Looking for any echinopsis and relatives seeds.Have seeds or cuttings to trade.

Lithops seedlings grow fastest with consistent warmth and moisture with fairly high humidity. This works well for the first couple of months to put on a lot of growth quickly. Eventually, certainly once the first true leaves come through, you'll need to give them strong light, lower humidity, and more temperature variation, or they will just bloat up so badly they will die. Lithops seedlings are also quite happy in the sun, even very strong sun, but they must not be allowed to overheat. On a cool day or when there is a reasonable breeze, full sun is fine. On hot still days in summer you will definitely need to shade them. Lithops will colour up strongly even before the first true leaves appear, this is normal. L. aucampiae will go a dark reddish brown. Any sign of bleaching is a warning that they are overheating. A boiled Lithops will go completely white or transparent, it is then effectively dead. In the sun you will need to water quite frequently during the first summer. Don't allow the pots to completely dry through until winter is approaching. Although regular water is needed, you probably still want to protect the little Lithops from torrential rains or long continuous periods of rain. Faucaria seedlings will grow under more or less the same conditions. Definitely don't allow them to dry out completely. Most cactus seedlings, your Echinopsis for sure, will not like full sun at this size. Try some morning sun when they get a little bigger. Watch the colour carefully, dark green is good, some brownish shades like yours is OK, strong red is too much light, crimson or pink is damaged by the light. Pale green or yellow usually means they need more light but be careful since it could also indicate overwatering, too cold, or nutrient problems. Cactus seedlings will grow successfully for the first year or two with constant high humidity. I keep seedlings in a propagator for at least two or three months. In the open air they should be watered regularly and not allowed to dry out completely until cooler weather arrives in autumn.

So if it comes with a phytosanitary certificate then it's okay? That's how I read that 1st paragraph. I was just curious; I'm going to order some domestic seeds before I start importing them ;-) Or I have a couple Echinopsis hybrids ready to bloom so maybe I'll get my own seed. At least it's free and it will be fun learning something new. I have never been successful with seeds yet. Don't have too much problem sprouting them, but they don't seem to grow very much after that so I'm not doing something right (maybe not enough heat/light). I have an extra reptile pad for my box turtles, would that be too much bottom heat? Or do they only need bottom heat to sprout? When I have to start working long hours I'm going to take them to work. I have one of those intelligent lights so I'm thinking that would be good for them. I don't think it's enough light for full grown cacti, but it may work for the seedlings.

Re: the question about the Schick Hybrids in picture 629, I believe the varieties are (1) Anastasia (the white/pink), (2) Sasquatch (the orange), and (3) Edwardian Lady (the yellow/white/pink. All can be purchased from the Huntington, they have a great online catalog with pictures at www.huntington.org/BotanicalDiv/Schick/catalogintro.html, and if you're within driving distance during the week, their Curator of Desert Collections, John Trager, might be nice enough to let you pick them up in person (which got me a free entrance into the gardens there, absolutely beautiful). As to the dragon fruit cutting, I picked it up at a flower and garden show in April 2008. And yes, they grow very fast, especially when planted in ground. I'll see if I can find a picture of it earlier and post it.