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How do we make the seed catalogue Cactus-Adventures ?


25 years experience and still learning!


- All the year round and every year, we collect the seeds in our collection:
1 Notocactus(Wigginsia) sp
2 Notocactus leninghausii
3 Neowerdermannia vorverkii
4 Ariocarpus trigonus
5 Pachyphytum bracteatum
6 Mammillaria gatesii
7 Cleistocactus variispinus
8 Parodia comosa
9 Oreocereus celsianus
10 Pachycereus pringlei
11 Pseudolithos migiurtinus
12 Neoporteria (Neoch.) floccosa
13 Strombocactus disciformis
14 Sulcorebutis menesesii
15
Ferocactus fordii
16 Gymnocalycium pflanzii 
17 Frailea pygmaea
18 
Stapelia grandiflora

19 Echinocereus blanckii
20 Lophophora williamsii v. fricii etc.

                      Melocactus neryi                      Lophocereus schottii             Turbinicarpus swobodae           Mammillaria armillata Lomatophyllum citreum Monvillea cavendishii


                                      Manual, controlled pollination                                                     Collecting seeds is different according to species



- Cleaning is a long and arduous task :
after harvest, we must clean, dry, wash, moiste the fruits or seeds, different technics according to the genera, if they are pertaining to cacti or other succulents...



- The seeds of previous years (according to the species) are eliminated or recycled for the free packets, some seed species we have thrown may still perfectly germinate, but it is impossible to know which ones. Lithops, many cacti and Cucurbitaceae keep their germinative power during 10 to 15 or more years! Others have a lifetime of only one or two years.


The seeds removed from the catalogue may represent some kilos. The cristal bags are partly recycled, but the damaged or polluted ones are thrown.



Obviously, we cannot make tests on all the harvested or received species, but, punctually, or for the professionals who ask for it or because we have doubts, we realize different sowing tests during the year.


At the end of 2009, as an example, we removed from the 2010 sale the recently collected seeds of Caralluma socotrana, because their freshness was extreme, they were not rather ripe in fact and did not germinate. The first ones brought back from Socotra germinated freely and they were so wanted that they were quickly out of stock... For example, of 3 seeds of Dracaena cinnabari harvested in the habitat, 2 germinated well, what is rather normal for seeds collected in habitat. In fact, the third one germinated after 12 months!
In spite of the tests we make, we can sometimes remove seeds which did not germinate at home, but which you would have perfectly been able to germinate in different conditions or at another period of time for optimal germination, which also depends on the genus we sow.
On the opposite, we may germinate species that some of our customers do not manage to germinate, e.g. above right, Caralluma quadrangula...
The seedling is still not an exact science... Here are some seedlings realized by Mildred:

               Adenia glauca                   Dendrosicyos socotranum             Commiphora humbertii                Dracaena cinnabari

                       Sansevieria kirkii                                        Aloe vera from seed!                                                                           Astridia herrei



1 Agave gomez-pompae - 2 Aloe longistyla - 3 Agave salmiana - 4 Haageocereus tenuis - 5 Cephalopentendra ecirrhosa - 6 Agave victoria-reginae - 7 Agave parryi - 8 Kedrostis aff. hirtella

9 Aloe vogtsii - 10 Apodanthera sagitiifolia - 11 the only seed of  Xanthorrhoea glauca that we got and it germinated! - 12 Leuchtenbergia principis - 

14 Sansevieria scabra  - 15 Zehneria pallidinervia - 16 Agave sobria v. roseana - 17 Euphorbia gorgonis





The Seed Catalogue is online and constantly actualized!
Thank you for your patience !



©JL 2018