winter growers. Some growers are quite particular about their treatment, with summer rests or being kept totally dry in winter, but i suspect the plants in both these genera are often less picky than their growers. so long as it's reasonably bright (at least for Titanopsis), but not brutally hot or very cold. They both like moderate temperatures to grow, so will like water in spring and autumn.

I frequently sow two species together, but only under certain circumstances:

1. They have similar seedling requirements.

2. They are easy to tell apart from sprouting.

3. A low number of seeds indicates joint sowing to save space.

So for example, I recently planted 20 Mammillaria lenta seeds with 15 Turbinicarpus schwartzii seeds together.

I would not have planted two similar Mammillaria species together. Nor would I have planted together two species that have different needs (such as Rhipsalis and Tephrocactus). If I had 100 seeds of either variety, I would plant them alone, but 35 is just about enough to fill my smallest nursery pot.

Likewise, I might sow Gymnocalycium pflanzii with Gymnocalycium andreae, but I would never put Gymnocalycium pflanzii with Gymnocalycium saglionis or Gymnocalycium andreae with Gymnocalycium baldianum.

This is increased with Aztekium, because they grow so very slowly. I might sow them with Geohintonia or Strombocactus, but not with other Aztekium.

Aloinopsis wrote: ↑Tue Aug 18, 2020 11:45 am This is increased with Aztekium, because they grow so very slowly. I might sow them with Geohintonia or Strombocactus, but not with other Aztekium.

Strombocactus can grow pretty quick for a slow growing species. I would not combine it with Aztekium as they also like to use up quite some horizontal space. Geohintonia should be fine. They stay rather narrow and grow hardly faster than Aztekium as seedlings, from my experience.