Ariocarpus Seedlings

I re-potted a few Ariocarpus seedlings, I said in another thread I would post a picture so here we go. There are a few additional pictures on my blog (see link below).

How old are they?

About 2 years.

That's awesome - I just don't have that kind of patience. I have many own roots cacti, but I doubt I will raise many from seeds that far. Grafting is the way most of my cacti grow

Yeah I graft a heap too, these are what was left over. I'm finding more appeal in seed grown plants these days.

Looking brilliant. I like the little spines at the end of the leaves. Kinda like little stars nestled on top. How was your yield rate from this batch of ario's? I'm starting to like the sound of little ario's grafted onto the ends of Pereskiopsis stems. But I do still have a thing for plants on their own roots and it would be something special to raise them so patiently from seed on their own roots.

Even though I am a major advocate of grafting, when I have enough seedlings, I like to leave some hard rooted, even if it's just so I can have a baseline to see how much better the grafted ones are going

I think the propagation skills affect on the Ariocarpus growing speed on both of own-rooted and grafted.

Ariocarpus is in flower in autumn.
If you grafted a very young seedling, 2~3 days after germination in September, small type of Ariocarpis i.e. kotschoubeyans and agavoides etc will in flower February, within 5 months.
You have to use the growing season fully.
If you grafted in December, it has not enough growing time by autumn and you have to wait one more year for the flower.

Seedlings of these small type Ariocarpus start to flower around 4 years old.
You have to keep seedlings under soft-sunlight and moist condition in hot summer.
Ariocarpus seedlings will grow acceptable speed.
You can accelerate the growing speed by twice of repotting per year, in spring and in autumn.
You will also loose some seedlings in each repotting unfortunately.

Hellonasty's seedlings are a very nice color and I believe the growing speed has been very good.

Hanazono

What does the repotting do that speeds up the growth? Is it just cleaning and aeration of the roots that increases the growth? I have in the past only repotted when they were too big for the current pot.
I am learning a lot since I joined this forum, Thank you everyone who is helping.
Every bit of knowledge helps with species like Ariocarpus

IXOXI

Your question is one of answers.
The cleaning and aeration of the roots accelerates the growing speed of seedlings.
When you repot, pottingmix is renewed. This also affects on the growing speed.

I repot all seedlings of Astrophytum and Ariocarpus every year in spring. Twice of repotting with Ariocarpus seedlings has been testing.

Hanazono

Thank you, I was guessing, but that is what made the most sense.
Do you know approximately what percentage of the seedlings is lost each repotting?

IXOXI

I loose around 10% of seedlings on each repotting.

Hanazono