21 October 2008
Frailea germination
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Propagation .
I sowed some frailea seeds just over a week ago from freshly-harvested seed. The seed came from my own plants, which have been proper little seed factories this year. All of the plants came originally from Richard and Wendy Edginton, apart from Frailea angelesiae from Nick Evens.
I’ve heard in the past that the fresher frailea seed is, the more quickly it germinates. I’m not sure whether my current observations support this. I sowed seven species; of these, four are yet to sprout, but within 24 hours of sowing I had an alarming number of juvenile Frailea santaritense, which continue to grow apace. There are a couple of Frailea angelesiae emerging, at a much slower rate than seeds from the same plants that were sown earlier in the year, and just one Frailea horstii v. curvispina.
So, is fresh seed more reliable? Perhaps it’s too early to tell at the moment. I’ll reserve judgment until there are - hopefully - small green blobs in each of the seven pots.
One Comment so far...
Aiyana Says:
22 October 2008 at 9:22 am.
Glad to see a post when I stopped by today! I’m amazed that you had a sprout within 24 hours. I’ll be interested in how your experiment goes.
Aiyana