BCSS - Forum

Four years of cold / warm treatment and a single seed germinated….

Well done and great that you persevered, I would have assumed after a couple of years the seeds were no good and thrown them out.

Please let us know what it looks like in another year's time.
Almost looks like you have managed to germinate a piece of gravel.

In the past I have had them germinate and then damp off. I poked around in the pot and there are still a few more seeds discernible amongst the gravel and cat litter.
This one germinated last year

I am fairly sure I posted this on the forum already, but this is the advice for germinating Tephrocactus (also Opuntioideae) I received from Aymeric (ADBLPS), seems like the flood - draught cycles could help wash the inhibitors out:

The standard way to germinate Tephrocactus is to put the 10cm pots in a tray full of water so that half of the pot is under water.

Keep the temp around 35°C (I would regard 16°C as too low, 25°C would be better). Strong light is also better (full sun if possible).

When the water is evaporated wait a few weeks and start again after having removed the seedlings (if any !)

A mouse very carefully hollowed out mine during one of the winter/dry parts of the cycle!

The strangest thing with tephro' seed is that one batch in quite a few, germinates quickly with perhaps 50% of the seed producing seedlings within a few weeks.
I suppose I have sowed 15-20-25 batches over the years and it happened just once - memory isn't infallible, but perhaps floccosus? Other batches only ever produced 2-3 seedlings (at most) over the several years that they sat undisturbed.
I just sowed onto a very gritty loam-based compost, covered with grit and left the pots against the west-facing wall of my bungalow.

Has anyone an informed knowledge of where seed comes from, in the main? Presumably habitat?

I’ve found A flocossa germinates a lot easier than any of the Tephrocacti. The Punotia seeds are some years old now so maybe they need to age a little.

Davey246 wrote: ↑Sat Apr 30, 2022 11:59 amHas anyone an informed knowledge of where seed comes from, in the main? Presumably habitat?

Yes, habitat. I've had 4 lots:
BB 774.01 (Espina, Puno, Peru, 4495m, 10Jul2000), TSG, sown 2012
HR 727 (9,2km se of Macusani, Peru, 4539m), KKHK, sown 2017
HNSO 178 (habitat seed), Succseed, sown 2018
CS 460 (Macusani, Peru, habitat seed ex CS), ADBLPS, sown 2019

I think I eventually threw the first lot out and the mouse had the last three, along with a load of other recalcitrants.

Well done Mike, I must have been throwing mine out to soon ( 2 years )