Germinating Mammillaria theresae seed

[dvg]

Well those M. theresae seeds continue to sprout and surprise me.

I checked in on them today and five more had decided to join their brethern majority in the land of the living, versus their previous state of limbo in suspended animation.

The sprouted seed tally now stands at:

2011 seed batch........16 of 20...80%

2008 seed batch........23 of 30...76.7%

2007 seed batch.........8 of 29...40%

Overall germination....47 of 70...67.1%

It looks like with some seeds still being viable but reluctant to germinate, that this might be a survival strategy for this species, ensuring that some seeds can still sprout at a later date, even if a drought happened to wipe out the majority of seeds that were quick to germinate.

dvg

[dvg]

A couple M. theresae seedlings with their helmets by their sides.



dvg

[carnivoure12]

Wow! they grow quite fast! You always have some cool little analogy for everything

[dvg]

Thanks Daniel!

A Mammillaria theresae seedling starting to show some of it's developing tubercles.



I ended up getting a 70% overall germination rate with these seeds and 80% success with both the 2011 and 2008 seed batches...pretty good for a species that is known to be difficult to start from seed.

dvg

[Irricanor]

Are Mam theresae fruit deeply embedded in the stem of the plant? If so, I wonder what the advantage of that is? Could that have something to do with difficulty germinating the seed? I vaguely remember someone speculating that a lot of theresae seed is just not viable, and thats why it doesnt germinate of course. Any ideas about that?

peterb

[dvg]

Here's another update on the M. theresae seedlings sown earlier this year in February.

They've grown quite quickly in an enclosed container and have just recently been moved to a larger container.



The original container stayed moist and damp which allowed moss to grow up and around most of the seedlings in there.



A shot of a slightly colored M. theresae seedling.



These seedlings have all been moved closer to the lights in an attempt to keep them from stretching.

dvg