Aztekium ritteri seedlings

[dvg]

One of my other plant hobbies is growing cacti, and I grow a lot of them from seed.

Some species can grow quite quickly from seed and even flower within a couple years of being sown.

Others can be very slow and probably the slowest growing cactus species of them all is Aztekium ritteri.

This species grows an average of about 1mm in diameter per year, so to get a plant to one inch in diameter (25mm), on it's own roots versus being grafted onto a hardier rootstock to speed up growth, will take about 25 years.

And if you wanted to see it get to it's full adult size of about 2 inches in diameter, you might want to start this one from seed when you are quite young.

Here are some seedlings that I have been growing for over four years now.

I uprooted them just to see what size roots they had under them, and then carefully repotted them again.

As you can see they are still very tiny and extremely slow growing.

dvg

 

[Nova]

Get out your whitlin' knife, this could take a while!

 

[wayright]

Man Doug, you have some real patience to grow those for so long!
That takes some real dedication !

And here I thought some Chinense were slow growers!


Excellent photos man!

Kevin

 

[robbyjoe01]

That is wild. Wow!!!!! keep up the good work

 

[Justaguy]

I will have my grandkids check with your grandkids to see how big they get.

 

[Yaotzin]

Hi thought you may be interested in seeing some pictures of my seed grown Aztekium Ritterii over 14 years old ish as i am 28 and been growing cacti since i was 12. i keep my collection to just a few rare and unusual ones including Lophophoras.

 

[dvg]

Get out your whitlin' knife, this could take a while!

Haha, I'd no doubt be burning through a few high quality steel knife blades aiting for these to get mature...

...but in the menatime I might get real good at other knife games like mumblety-peg or knife-between-the-fingers-real-fast...

Man Doug, you have some real patience to grow those for so long!
That takes some real dedication !

And here I thought some Chinense were slow growers!



Excellent photos man!

Kevin

Thanks Kevin, I'm betting you'd never complain at all about chinenses being slow, if you grew these cacti from seed.

That is wild. Wow!!!!! keep up the good work

Thanks for the supportive words there Robbyjoe01!

I will have my grandkids check with your grandkids to see how big they get.

That's about the truth of it Brian.

Hi thought you may be interested in seeing some pictures of my seed grown Aztekium Ritterii over 14 years old ish as i am 28 and been growing cacti since i was 12. i keep my collection to just a few rare and unusual ones including Lophophoras.

Wow that is most impressive Yaotzin.

Do you fertilize your A. ritteri?

And do pests like red spider or mealybugs bother it?...I'd be concerned about taking all the effort to grow these extremely slow plants and then having some pest come along and wreak havoc with them.

What do you like to use for pest control?

Very cool that you were able to share your plant here Yaotzin...best of luck with it and hopefully you'll be able to see your plant get to maturity and pup for you!

Has it flowered for you yet?

I'm not sure if you are a member of the Cactiguide forum, but they have members from all across the globe.

http://cactiguide.com/forum/

dvg

 

[Yaotzin]

Spider mites attacked my Williamsi but luckily for me not my ritteri as i used something here called rose clear or rose guard which is really good for mites etc and found as Aztekium is very slow growing and lives in rock i havent fertilized it as scared of burn, potted up once and should have pleanty of nutes for a good while and only water them with rain water. as for flowering i wait every year for it so hopefully this year!! will probably grow a few more this year as my second one died in my last move.how did you propagate your seeds? mine was very hit and miss and only 3 came up all those years ago. oh and will give the forum a look as new to all the forum stuf its my 4th or 5th year with chillis so will post some pics of those soon.

 

[dvg]

Yeah those red spider are so tiny and do a lot of damage.

My A. ritteri were grown in a ziplock bag for 4 years...I totally forgot about them for the last two years or so, and just rediscovered them a few weeks back, and fortunately they were still alive.

I use the following for my potting mix,

1 part coir
1 part loam
1 part fine vermiculite
1 part sharp sand with a little traction gravel

I leave them away from bright light, just off to the side of my fluorescents and just mist the surface once in a while to keep it moist...Ziplock bags do breathe and will dry out in time.

The plants should be tough enough to come out of the bags when they are about the size of a match head.

And I didn't fertilize mine at all, but I have misted them with some very diluted low-numbered ferts the last couple of weeks to give them something to grow on...but I don't want to overdo it either.

I'm going to dig some more Aztekium seeds out of my seed fridge and start another batch today if I can find the time to get around to doing it.

dvg

 

[siling_labuyo]

how old is this cactus?

 

[Justaguy]

Hi thought you may be interested in seeing some pictures of my seed grown Aztekium Ritterii over 14 years old ish as i am 28 and been growing cacti since i was 12. i keep my collection to just a few rare and unusual ones including Lophophoras.