6July2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
It’s been another one of those years for my ariocarpus. I’ve lost an Ariocarpus fissuratus which seemingly never re-established its feeder roots after the winter, and my A. lloydii is looking distinctly peaky, having apparently decided to discard all but a couple of tubercles in the centre of the plant. They both came from the same source, and I must admit when I see plants like the one on the left flourishing, I wonder whether the sickliness of those plants is related.
It’s reassuring when a plant as slow-growing as Ariocarpus scapharostris is very obviously in growth, showing the lovely fresh green colour of a new tubercle. It will of course be a good long while before these tubercles reach their full size, but at least it’s moving!
6July2008
Posted by Stuart under: Other Succulents; Propagation.
My Lithops julii ssp fulleri seedlings have reached an important milestone: the production of their first true leaf pair. The split cotyledons are particularly evident if you look at the two plants to the left of this picture.
Given that I nearly managed to cook these little plants when I first transferred them to the greenhouse I’ve been pleased with their progress. I’m still pushing them along with regular watering – in fact, to be honest, I’m not really letting them dry out. For scale, that’s a 2" pot.
5July2008
Posted by Stuart under: Books; Cacti.
Until I came across this book by borrowing it from the library of my local branch of the BCSS, I had never before come across anything with such detailed cultivation advice for opuntioids.
I was sufficiently impressed with Michael Kießling’s work on this book that I was moved to order my own copy (from Uhlig Kakteen, who got it to me in impressive time).
What you get for your money is a really spectacular set of photographs illustrating a broad cross-section of (mostly) dwarf opuntioids, with cultivation advice given on a per-species basis, and particular attention paid to the treatment needed to induce flowering.
Kießling also provides some really helpful information on pests and diseases to which this group of plants is susceptible, including a bacterial disorder which has been puzzling me for years. If you are interested in opuntioids in general I can’t recommend this book highly enough, even though some of the classifications used may now raise a few eyebrows in the light of the taxonomy in the New Cactus Lexicon.
I’d also strongly recommend visiting Michael’s website, www.tephrowelt.de for another feast of visual delights and a great selection of plants and cuttings for sale.
5July2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
I’ve had contact from Allard Bax at cactusplaza.com, and aside from the fact that he said some nice things about this site, he’s let me know that he too is planning to write a grower’s blog, which is great news. Check out his website – particularly his selection of ariocarpus.
5July2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
I’ve read that maihuenias in general can be quite stubborn to root, but have had no trouble propagating Maihuenia poeppigii. One of my three plants lost its roots and rotted at the base, and all of the sound branches that I removed rooted quickly and without any trouble; what I did with those was wait until they were fully callused and then water thoroughly and often – in effect treating them as I would the adult plant.
I received this cutting of Mahuenia patagonica, the other species now recognised in this rather enigmatic genus, a few months ago, before the parent plant had really had chance to fully hydrate itself. I wondered then whether it would oblige, and wasn’t at all surprised when the cutting began steadily to lose water mass.
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4July2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
Pterocacti are fascinating things indeed.
Here is my plant of Pterocactus kuntzei resuming growth after flowering.
You can see that the new stems are forming around the edges of the end of the terminal flower stem. Whether or not these too will flower remains to be seen.
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3July2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
It shouldn’t be long now before my Opuntia macrorhiza opens these flowers. It’s been very noticeable that while the buds have been developing, the plant has diverted energy away from new growth; the handful of new pads that it has produced are coming along far more slowly than usual.
3July2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Pests & Diseases.
The Ectotropis alpina seedlings that I sowed on the 23rd of February this year are now in flower.
In their seed tray they’re well-camouflaged from a distance (and, annoyingly, easy pickings for slugs – there’s slug-bait down now!) and it’s hard to believe that they’re only four months old, and that they were just little green blobs back in March.
They’re thirsty little plants, and aren’t particularly succulent above-ground; they do, though, have thick fleshy roots for water storage.
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3July2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
It’s just over a month since I posted about my grafted plant of Turbinicarpus pseudopectinatus, which I beheaded in order to get it growing on its own roots. It seems I judged it about right in this case as the top part of the plant has now started to put out roots. I shan’t be lifting it up for an inspection again. It’s been resting on dry compost, until the callus obviously started to bulge, after which I began to water it.
Sadly a Turbinicarpus alonsoi degrafted at the same time simply withered away.
26June2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti; Propagation.
As my posts have been focused on my adult plants recently, I thought it was about time to post an update on how some of my seedlings are getting on.
The Ariocarpus agavoides youngsters that bothered to germinate are now doing well. The strongest is the plant shown here with two tubercles, which, unsurprisingly, was the first to come up.
Obviously they aren’t in any kind of rush to grow, but they’re developing steadily, which is all that can be asked of them.
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23June2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
Frailea phaeodisca again; worth putting up a larger image, I think:
23June2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
As I’ve mentioned previously, thanks to advice from Angie on the BCSS forum and in her article published in the BCSS journal CactusWorld, I’ve been watering my fraileas more. And, hey presto! It works.
For the first time ever, I have a Frailea phaeodisca with a flower bud on it; normally, for me, they go straight to seed cleistogamously. I’m putting this change of behaviour down to my attempt at treating them as the seasonal bog-plants that they are in habitat. It just goes to show that our plants really respond if we give them the conditions that they’ve evolved for.
20June2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
The largest of my three plants of Escobaria minima is now on its second wave of flowers. They’re wonderfully dependable little plants, flowering like clockwork and almost always more than once in a season.
I’ve recently acquired a couple more small seedlings from Richard and Wendy Edginton; one has slightly striped flowers, and the the other with much paler petals. They’re resting for now!
20June2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
I received this plant labelled as Selenicereus pteranthus. I’m not convinced; the stems in all other illustrations of S. pteranthus that I’ve found look far more like those of S. grandiflorus than like my plant, so I’m fairly certain it’s mislabelled. The flower buds, too, are almost identical at this stage to those on my Selenicereus spinulosus.
Time will tell…
20June2008
Posted by Stuart under: Cacti.
Here’s the plant I bought from this year’s Tephrocactus Study Group meeting, now in full flower. They’re absolutely glorious, and speak for themselves; better still, although they seem to require a fair amount of sun to open, in my conditions each flower lasts several days.
I’ve been removing the flower stems before they have chance to shrivel, and then removing from those the wilted flower remnants, as these can quite often be used for propagation – not for seed production, but for rooting as cuttings. Michael Kiesling, in his Tephrocactus und andere Feigenkakteen says that "as soon as the plants are mature enough to flower the vegetative growth decreases", so it seems a good reason to try and root whatever material is available!
