Cactus / asterias

I repotted this asterias early spring in this year.
The plant has set well and been in flower.
The current size is 19 cm diameter and I expect more than 20 cm.

Cactus / asterias fruit

A fruit of variegated asterias has been ripened.
I pollinated with an other variegated asterias 2 months ago.
I will collect seeds soon.

Cactus / asterias cultivar

I bought seeds of Astrophytun asterias cv K Sato chyou-nou hakuten kabuto and sowed on 18th October 2003. The meaning of the cultivar name is astrias with extra-thick white flecking created by Mr K Sato.
When the plant was small it was an ordinal asterias but  it turned the appearance lately as the given name.
The current size is 12 cm diameter.

Cactus / variegated asterias

This is the 2nd flowering for the variegated asterias in this season.
It will be several more flowerings until winter.
I will pollinate and collect seeds.

Cactus / seeds harvesting time

My main collections are Astrophytum and Ariocarpus.
It is the seeds harvesting time for both genera.
I pollinated Ariocarpus last autumn and last spring for Astrophytum.
The photo is Ariocarpus retusus v major cv Daruma Royal with fruits.

Cactus / Astrophytum hybrid

The photo is a grafted Astrophytum hybrid, senil x super kabuto.
The body color is abnormal because of  the hybridization affected but it seems flowering function is remained as normal.

Cactus / ruri kabuto

I grafted 12 of very young ruri kabuto seedlings last year.
The purpose of the grafting is the collection of seeds.
You can expect the flowering within a year if you grafted.
The ruri kabuto on the photo is 1 year old and has many flowers because of grafted.