AfM seed 2008

I was able to order 110 packets from this years AfM seedlist. The first batch of 54 packets of seeds were sown on 5th April 2008 using my normal method of standing the 5cm pots of compost in boiling water, sowing the seed on to the surface and then putting to pots into a heated propagator for 3 weeks.
Usually germination will start after 7 days, depending on the species. Out of the the 54 lots sown only 2 failed to germinate, with the rest giving excellent to good germination results. M.tayloriorum K242 and K214 germinated after only 5 days. One group that was disappointing were the M.longiflora WK field numbers. I was able to get 10 different lots of these and WK 474 and WK 416 were the two packets that failed to germinate and the others, WK's 343a, 062, 143, 439, 489, 460, 437 and 055 produced only 1 or 2 seedlings each.
Another lot that was sown at the same time and is worth a mention is M.laui spp subducta ML124 which came from Doug Rowland. The pot was placed in the top left hand corner of the propagator and after 15 days shown no sign of germinating. For some reason at, 8 am, I moved the pot to the bottom right hand side of the propagator and when I checked again at 5pm the same day 5 seeds had germinated and there are now 9. The final batch will be sown this weekend, then there is the matter of a 100 packets of seed from Piltz.

Those are nice results, Mark. From the Afm seed that I have sown was only one failed: painteri. The rest of them gave good to very good germination. I am using the baggy method and leave them at least for 2 months in the bag without open it. Are you take them out of the propagator after 3 weeks?
The 100 packets of seed from Piltz are not all Mammillarias, aren't they?

Yes, after 3 three weeks the pots are removed from the propagator, they get a light spinkle of vermiculite and stood in trays on the benching which is lightly shaded in the morning. The pots recieve rain water from below twice a week. I expect that by about August the seedlings from these early sowings will be big eought to prick out into the sinlge modular cells.
100 packets of seed from Piltz, Yes they are all Mamm's and documented. I think piltz has about 300 odd lots listed. I have never deal with Piltz before and I was like a kiddie in the sweet shop and got carried away.

Your work makes my efforts seem very small in comparison, Mark. I sowed 16 species, all of which have germinated, the only one with a small level of seeds germinated is M. lolitae, which only 2 have emerged so far - that is after 27 days.

A shot of all the seedlings that have germinated since I started sowing seed on 18-11-08

A shot of a pot of M.nunezi Rog287 from the AfM 2007 seedlist. Sown 18-11-07, greminated 28-11-07

This a shot of my M.lolitae from last year's AfM seedlist. The seed was sown in April 07.

This, has I have said in a previous post, I belive to M.melilotiae which was named by Laferriere in the UK Mamm Society Journal and Pilbeam states to be ' undistinguishable from M.barbata'

Very impressive Mark,
Difficult to say at the moment if it's a barbata form or something else that you have there. Perhaps next year when they growed up.

Here's a picture of my nunezii Rog 287, sown in march 2007


and another one of seedlings 2007, they need to be repotted: