I've always been fascinated by Melos, and matanzanus is my hands-down favorite because it's a miniature species with a lovely red cephalium. When I went to the California Cactus Center to get my new collection started 3 years ago, I had matanzanus on the list. The helpful ladies there told me that while they didn't have any in stock at the moment, a bunch were due to arrive. I had them select a nice one and ship it to me. When a package hit my doorstep in time for July 4th, I was so excited to see the new matanzanus greeting me for the summer. What I didn't know was that I also made 3 critical mistakes right from the get-go. Before I describe what they were, I'll show you my only photo when the plant was still looking its best -- here at the end of September 2011:
Learning from my negative example, here's what not to do:
1. Use a heavy SuperSoil-type cactus mix without enough drainage.
2. Select a pot that's too big for the roots.
3. Use hard water for your plants. While you're at it, go with terracotta -- doesn't matter that porous clay attracts bicarbonates like a magnet.
Those were the 3 big no-nos which dogged me during the first 21 years of my efforts to maintain a cactus collection. After a further 20 years of being away from the hobby, the no-nos followed me into 2011. Thankfully, many cacti tend to be rather forgiving of practices that aren't exactly the best. But with some, not so much. In fact, adult Melos are remarkably intolerant of beginner mistakes because they resent being disturbed after their roots are established. As though all this wasn't bad enough, I also managed to forget about the fact that Melos need occasional light watering in winter to keep their roots from dying off too much. Uh oh -- my matanzanus went completely dry during November and December. Another boo-boo, which I caught at the very beginning of 2012 when I started light watering once a month.
Now we'll look at early April, as the matanzanus came out of its first winter and went on regular deep watering for the growing season:
Aside from some minor shriveling and a few spotty signs of nutrient deficiency, the plant looked pretty good to me. At least there was something I did right to correct one of my boo-boos in early 2012. That would be acidification to neutralize the bad effects of the Calcium bicarbonate in my hard tap water -- a major revelation I discovered when someone pointed me to a CSSJ article on the subject written by Elton Roberts years ago. The turnaround in the rest of my cacti was almost immediate. (Changing from a controlled-release fert to Dyna Gro All-Pro 7-7-7 helped a lot too!) But what about the matanzanus? If the roots were properly established, it should've been taking up water and unshriveling itself. How long should it take? Without any prior experience, I figured on about 3 months of regular soaks. (Wrong answer. I'll give you the correct one when I show you my "happy ending" matanzanus.) Although the plant hadn't replumped over the spring, I didn't start worrying until it dawned on me that 3 months was too long without a decent response to watering. Toward the of August, I finally decided that the matanzanus needed to go into a much leaner mix with a smaller pot. So that covered boo-boos #2 and 3 -- coarse pumice/decomposed granite aggregate mixed with some of the CCC cactus mix I held onto from 2011, and a waterproofed 4" terracotta Azalea pot. This is what came out of the old pot when I transplanted it almost 2 years ago:
If I knew then what I know now, I would've understood that the roots of my matanzanus had died off beyond the point of no return. Maybe I was too late about repotting it into better conditions, or perhaps I doomed the enterprise over the plant's first 6 months. Either way, I was dealing with an exercise in futility I kept pursuing longer than I should've. Yeah, I know -- shoulda coulda woulda. Well, here's what I ended up with -- the following photos are from last weekend:
This is on the north-facing side of the plant, and the nasty-looking little dark brown patch on the base is necrosis. Equally nasty but not so little, on the south-facing side:
The cephalium started growing in the unusual heat of my winter, and it continued into early spring. Not sure when it was exactly, but I noticed that the cephalium finally stopped -- yep, the matanzanus was well and truly dead by then. Now here's the corpse coming out of its pot:
So there we have it -- once you lose the the roots of an adult Melo, you lose the plant. If you think growing new roots may be possible, the evidence strongly suggests that it ain't gonna happen. I'll spare you the gory details, but I did shoot a few post-mortem pics when I sectioned the plant. If you'd like to see the inside of an adult Melo, I'll post them up for you on the Sick Cacti forum soon. In the meanwhile, it's now time for the happy ending I promised...
Because Melo matanzanus is fairly popular among hobbyists these days, they're not that difficult to find. My only requirement was to find an adult, and I think other hobbyists have the same idea because you're more likely to see them already starting their cephalia compared to other species being sold through cactus nurseries. (Perhaps going from seedling to adult in 5 years has something to do with it?) If I had to learn from experience the hard way, I was going to make sure as heck that it wouldn't be in vain.
The first decision I made really fast was to find an adult matanzanus as early in the growing season as possible so I could give its roots plenty of time to establish. CoronaCactus usually keeps them in stock (or used to -- not sure about that now). I was shooting for April. However, in early March an alert Craig Fry informed me that he had a few for sale to go along with a Frailea grahliana I wanted. Even better, he offered to have me come out and visit C and D Plants where I could check out his collection and select a matanzanus of my choice. Offer gratefully accepted, and here's what came home with me when I repotted my new matanzanus on March 18 -- what a lovely and well-grown specimen!
And here's what the roots looked like before I transplanted it:
While the roots weren't extensive, it was obvious to see that they're healthy enough for establishing. Given the challenge involved when we transplant adult Melos, IMO the best prospect for success is getting it right the first time. Here's where my hard-won experience comes in handy. 4" waterproofed terracotta Azalea pot? Check -- about the right size for the roots (they went deeper than I thought). What about the mix? Even though it turned out to be too late for the first matanzanus, I went with a reset of the same mix I used when I tried to save it. That'll be 40% pumice, 40% DG (with the play sand fines sifted out), and 20% of the original CCC soil with the organic chunks thrown away -- thoroughly mixed so it'll maintain its integrity and the soil won't separate out after repeated watering. After the customary 2 week settling-in period, the new matanzanus started on deep watering once a week (with acidified water and low-level fert, of course!). Did the roots establish? Yes, and surprisingly fast! Craig did a great job of getting the matanzanus through winter, so seeing it plump back up after its winter dormancy was a great sign. And this wasn't any 3 months either -- try 1. We'll look at the 3/18 pic again, but now before-and-after with the view 4 months later:
Oh yes, I'm definitely on the right track! Hard not to notice the new cephalium growth either -- before-and-after from the top:
Flowering hasn't stopped since I got the C and D matanzanus, so we can chalk it up to yet another sign of good health. The only thing I'm changing a little bit is watering frequency. With the summer heat going I've upped it to every 6 says since July 4th. August is typically the hottest month of the year in SoCal, so I'll have to use some judgement on whether or not I should increase watering to every 5 days.
Because I was prepared to write off my first effort as a failure some time ago, getting the "insurance" plant from C and D couldn't have come at a better time. With the wonderful results I'm seeing out of my latest one, losing matanzanus #1 was more disappointing than sad. In fact there's no reason for me to be anything other than happy, although I shouldn't call this part of the story an ending since my current growing practices give me a lot of confidence to see it continue over the years. I'll say the same about my first-ever Discocactus. Conventional wisdom says that getting a Disco in winter isn't the best idea. And yet I beat the odds with a buenekeri that's established and growing well. I'm wrapping up here to give you a preview of what I have in mind for the empty spot that was left behind when I let #1 go bye-bye...
Since I don't have the ability to increase my growing space, whatever amount of free space I have left comes at a premium. Such being the case, that empty spot was the perfect opportunity for trying something I hadn't grown before -- if that something can occupy a 4" pot without getting too big for it over time, so much the better. How about another Disco? Aside from being an unusual and beautiful plant, I've found buenekeri to be pretty easy. However, I think Disco fans would agree that horstii is perhaps the most fascinating. Unfortunately they also have a notorious reputation for being the most difficult of the genus to grow, so I convinced myself that trying one was beyond reach even though my growing skills are more than decent. Then this thread made me sit up straight and take notice big time. While I enjoy James' Disco presentations, it was Craig's comments regarding his experience with horstii that really got me excited -- especially since his microclimate and mine are remarkably similar. Maybe the species isn't out of reach for me after all! Even before I took the matanzanus corpse off the plant bench, the thread I'm linking to already had me hatching plots. To follow on my positive experience with matanzanus #2, I'll start hunting for a horstii in early March. Same dealio -- as early as possible in the growing season, then I'll let the mix and my watering/fert regimen take over from there. But here's a new and different wrinkle, something I wouldn't have dared to think about before now. If the only horstii I can find are grafted, I'll get a grafted one, then degraft and try rooting it. While I've insisted on getting cacti only if they're on their own roots, I can certainly make an exception. There's a first time for everything, so if someone who's successfully degrafted and rooted horstii before can provide me with a bit of guidance, I'd be incredibly grateful. (Any thoughts, James and/or Craig?)
By the way, to celebrate my success with the C and D matanzanus, I just replaced my old matanzanus avatar with the new one. What a nice coincidence to see where those flowers popped out!
Cheers, everyone!
