Share The Seeds
Gardening Area => Seeds and Germination => Topic started by: cantharis on July 30, 2014, 09:39:32 PM
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Last week I noticed a seed pod split open on my Astrophytum Ornatum - the seeds are hybrid, but I collected them, dried them on a kitchen towel for a few days, cleaned off the pod fibres, and decided to sow them. They might make some nice gift plants - Mrs C is always after any spare cacti I might have - to give away. There are about 200 seeds, and I have no idea what the other parent is at present. So I sterilised a mix of loam and sand, and sprinkled 100 of the seeds on top, covering them with bird grit. This was Monday evening.
This morning (Wednesday), just 36 hours after sowing, a handful had actually germinated - I couldn´t believe it - and certainly a record for me in 57 years of growing. Currently, Wednesday evening -about a dozen are up !!! I am gobsmacked with the speed of this !!
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Astrophytum always germinate extremely fast for me. I had some A. myriostigma germinate after 10 hours once. This was after a presoak in GA3 though.
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Really? That is amazing - maybe I should have looked before this morning !!!!!
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Astrophytum are known for the quickest germination times for cacti.
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So I have read - and have grown Astrophytum seeds in the past - but they have always taken a week or so - OK but this time I used some of my own very fresh seeds.
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When I do mass sowings with several genera I always see the astros pop up first. Sometimes it takes a week, sometimes it takes 12 hours. Lophs are usually next or sometimes other random genera.