7 February 2009
Year-old Ariocarpus seedlings
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Propagation .
Last year I sowed some seeds of various ariocarpus species for the first time: Ariocarpus fissuratus, A. agavoides (formerly Neogomesia agavoides of course), A. retusus, A. trigonus, and A. fissuratus ssp. lloydii.
I’ve been encouraged by the results. Naturally, compared with their faster-growing cousins in the cactaceae, baby arios don’t exactly motor along, but nor are they as painfully slow as some other dwarf Mexican plants. While the A. fissuratus clan and A. trigonus are really taking their time doing anything meaningful, both A. agavoides and A. retusus are making really obvious progress, and seem to have hit their stride at the moment.
This may well have something to do with the amount of time the central heating’s been on in the house, of course.
Left: Ariocarpus agavoides in a 2″ pot. Right: Ariocarpus retusus in a 2.5″ pot.
3 Comments so far...
winston james Says:
8 February 2009 at 7:40 pm.
Stuart, you are doing quite well with the ariocarpus. A few years ago I tried with some seeds, and failed. But I have some new seeds from the seed list, and will have another go. What kind of soil mixture do you use? winston
Stuart Says:
8 February 2009 at 8:41 pm.
Thanks, Winston.
The growing medium for those is at a guess something like 40% John Innes no. 2, 30% coarse grit, 30% Tesco’s Premium lightweight cat litter. For more recent batches of seedlings I’ve switched to something more like 50% JI2, 50% cat litter and not bothered with grit.