Growing cacti for fun

Mealy bugs ?

2007-10-07T06:54:00.001-07:00

Something built a nest on some of my cacti. Not 100% sure what it is, but the usual suspect is mealy bugs. After googling around, it seems that isopropyl may be a good solution. Luckily I had a bottle of ESSO Fuel Condensate Remover (thanks, ESSO). I simply put the pipe from a spray can into the 100% proof isopropyl, and gave them a shower. Isopropyl, like most alcoholes, evaporates quickly. So far this seems to be a good treatment, repeating it once a day for a few days should do the trick.

Degraft massacre

2007-04-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

For various reasons, beeing the Pereskiopsis stock loosing all its leaves, or to avoid the scions to pup too wildly, I decided to degraft some of them. They are approx. 6-7 months old now:

After laying on that dry soil for 3-4 weeks, they should be ready to get rooted & potted. The main head of the biggest one on the top-right, is measuring 4.2 cm..

Grafts revisited

2007-04-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

Here is an update from previously posted grafts:

Eriosyce sandillon. I consider these quite successfull. Pereskiopsis grafts tends to make the scion produce pups, often too wild, but these can be removed before rooting.

Astrophytum myriostigma "onzuka": I decided to degraft these. They got a bit elongiated from the not so very intense light in my growbox, combined with wooly surface that prevent them from getting enough of that light. They will be better off on their own roots in ful sun, at least I hope so.

Astrophytum asterias "superkabuto". Not so sure about the look of these, wish some of the pups werent there. Still I think they got potential.

Finally, L. Williamsii "decipiens" from this post:

Compare dates, and you will have an idea how fast they grow..

Flowering degraft and potting

2007-03-25T07:36:00.000-07:00

Allmost 4 weeks after beeing degrafted, this little fella decided to flower:

It also started to develop roots, which means potting-time. Here it is, together with a well rooted Decipiens:

Allthough beeing grafted to Pereskiopsis, they still has potential to get a natural look.

Diseased

2007-03-15T16:12:00.000-07:00

A while ago one of my Lophphoras started getting some tiny dark spots, and getting a paler color:

As days passed, it got worse. It started to develop large cracks, I suspect was a fungal attack.. it looked scary, so I decided to decapitate and throw it away. A pity. I would like to get my hands on a good fungicide..

Caespitosa

2007-03-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

Here are some L. Williamsii v. Caespitosa, started from seed in mid october 2006. This particular variant is known for growing into clusters, some of the pups have even started growing new pups. The only annoying thing is, that when grafting on pereskiopsis, the pups at the bottom encloses the scion's stem, which again will make degrafting a tedious and painful operation. At some point I will try to graft these on Myrtillocactus geometrizans

Premature pup flower

2007-02-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

For some reason, this specimen decided to put its first flower on a tiny pup. Probably the grafting that makes it behave oddly ?

Recent grafts

2007-02-03T10:14:00.000-08:00

I received some seeds from various sources last november, and of course, I couldnt resist:

Astrophytum asterias "Superkabuto":

Astrophytum myriostigma "Onzuka":

Eriosyce sandillon, thanks to Alejandro for sending me habitat seeds from Chile:

At last, my Echinopis grafts from previous posts. These freaked out in several ways, either by pupping like mad or monstrose growth:

Flower

2007-02-03T09:59:00.000-08:00

My first graft decided to flower a couple of weeks ago:

Lophophora grafts

2006-12-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

Been doing some work in my growbox lately. My lophophoras are beginning to look quite good.

3 different strains: The topmost one is the one mentioned in earlier posts. The pereskiopsis stock has dropped all leaves, so it doesnt grow quite so fast anymore. However, it has started to produce som tuft on the top, and hopefully it will start to flower within the next few months. The other two (from left) is Huizache and Decipiens. The topmost one was planted from seeds aquired from eBay, and was labeled "Huizache".. but I doubt its true (doesnt look like my others Huizaches obtained from a more serious seller).

These are all Decipiens:

New growbox

2006-11-05T11:59:00.000-08:00

I decided to build a new growbox, intended mainly for seedlings and grafts. I simply put some plywood-plates together, added some white paint inside (reflectors) and finally mounted 2X 2X18W (4 tubes in total) fluoresecent tubes. The tubes gives 6500 Kelvin color (Phillips 965), cheap to buy & run, perfectly suitable for this purpose.

More grafts is on the way, it will probably be full this winter.

Grafting on Pereskiopsis

2006-10-28T14:43:00.000-07:00

Its autumn again, a good time to do some indoor activities.

Since I got lots of Echinopsis Subdenudata seeds laying around (see previous posts), and my Pereskiopsis growing like weed, I figured I'd do some grafts again. In addition I have a couple of other grafts from earlier experiments.

The Echinopsis Subdenudata's quickly developed pups, as shown (note the difference between the seedlings from the same batch):

Here is a closeup:

I also succeeded doing a multigraft:

This is an Echinopsis Lagenformis. Compare with the seedlings on the left, which comes from the same batch:

Growing lithops from seeds

2006-08-04T07:30:00.000-07:00

In the end of May I planted some lithops, which I got from succseed. There were 3 types:

Lithops fransisci
Lithops marmorata v. elisae
Lithops schwantesii v. marthae

I dont have any experience with lithops, and I had limited success with these. L. marmorata seems to be most difficult one, with only 3 survivors out of aprox. 15 seeds. The L. fransisci, however, had a germinating rate of around 90%.

The picture shows 3 L. marmorata on the top-left, L. fransisci on bottom-left and L. schwantesii on the right. As you can see, there is some moss growing too which is caused by too much humidity.. it will probably disappear as I will keep it in more dry and ventilated conditions which is ideal for Lihops.

Cacti on steroids: grafting

2006-08-02T06:21:00.000-07:00

3 months ago, I mentioned little Pete, my first graft ((L. Williamsii v. Huizache). This summer has been quite hot and sunny, and this has resulted in tremendeus growth for most of my plants.

Here is Pete 3 months later:

It measures ca. 2.7 X 2.8 cm, which I guess is not bad for just 3 months growth :)

Harvest

2006-06-30T01:25:00.000-07:00

The Echinopsis from the previous posts was self-fertile, and I pollinated it by just blowing carefully on the flower. (There was also a second flower, which I did not do this and therefore didnt yield any fruit)

The fruit grows from the base of the flower, and falls of by itself when mature enough. There is probably around 200-250 seeds. I am not 100% sure about how the germination rates are for self-fertilized plants, but I'll give it a try. Of course I will graft the seedlings on Pereskiopsis.

In bloom

2006-05-20T18:46:00.000-07:00

My Echinopsis has been quite busy the last few hours. The bud started opening, and in a couple of hours it opened up:

The smell is incredible, my whole apartment is filled with a fantastic odor..

Tentacles

2006-05-20T02:49:00.000-07:00

Around two years ago I bought this cactus which I believe is a Echinopsis subdenudatum. I kept it in a cold window sill during winter, with temperatures around 12-15C. This results in blooming for most cacti, and these Echinopsis'es has some real big flowers compared to their size. Here is the first tentacle coming out:

Gear

2006-05-19T13:05:00.000-07:00

Here is how I propagate my seeds (very useful in the dark wintertimes and in rainy & cloudy periods). I use the following stuff:

2 Megaman flourescent plant-bulbs, 15W
1 banana cartboard box
1 mini greenhouse

The bananabox is beeing repapered with white sheets, which act as excelent reflectors. When the seedlings get to a certain size, i will put on the dome on the mini-greenhouse. I open the plastic sheet over the seedling a couple of times a days to air out. The megaman bulbs works quite fine, but I give them some real sunlight when the weather is on my side..

Also, if the box is kept in a cold room, you can easily put a heat-mat under it (adjust with some wooden boards or something like that).

These pictures should explain most of it:

New seeds

2006-05-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Today I got a packet of seeds in my mailbox, from Succseed:

Lithops fransisci C 140
Lithops marmorata v. elisae SB 1205 (N Jackalswater)
Lithops schwantesii v. marthae H4886
Mammillaria sempervivi ML 24
Pilosocereus magnificus HU 224
Trichocereus bridgesii

So, tonight I'll probably put some of them in soil. I will also plant some of these:
Lophophora williamsii (Huizache, Mex)
(these are the same kind as "little Pete" mentioned i my previous post. He is doing very well, actually.)

Little Pete back from the dead

2006-05-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

Around 10 weeks ago i made my first grafts, one L.Williamsii and one T.Bridgesii (both on Pereskiopsis). Unfortunately I have been busy doing other stuff, like moving to a new apartment etc. I entirely forgot the grafts and left them in a dark spot.

The Bridgesii one was half failure. The graft grew very slowly, an indication that I didnt get the vascular ring alignment correct (a common mistake, there are some luck involved in this). The lopho, on the other hand, had imploded to a tiny brown something that didnt resemble anything living at all. Anyways, I placed it on a sunny spot.. and 3-4 days ago, I could actually see something happen. Amazingly, its alive! I can now see growth every day. In a week or two i will maybe know if it will grow fast like it should do.

First entry

2006-05-11T10:30:00.000-07:00

Allright, this is my first post.

Last year I got a Trichocereus Pachanoi (San Pedro) cutting from a friend of mine. While surfing around for finding the best way to root it, I also found lots of interesting stuff about cactus-growing . Suddenly I got myself a new hobby.

Then I got this ridiculous about making a blog about my quasi-scientiffic mad experiments here in my apartment. Maybe somebody might find my trials and failures useful ? :)

Anyways, the cutting mentioned above started pupping in middle of February.. and has grown quite a bit since then: