Young Frailea advice

[Ava]

I have some Frailea grahliana and castanea seedlings, 5 years old, which measure under 1cm across. What sort of size would you expect them to be at this age (as I'm sure mine are a little stunted)?

I haven't been watering them any more than the other seedlings, which is probably a bad thing, having looked into it - I intend to do better this year with that, although most of the pot of seedlings were killed off by mould at the beginning, which has made me a little reticent about letting them get too wet... They are already in a slightly shaded position, as I read this helps them to grow faster. Does anyone have any cultivation tips specific to these cacti?

I couldn't find much information online about Fraileas in general; they don't seem particularly popular. Any book recommendations would be very welcome

[Tony R]

Hello Ava,

There is a book available online: http://www.cactuspro.com/biblio/en:prestle

and a website: https://www.frailea.com/

[Chris L]

I don't think Frailea castanea grows very big. Looks like grahliana may clump with age, but the heads still look tiny.

This is my castanea flowering a few years ago - very small in a 6cm pot.

Frailea castanea

Frailea castanea

[Ava]

Hello Ava,

There is a book available online: http://www.cactuspro.com/biblio/en:prestle

and a website: https://www.frailea.com/

Thanks for the reply, Tony (and sorry about not responding sooner, our internet connection has been terrible). Unfortunately I can't read German (yet! Maybe in the future ) else I'm sure the book would be very useful. I have looked at that website before but there didn't seem to be much advice on actually growing Fraileas.

Chris - Yeah, I understand they won't get very large. That's okay However, the plant in your picture must be... 3cm across, I think? The label says 2012 so I'm guessing it was younger than my tiny seedlings when the photo was taken - so it must have grown a lot faster than mine!

[Chris L]

I have a funny feeling I don't have the plant any more. It was bought in 2012, not sown in 2012.

The plant only measured about 2cm across. The pot is actually a 5cm pot (not 6cm as mentioned before) and the white labels are 1cm across.

[Ava]

Ahh, right. Maybe mine aren't doing too badly then