lil gem, 5 yo own roots- 2.5cms across.

^fruit. seeds are distributed 50/50 between fruit and body.



"
seed extraction - tweezer job. (cryptocarpic- seeds retained inside body.)


seedlings in baggie, pic taken today. germ rate was pretty good, perhaps the seeds which have not yet germinated will do so in 8+ years time. (one of the few cacti where older seed is much better than fresh, part of being cryptocarpic).

i love this plant. a very nice real Mexican miniature.

Very cool Lewis, nice work.


I would use a little finer mix for them tiny seedings. It will make it difficult for root formaiton, tiny seedlings don't have much energy especially for root formation you want to make it as easy as possible for them

For small seedlings (Blossfeldia, Aztekium, Discocactus) I just use coarse riversand and nothing else !


HN

Hi HN,

yeah I agree completely. I just didn't think of it at the time. Bit late to change it now though! this is the stuff i use for astros. ohwell in this case it doesn't appear to be causing any problems as yet. also the seedlings are actually green, not yellowish like the pic shows. I will post updated pics as they develop.

so if the cactus gods smile on me in 5 yrs time I will have some nice plants. This choice species is set to become even rarer as it is not a permitted import so we can't bring any new seed/stock into the country.

Yeah I agree they look to be doing well, I wouldn't change anything now.

5 years bah, graft my friend

Hope all goes well with them. The plant is lovely it's like something from under the sea.

Well done Lewis, especially with the small size.

Update:

Sweet - got to happy with progress!

Looks awesome Lewis.

Why do I feel like we're are gonna see some grafting shots some time soon?

Awesome Lewis! Might see them on ebay sometime

haha maybe. i will graft some more seedlings onto peresk shortly.

I really like the plant, its got that tiny bodied, pectinate-spined Pelecyphora/Turbinicarpus look to it, even the flowers are similar which are nice and remarkably large for its small size.
This slow growing solitary species was discovered relatively recently in 1983 in Oaxaca, Mexico and is apparently exceedingly threatened by urban sprawl in the wild, so i'm glad to be doing a bit of conservation work. Interestingly, hernandezii was first propagated en masse via micropropagation in the 1980's following its exciting discovery in a successful attempt to quickly produce it and make the species immediately available to eager collectors in Europe, therefore relieving the pressure on the wild populations and possibly saving the species from extinction in the wild from over-collecting, though unfortunately today it is still endangered.

Nice graft lewis congrats, looks like a sucess. Will be interesting to see how this one progresses. Mamms usually grow quite vigorously when grafted.

I really hope we don't see one on ebay. Lets keep it in the family lewis ! offer to your cacti fourm mates first I'll take one.

Looks like its powering on,Lewis. Well done. Keep us posted on it!