Cactus seed germination 2016/2017

[ragamala]

Relaxing a bit for the summer, I have summarised some of my records of seed sowing the last two years.
Returning to this after a more-than twenty year absence and anxious to rebuild a collection in a hurry, I sowed a lot of seed, much from sources unknown to me back then. I am aware that as a returning and re-learning sower I may not have used the best germinating techniques etc so hopefully the comments won't be too harsh!

I don't pretend these results to be scientific or meaningful in any particular sense. These figures are of cactus sowings only, and do not perhaps include a high proportion of what I would call commoner species, so not necessarily characteristic. They don't differentiate between packet size.

With one exception, I would be happy to buy more seed from all the suppliers listed if this/next year I need to sow more to satisfy my seedraising appetite. On the whole I have been satisfied with both the service and quality of the seed offered.

The first table summarises packets bought and sown in the 2016/2017 season, and how many of those packets resulted in germination. This is the most significant figure in my opinion, whether I get at least one healthy seedling from a packet.


Supplier /Pkts /Pkt % success

Bercht 38 92%
BCSS seedpool 43 86%
Succseed 55 85%
Piltz 67 82%
Hajek 21 81%
Gerardo 22 77%
ADBLPS 39 72%
Koehres 138 72%
Nechvil 41 66%
Hradek 58 64%
Mamm Society 23 61%
BCSS 52 50%
Cactus Moravia 105 45%
Prague 49 33%

Overall 751 67%

In 2016 I attempted to keep track of numbers of seedlings germinating with
the following results from my first sowing batch. Figures are necessarily a little inaccurate as seedlings can die off and new seeds sprout! I haven't repeated this summary for all of both years since life is too short, but it gives an indication of eg how many seedlings on average from a successful packet.

Total Seeds Sown/Germinated/%

Succseed 377 290 77%
BCSS seedpool 893 438 49%
Piltz 230 105 46%
Hajek 210 76 36%
Koehres 1306 337 26%
Bercht 710 181 25%
BCSS list 560 66 12%
Prague 735 53 7%

Overall (325 pkts) 5021 1546 31%

Ignoring failed packets, the percentage of seeds germinating from "good" packets was

No. of seeds in successful pkts/ av germ rate for those packets

Succseed 337 86%
Hajek 130 58%
BCSS seedpool 777 56%
Piltz 230 46%
Koehres 1016 33%
Bercht 650 28%
Prague 210 25%
BCSS list 300 22%

Overall (242 pkts) 3650 42%


For both years I have records by species of success rate (a lot of zeroes for Sclerocactus, which is why I say the results are not necessarily characteristic of the cacti overall) sowing dates and times until first germination.

Also data on how many seedlings I have managed to kill off by poor cultivation.

Other succulents I have mainly sown Lithops and Conophytums, main source the MSG, plus Roy Earle, and have had excellent results bar one or two exceptions on Lithops and a few on Conos. I reported last year a serious failure of germination of Lithops seed, with no germination whatsoever from some 40 packets. These were from the supplier whose cactus seed proved the most disappointing, and from whom I will not purchase again.

[RAYWOODBRIDGE]

I don't think there is much surprise that Mats Winberg ( Succseed ) comes near the top of your lists. Only the odd bad packet with no shows, which is why he is not top of your first list.
Of course the main factor is what species you are trying to grow, after a few years and your collection becomes more specialized, the sources become harder to find and the species harder to grow.
Other good sources are;
Martina Ohr ( Echinocereus specialist ) who's figures this year where 100 percent on packets and 60 to 70 percent on seeds.
Jaromir Dohnalik was 80 percent on packets and 50 to 60 percent on seed.
Ladislav Kele was 100 percent on packets and 35 to 45 percent on seed, many of these packets had only 5 or 10 seeds per pkt. so one extra plant or not does alter the figures greatly.
I think most of the big names in cacti seed supply have poor germination because they keep the seed to long or store
them badly, most likely the former.
I hope you get as much pleasure as I do from this part of our wonderful pastime of growing cacti, and it is nice to see someone else has the same Anorak

[ragamala]

Thanks Ray for the comments and encouragement.

I should say that I have always been addicted to seed-sowing, and my cactus-growing dates from some forty or more years back.

I returned to the fold only last year, and it was fascinating to see how things had changed (or not) over the past twenty five years. Name changes, compost ideas, greenhouse heating and control, etc etc (I retained a collection over the years on a survival of the fittest basis, and most of my adult plants date from the 70s/80s). Also genera/species considered difficult or slow back then and not now.

And back in the 80s most seed came from the Society, Mamm Soc, MSG, Mesa Garden and a few UK suppliers.

I am pleased to see that in your opinion Jaromir Dohnalik supplies good seed. I admit when I first ordered from Hobby Brno I had not realised that these days ordering from the new breed of Czech suppliers takes time, and sussed out their wholesaling approach. I cancelled my first order and have not had the temerity to order again since. I had fondly imagined that the new Cactus Moravia who claim past links could supply good seed. They can and do, but IMO are overreaching themselves. Selling copious amounts of old seed at low prices is not the way forward for them perhaps.

My seed selection has been a mixture of a few old favourites and trying to find what's new in eg Turbinicarpus, which was a poorly represented or understood genus thirty years ago. I don't lust after "new" species which demand attention, but will maybe try once and not get upset if no luck. I doubt whether this will change much in the years to come.

I am not sure about the "anorak" tag! Having spent much of my recent life using computers it was no hardship to do a bit of data entry. I also do think real newcomers to the hobby should know vaguely what to expect from seed-sowing, which was why I thought it worthwhile posting here.

[Ali Baba]

I have records going back 10 years, just of packets with at least one seed germinating (also time to emergence of first seedlings).
Not as many packets as your data, total number of packets sown is 333, packets with germination 89.5%

Broken down by supplier:

BCSS seed 81.7% (of 109 packets)
Doug Rowland 92.3% (of 26 packets)
Mesa Garden 95.1% (of 163 packets)
Succseed 94.4% (of 18 packets)

I have omitted some small numbers of other suppliers which are included in the total amount.

Probably the most differences which are most significant are between BCSS and Mesa garden, due to the small sample size of the other 2.
Mesa remains my favourite supplier!

[ragamala]

number of packets sown is 333, packets with germination 89.5%....

Thanks, That's interesting. thirty years ago I used to have good germination from MG seed, although my main interest at that time was mesembs. I haven't ordered this year because of Cites problems...

Where your results differ from mine is your far greater success with Society seed, which I am pleased to see, but makes me wonder where I am going wrong there!

[Ali Baba]

I dont think it is you, if I had recorded germination rate I would say that Mesa is best by a long way, over both Succseed and BCSS. Subjectively I'd say that the majority of BCSS seed resulted in one or two seedlings per pot. Usually with Mesa I get a potful of seedlings.
The quality of seed from the BCSS list is very variable too: last year I got some Astrophytum capricorne seed from the BCSS list: every seed was crushed and useless. Same went for all but one from a packet of Sulcorebutia seed from the same list. I didnt waste a pot sowing either!