Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Unfinished business: Schlumbergera 'Caribbean Dancer' fruit


'Caribbean Dancer' still has two fruits on it; the yellow NOID Schlumbergera has one. For reasons I don't understand, only the above fruit looks ripe; the second fruit is also reddish-purple, but it's a much duller shade. They've both been like this for a long time, too, and were formed at approximately the same time, so there's no excuse for them being at different levels of ripeness.

I don't want to try getting seeds now; for one thing, there's a lot of space being taken up by plants I'm propagating already, and I don't have the room. For another, if they're not ready yet, then I'd blow my chances of getting seedlings, and I very badly want to get seedlings. From the research I did for the Schlumbergera profile, I know the fruit will stay attached to the plant for a long time once it's ripe, so there's no harm in leaving it there longer. I just thought you might be interested in seeing what a possibly-ripe holiday cactus fruit looks like.


3 comments:

Bom said...

How much longer do you expect you have to wait? Good luck on getting the timing just right.

mr_subjunctive said...

Bom:

Really have no idea. They can be ready after six months, which is about where we are now, but it can also take a year. I'd have to re-check the profile to be sure, but I think the determining factor is supposed to be temperature.

Paul said...

Been a looooooong time since I played around with Schlums. As I recall, the fruit on mine hung on for a year or so. Never did try planting the seeds though.