Saving seed!

[coolcactusdood]

Hi, I know this might seem like a dumb question but I can't seem to find any useful info online, and don't trust my own intuition.

I see many posts on breeding cacti, but many start with the seed ready to plant.

---I want to know about saving seed from fruit.

It may be very obvious, but I am new to it, and have recently found a few fruits from the echinopses (or echinopsises) from which I want to reproduce.

One is trichocereus Peruviana and the other is a dragonfruit hybrid. + a loph

I don't want to ruin my first batch because I don't want to wait another year to cross!

-----basically how do I get from a fresh picked cactus fruit with seeds, to a growing plant?

(time drying, temp, etc) much appreciated!

[bogfrog]

My oh my, thats a big question.

I will do my best to explain the seed extraction, and maybe i can pm you some info i recently sent another member regarding growing cactus from seed.

The peru fruit and the dragon fruit will require the same treatment, (the loph fruit you can just split open with your fingernail over a white piece of paper and pop the seeds out.)

So basically i scoop out all the flesh from the shell of the fruit and put the insides in a bowl of water. I mush up all the flesh between my fingers so the seed seperates from the white flesh.

Many of the seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl, and the flesh generally floats in the water. Not all seeds will sink though, so getting them from this point to dry is pretty labour intensive.

Only start this job when you have a bit of time to sit there and complete it, as you dont want to leave the seed soaking in the water too long incase it all starts to germinate.

Next grab 2 sieves (one is kinda okay, but two works better and another bowl.

Sit the seives inside each other and pour the water with fruity bits and cactus seed into the seives. Most of the seed will be caught in the seive. Leave it to drain for a little while then pour the seed onto a thick layer newspaper. You need atleast 5 sheets worth to absorb the water. Spread the seed out as evenly as you can and sit somewhere warm to dry.

If there are still lots of seed in the water, put it through the seives again and put the rest of the seed on some newspaper, and sit somewhere warm - where animals or children can't mess with it! -

It will take atleast a day or two to dry completely, and the seed becomes crumbly and detatches from the paper, then you can pour the seed off the paper onto a dish or a plate, then it is probably worth leaving out for another day or two before putting it in a bag.

Hope this makes sense, kinda hard to describe tbh i should have found a video!

[Bert&Ernie]

I thought most freshly picked seed was ready to plant. Keep ones you are saving in a small paper bag in a cool dark place.

[bogfrog]

Yeh of course it is, but who wants to sow several hundred seeds at once!

[Glass Roots]

me

[bogfrog]

Haha i thought someone might say that. I did too at the start, and i did do that, but the hours of repotting have convinced me never to do this again,

Well if you want some seed, pm me. I have lotsa trich hybrid seed im not gona sow.

[Dreamwalker.]

is a dragonfruit hybrid. + a loph

So did you manage to cross a dragon fruit with a loph?...............................Would you have a few of them to trade?

[bogfrog]

^

Lol... Um i reeeeally dont think that would be possible!

[coolcactusdood]

In all honesty, I only have two fruits, which haven't "popped" yet but the bugs got a piece of one, and I was too excited to wait for the other. So I can just plant them straight without any actual drying procedure?

I think a bird got my loph fruit!

Sorry quick typing, I meant an epiphyllum X echinopsis, a trich Peru in a botanical garden I work at, AND my loph. Soon as I get my setup back up I'll be doing all sorts of crosses though.

I want to do a matucana/pachanoi/pelecyphora/williamsii cross one day. Maybe by the time I graduate...

Thanks y'all!

[bogfrog]

"So I can just plant them straight without any actual drying procedure?"

Loph seed removed from the fruit, yes, dragon and peru, no.

[coolcactusdood]

Check out EGs thread about inter generic breeding. He says the trick is to raise the ph of te flower and it will take its own, or any other plants pollen, even if it is in a different genus, or if it is sterile.

Since my geography consisted of little more than limestone I assume that is why my hybrid took so readily.

[Jox]

You could plant out your Tricho & dragon fruit seeds with out going to the trouble of collecting, cleaning & drying by doing the "chew & spit" LOL!

This is something 2Deep & I perfected while eating a yellow dragon fruit, we were munching into the fruit & nearly finished when we realized we wanted to keep some of the seeds , so we started spitting all of the pulp & un-chewed seeds into pots with seed raising mix, to our surprise we had better germination with those seeds than with the next dragon fruit which was cleaned & dried.

I always try to collect seeds properly & do it just like Ceres explained this way I can store & share excess seed but if you don't have the time & are only interested in producing a small number of seedlings then go the chew & spit !

Cheers

Jox

[Dreamwalker.]

In all honesty, I only have two fruits, which haven't "popped" yet but the bugs got a piece of one, and I was too excited to wait for the other. So I can just plant them straight without any actual drying procedure?

something I want to set up and try....is immature seed germination................search for "seed rescure" germination...........you need a really sterile setup ......like a lab hood..........

with very distant crosses.............the fruit may not mature.........the imature seed can be rescured by tissue culture tecnique ...............gel plates....growth hormones etc

[Dreamwalker.]

actually its probably not "seed rescure" I meant to write "seed embryo rescure".................you use sterile tissue culture tecnique to rescure the cells in the imature embryo..............there are a few you tubes of home made DIY set ups.............

[coolcactusdood]

Ahhh! Too scary I'm already going pretty far with grafting and distant crossed cacti. But go ahead and try it