Austrocactus patagonicus

[Jens]

These seedlings from 2006 are coming to flower the first time. 4 of 120 seeds came up to be a plant so far.

Looking back they grew quite rapidly though

[AnTTun]

Well done Jens

[TS Hakansson]

Nicely nicely. A bit hard from seed,no?

[Christian]

Well done, Jens.

I struggle with these too - germination for A. bertinii seems staggered and generally fairly poor. I received seeds from a number of different species from Norbert Sarnes last year. Seed of A. bertinii is still not doing much, but there are some species that seem to be a easier to germinate. I also found they are liable to rotting if kept in an enclosed humid atmosphere for too long.

Do you have any tips for growing these on, perhaps? The few seedlings that I have I am keen to keep alive...

[Phil_SK]

I also found they are liable to rotting if kept in an enclosed humid atmosphere for too long.

I've found they're prone to rotting or simply 'giving up' even out of the humid atmosphere, typically in their 2nd or 3rd year.

[Jens]

They don´t like standing air. And they don´t like heat either ,I finished off a flowering size plant by leaving it in the greenhouse in spring 2013. It dried up and never recovered.
Austrocactus react extreme to cultivational conditions - both posive and negative

[DaveW]

Yes I think mine got too hot after flowering last year Jens and simply died after fruiting. It certainly did not rot, just drying up. My greenhouse was probably cold enough in winter as it normally goes down to freezing or below, but got far too hot for it in summer, therefore it would probably have been better put outside for the summer. I hope they are self fertile as I have seed off it.

Incidentally I think we should call it A. bertinii since that name takes precedence over A. patagonicus.

"This species occurs in cold areas, where it grows in the shelter of shrubs and covered by grass, with little exposure to sunlight (Kiesling and Ferrari 2009)."

http://eriosyce.mforos.com/1281721/1110 ... nero-2013/

I remember seeing a slide show of them in habitat at the Cactus Explorers growing near the shore in Patagonia with icebergs floating by on the sea, and that was in their summertime.

[Jens]

Thanks for the link to the chilean Forum Dave, those are lovely plants in habitat.
Norbert Sarnes keeps telling that A. patagonicus is an ill defined name and shold be abandoned in favor to A. bertinii- but it sure sounds good

[CactusFanDan]

They seem to prefer a more alpine treatment to most other cacti, where they like to gorge on water early in the year when it's nice and cool, although I've been watering mine infrequently year-round. Mine really fattened up in late winter this year though. They're sort of like the South-american equivalent of Sclerocactus in some respects. Apparently acidic scarification of the seeds with a concentrated, strong acid is good for encouraging germination. I've currently got one plant from seed that I've sown myself, but it's gone totally monstrose and has around 50 growing points despite being about 2-inches in diameter.

[DaveW]

Yes Jens some nice habitat pictures in some of their forums, at least I can "read" the pictures and botanical names if not the Spanish!

http://eriosyce.mforos.com/1114643-chil ... ordillera/