The "mother-in-law's pillow", also known by the name of "golden barrel" - whose scientific term is Echinocactus grusonii - represents one of the typical plants of desert landscapes; it prefers areas close to large rocks or boulders. This article describes how to grow it from seeds.
Steps
Step 1. The seeds are not in the bright yellow flowers
They are found in the fruits under the flowers.
Step 2. Several months after the flowers have wilted and when only the pods remain, harvest the pods just before they dry out
Step 3. The pods detach with a slight twist, leaving the fluffed, fibrous part on the cactus
Step 4. Use a utility knife to cut off the top of the pod and score one side of the pod to expose the seeds
Step 5. Get a scoop-like tool that is the size of a popsicle stick to scrape and extract the seeds
Step 6. Put them in a bowl with some water and let them soak overnight
Step 7. Fill germination trays with homogeneous soil consisting of 60% peat and the remaining 40% a mixture of equal parts vermiculite and coarse sand
Step 8. Use a horse syringe to suck up the small seeds and put some water in it as well
Step 9. Use it to distribute the seeds evenly in the planting trays, shaking it from time to time to prevent them from sticking to the bottom or coming out all together
Step 10. Place the containers in full sun until the seeds begin to germinate, usually within 4-6 weeks
When they pop up, they look like little red erasers, not green.
Step 11. When thin needles begin to sprout from the small seedlings, use a pair of tweezers to transfer them from the seedbed into 5cm pots filled with the same soil mix used for germination
Step 12. Let the seedlings grow for about a year
Step 13. After this time, transfer them to 10cm pots and let them grow for another year or two
Step 14. During the second and third years of growing in pots, the plants generated enough needles to keep out most of the typical desert animals and stabilized enough to grow to their final size
Advice
- Plants can also grow from completely dried seeds; try doing an online search to find more details about it.
- Once the flowers have wilted and the pods are ready to harvest, they may be moist inside but not completely wet.
- Read this article if you want to get more details about the "mother-in-law pillow".
- If you want to plant a lot of these cacti in your garden, get them when they are still small and space them carefully to give them enough space to grow. It is much better to take them and plant them when they are still in this stage than to wait for them to reach a considerable size.
- The seeds are black, but some can also turn slightly reddish.
- The "golden barrel" and many other similar plants produce hundreds of pods each season.
