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planthelper

i want more pinkies

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i don't seem to get as many pinkies as i used to get, i even tried ye ole small paint brush, but i didn't seem to get more pinkies.

i remeber a post of ms saying that the time from pollination to seed set can vary greatly, but i remeber getting seeds soon after flowering. but that was in the hottest parts of the year, so maybe heat is a major factor, timewise regarding seedproduction.

i think when my lophs where younger they produced lot's of seeds, whilst being kept indoors behind the windows.

now they are outdoors.

so i ask, do you get more pinkies idoors or outdooors?

why doe handpollination not seem to work for me?

and is it true that, once the pinky has arrived, you can pick them already and the seeds inside will be fully develped already?

i love pinky, how can we get more pinky?

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I haven't had any seeds in a couple plants that flowered for me this year. 3 different strains. except I missed them as I begin to think the fruit doesn really look like a fruit. ALso I was not helping them pollinate them apart from a couple of times

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I don't have to do anything for Williamsii they just go nuts selfing and producing many "pinkies". I think some direct sun definitely helps as does some natural conditions such as wind and temperature variance at night. I usually do the others by hand have have varying success depending on the cross attempted. When pollinating by hand be sure the stigma is open at the top and ready to accept the pollen.

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i've noticed some self fertile lophs that have flowered lots this year but havent put out fruits for the last 3 or 4 flowers.. anyone know why this would happen?

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I have my lophs in a greenhouse that doesn't get many useful insects so I have to hand pollinate. I think it may take a few attempts because I find I get best results when I do it daily. I don't often have the time to do this. I haven’t had many fruits this year but expect ore when the weather is more consistently warm. I also leave the fruits on the plant until they are starting to turn red and collapse - the fresh new ones almost always have undeveloped seeds. Lots of ferts in the hot weather I think helps too...

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i always collected them only when they fruit turned saggy and more red, but than i read that one can pick the fruit instantly... i guess i will experiment ontime into this direction. sometimes, mice seem to pull of the pinky, so i thought early fruit picking avoids this risk.

btw, i think the record is around 47 seeds in a single pinky, my best was 8, what's your average nummber of seeds, and your record?

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i saw a plant flower in late autumn and three months later in early spring a fruit appeared.

couple days later it was gone but digging around in the centre revealed a little dried pinkie....this really surprised me.

heard something similar from someone else.

t s t .

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I have 2 X 3yo's on their own roots with their first flower now, as well as a 2yo on pere (one of my first grafts i did)

They are hard grown outdoors

im fairly slack with nutrients a bit of composted cow manure a couple of times a year (soil medium is just cacti mix with added limestone & creek sand)

The grafted plants are in straight cacti mix with manure added, other than that i just give them extra water and will bring them in out of the rain if its been heavy for more than a couple of days

will keep you posted on fruits & post a few pics when they start to bloom :wub:

Edited by mac

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i saw a plant flower in late autumn and three months later in early spring a fruit appeared.

couple days later it was gone but digging around in the centre revealed a little dried pinkie....this really surprised me.

heard something similar from someone else.

t s t .

 

that reminds me of something, if you find loph's which have had some of there pinkies left on the cacti, those seeds get often "stored" between the white hairs.

so it always pay's off to have a good look at the crown of the loph in search for overlooked seeds,

some people think they get no seeds, but they just overlooked the fruit, as it can disaper (shrivel up again) within just a few days.

i had my lophs with a babysitter and when i got them back, i found a few seeds in the hairs and one shriveled up pinky.

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i took one pinky off yesterday, and dissected it right away, predenting i'm a bit like darwin.

unfortunately, it contained only 1 seed. :(

anyway, i planted it out right away, to find out more about my thoughts, if totaly fresh seeds fail to germinate.

on a side note, i have started doing loph peres seedling grafts again, and it feels like such a rewarding work.

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ok, here is what i found out:

one get's more seed pod's (and more seeds inside) once summer is taking hold.

one is best of, to remove the fresh pinky, and not let the seed pod shrivel up.

seed removal is aswell more difficult with the more dried up fruit.

seed can be sown out straight out of the pod, but i still let them dry up a bit for a few day's before sowing out.

i'm not sure if a loph flower first sheds pollen and than becomes able to be fertilized, or the other way round, i think it's the first(i can not remember things like that because of dyslexia)...

anyway, if you use a strong magnifying glass, you can see if the pollen is ripe, or aswell if the stigma has become receptable (stigma appears moist, and more open?!)

checking out your cacti with magnification is exciting!

i wonder if any of you know the prefered polarisation of loph seeds?

should they be planted with straight side up or down?

sometimes loph seeds germed on the surface for me, but i could not see where the roots came out.

i might place just a few seeds between some moist toiletpaper and will try to find out.

gardening, get's never boring, jay!

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i might place just a few seeds between some moist toiletpaper and will try to find out.

 

please do post your results if you give it a go.

*Grabs magnifying glass and heads to the greenhouse*

:P

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I got 5 seeds from two pods this morning, I have noticed I get alot more seeds if i do an intentional cross, these were just self-pollinated.

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on a side note, i have started doing loph peres seedling grafts again, and it feels like such a rewarding work

My grafts are pumping out a second batch of flowers ill eventually post some pics up

I do think a cacti seed harvesting thread is needed on SAB forums with pics (as this is my first season both my grafts & 3+yo plants on own roots have flowered :wub:)

Edited by mac

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I do believe the heat plays a role in the fruiting. When it started to heat up here this season 2 of my largest lophs shot out pinkies before flowers and they hadnt flowered since the end of summer previous and i do recall it also happening in years gone by but never really gave it a thought. Getting masses of pinkies atm, i just use whatever is at hand to pollinate, at this point in time it is lil bits of tissue rolled up, i just twirl it around in the flowers going over them 2 or 3 times. Pretty rough but it gets the job done. I generally get anywhere between 5 to 16 seeds per pinkie.

I pull the fruits when they are fresh, ie, before they have shrivelled any. The only problem i have found is if you try pull them too early they will break in half, ya gotta wait till they are really poking out of the fur. My plants are all in a shadehouse btw, gets hot as hell in there but they thrive.

I really need to stop eating them but some of them taste really good, loph fruit jam would be awesome. :P

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I got two seeds off my first fruit, ive had about 8 flowers so far, and am hoping for a few more, flowers and pinkies

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Got two fruits this week off my mature loph.

Cement verandah with about 50% shade.

1.5 litre pot with low organic matter content mix.

Regular but low watering and fert.

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i love pinky, how can we get more pinky?

I got too damn many pinky.

I got tired of picking fruit, counting seeds, now I let the mice have them.

Mice gotta eat too, no?

post-3765-0-59164000-1293818122_thumb.jp

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post-3765-0-59164000-1293818122_thumb.jpg

post-3765-0-54269900-1293818160_thumb.jpg

post-3765-0-52467800-1293818199_thumb.jpg

post-3765-0-59164000-1293818122_thumb.jpg

post-3765-0-54269900-1293818160_thumb.jpg

post-3765-0-52467800-1293818199_thumb.jpg

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I really need to stop eating them but some of them taste really good, loph fruit jam would be awesome. :P

 

they're fucking delicious right? i cant stop eating my mammillaria fruits too newimprovedwinkonclear.gif

wow what nice plants zelly, are any of the ones pictured your L. williamsii texensis?

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cmon zelly jam it up buddy! impressive plants mate :worship:

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i did put down 4 loph seeds each between the toiletpaper, 4 with the round end up and 4 with the flat side up.

only 1 of the 8 seeds is germinating unfortunately, but it was enough to show the preferred polarisation.

"plant loph seeds, flat end downwards"

and that's what the shape of a loph seed would suggest aswell.

loph seed's are of the shape of an egg with one end though totaly flat,

it can be assumed that seeds will be statisticly more often to be found resting on ther flat bottoms, than balancing on there dome (egg) shaped other end! and this obviously is natures smart design which tries to facilitate perfect polarisation for the seeds.

thats what i observed:

the flat end of the seed is in fact a lid! the flat side of the seed opens and the embryonic roots than emerge out of this side.

nice pic there, pd & zelly, i will try to copy your efforts! :wub:

Edited by planthelper
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good work PH

how long have they been between the paper towels? do you plan on leaving them there incase more germ later on?

this is going to be an effort now doing bulk seed grows ;p

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how long have they been between the paper towels? do you plan on leaving them there incase more germ later on?

this is going to be an effort now doing bulk seed grows ;p

 

i can tell you the time span involved tomorrow.

when doing bulk seeds, you could just throw them onto the soil and than with a pointed object you just dip the flat side more into the ground.

just nodge them a bit towards the right polarisation.

placing seeds perfectly polarised might increase germ rate and early growth rate, but i would not suggest to anyone to "hand place" hundresd's or even thousands of seeds. :BANGHEAD2:

Edited by planthelper

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