Aztekium from seed.

[DaveW]

Found this article whilst browsing the Web:-

http://www.arides.info/article0003.html

[ralphrmartin]

I don't think I agree with his first statement about Aztekiums being difficult - I can think of plenty of other plants which are trickier. They are easy to keep. They are just very slow (on their own roots), but not as slow as Blossfeldia, say.

[gerald]

They're probably tricky in that people overwater or overfeed in an attempt to speed them up - you can guess the results!

[ralphrmartin]

Mine are probably overfed and overwatered (i.e. at the same rate as all my other faster growing plants), but without ill-effects.

[Herts Mike]

Indeed. Mine is about 40 years old and gets the same treatment as everything else.

Considered neglect.

[Aiko]

Because my four / five year old seed sown plants are still so very small, they get the same treatment as all my one year old seedlings: a soaking in water about once a week.

They are small, so not a lot of mass to compensate for a long drought. So regular water is seems far from wrong when your plant is still less than half a centimeter...

[jfabiao]

I don't treat them any different either. A bunch seedlings from 2014, treated as any other seedling (and probably in need of repotting to clear those algae). Two things that struck me:
- Aztekium hintonii (left column) does not grow any faster, neither do some Strombocactus (top right corner);
- The variation of growth rate is amazing.

[ralphrmartin]

Because my four / five year old seed sown plants are still so very small, they get the same treatment as all my one year old seedlings: a soaking in water about once a week.

All my mature plants get that treatment (well, in summer at least).