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Aztekium ritteri seedlings

These seeds were sown on Feb. 19, 2007, and suffered the same fate as my A. hintonii seedlings, in that both batches of seeds were placed in Ziplock bags, pushed to the back of a table and forgotten about...until just today in the case of the A. ritteri.

I took the pot out and gave them a quick drink by setting it in a bowl filled with water and letting the pot absorb some water up from the bottom.

I was actually surprised to see that I had 6 small A. ritteri seedlings in one of my four inch pots.
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And here is a pic of the largest one.
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I'm going to start giving these seedlings more light as well as keeping a more watchful eye on them, but these obviously have a very long way to go, with them being such notoriously slow growing plants.

dvg
 
Of the six small Aztekium seedlings, all, but one, of them is spherical or ball shaped.

The sole uniquely shaped little greenish-yellow blob is noticeably convoluted in it's shape.

I had quite a difficult time trying to get some detail on this oddly shaped little mutant.

Does any body think that this seedling is already differentiating to it's more mature shape or is something more sinister ocurring here.....

.....maybe a two or three headed monster? :alien:

Because it was so difficult for me to get a very clear shot of this seedling, I decided to show a few different shots in light and shadow, to further flesh out the deep grooves and convolutions that already define this uniquely shaped seedling.

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This angle shows what appears to be a crevice in the seedling.
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And this photo, with the help of the sun, reveals a fissure running along the seedlings's surface.
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Another look at this raised ridge that resemble's the shape of a ram's horn.
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The ram's horn shape, which reminds me of the ribs on the parent plants, seen again on this seedling.
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This isn't the clearest shot, but it does show the convolutions in the seedling's shape.
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One final shot of this seedling.
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I am not quite sure what to make of the shaping of this little seedling...have any of you seen this before?

Doug
dvg
 
Another pic of the Aztekium ritteri seedlings after they have been given a drink.

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Maybe it's just my imagination but they seem a little bigger to me...but then again maybe just wishful thinking. ;)

dvg
 
Since these Aztekium ritteri seedlings have been growing in a Ziplock bag for over four years now and are still very tiny, only growing on average about 1 mm in diameter per year, I was curious what kind of root system they might have under them after four years of growth.

So I uprooted them and took a pic with a penny placed for scale.

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The seedling shown on the very right hand side is the oddly shaped one that had been growing on it's side before I noticed and righted it.

And here is a pic with them repotted again.

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It's reassuring to know that in 25 years, I should have plants that are approaching 1 inch (25 mm) in diameter.

One should probably start these seeds when he is a young man if he wants to see them at 2 inches in diameter, grown on their own roots, in his lifetime. ;)

dvg
 
Nice! I had two 2" diameter ones mounted onto pieces of something else. They were doing great but one got too wet outside last summer and rotted and the other I cut the mount in half so I could hide the grafted bit underground so just the Aztekium on top poked out of the top dressing the grafted bit underground died and then so did the graft. :(
 
Nice! I had two 2" diameter ones mounted onto pieces of something else. They were doing great but one got too wet outside last summer and rotted and the other I cut the mount in half so I could hide the grafted bit underground so just the Aztekium on top poked out of the top dressing the grafted bit underground died and then so did the graft. :(

That's unfortunate that you lost your grafted plants Josh - this is wonderful species to have in any succulent collection.

Here is an update on the only two remaining Aztekium ritteri seedlings from this seed batch sown back in 2007.



These two are starting to push out differentiated growth from their crowns.



They have now grown to the 2-3 mm size, so they should be much hardier and hopefully will grow out to adulthood,



but at a growth rate of 1 mm in diameter per annum, that will take a while.











dvg
 
These were sown in 2007 ? Wow ! Our sense of time really means nothing to plants.
 
WOW man, these Aztekium buggers really do move slowly on their own roots, 2007 - 2013 and still pea sized!

Are you going to attempt a graft with one just to see what kind of speed it can get up to?
 
Yeah, these really are glacially slow - slowest cactus species there is.

So far these have been hard grown, without fertilizer, which could account for some of their smallness, well that and forgetting that I had them at the back of a table for a couple of years.

Grafting and the application of ferts are very tempting, but ferts can distort the form shape and if the roots are lopped off in favor of a grafting stock, these plants will never be on their roots again, as they are practically impossible to root again.

So, probably will just continue to be patient will these...for now.





dvg
 
  • #10
dvg, where here I am about to give up on nepenthes seed pots after a year, your dedication for 6 years to a pea is admirable.

:clap:
 
  • #11
dvg, where here I am about to give up on nepenthes seed pots after a year, your dedication for 6 years to a pea is admirable.

:clap:

Don't give up on your Nepenthes pots there Thez - if they've sprouted and have stalled, just repot them and watch them take off in growth for you.

Haha, I wish these tiny guys were the size of a pea, I measured them yesterday and they are between 3 to 3.5 mm in width and about 4 mm in height.

With them growing on average 1 mm in diameter per year, hopefully in another 6 years, they'll be the size of a pea. ;)




dvg
 
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