Cintia knizei from seed

[David_L]

Has anyone got any experience of growing Cintia knizei from seed? I got some seed from Cactus Heaven in Malta last year,but only just got round to sowing it . To my surprise 8/10 seeds have germinated. Any special advice about growing them on or are they just like any other slow growing species?

[Nick]

David - cant think of any specific advice, mine are just plodding away in a tray of Arios, Turbs and the like. Plod being the operative word!!
Nick

[Trevor]

Nothing specific except to say that these are slooooooowwww - I have an Escobaria minima sown at the same time which is almost giantlike in comparison....

[David_L]

Thanks guys. I put them in with some other slow growers so moss permitting, they should be able to be left undisturbed for quite a while.

[Guest]

They are slow but relatively trouble free, to me they are like sulcorebutias.

[ralphrmartin]

Be careful of overwatering, as they tend to split...

[Aiko]

I have sowed a lot of seeds from Cintia knizei this year too. The germination was very well. So I hope the rest will go fine too.

I do have one larger Cintia knizei since last year. I thought it could handle bright sunlight very well, but I have noticed that after a warm and sunny week my Cintia looked like it was collapsing. Feeling really soft, appearing it had too much water and is rotting. But I am sure that was not the case. So not knowing what was wrong exactly, I gave it some water and placed it in a shady location. After a week I noticed the plant was feeling hard again and looking okay. So placing back in it's sunny position. But again after warm wheater I noticed the same thing happening, and again placing it in a shady place and giving it water it plumped up. So I guess I can better keep it in a position with filtered sunlight.

So, am I wrong that Cintia knizei can take full sun like any Ariocarpus, Epithelantha or Turbinicarpus (knowing that Cintia knizei is not sharing the same habitat)?

[lobman]

Cintias in the main have a subterranean existence , growing in a scree like rubble , and are hard to find out of flower -- thats why they were unknown for so long . although the apex should be able to take high UV , they do not like to be roasted .

[DaveW]

Cintia's are tuberous rooted and like any tuberous rooted cacti their seedlings tend to develop the tuberous root underground before producing much top growth therefore may appear slow to develop above ground growth.

http://www.cactus-art.biz/schede/CINTIA ... knizei.htm

DaveW

[Darren S]

My limited experience echos that of Aiko. I got excellent germination of this in 2009 and lost the whole lot one hot day in summer 2010. All other species in the same tray, same compost, same size pots, same age, were unaffected - and this includes some other high altitude South American species. I'd recommend keeping them cool/shaded and certainly will if I ever get seed again.