Story of my suicidal plant

[Nopaltzin]

..,) how long did it take you to collect so many cacti ?

I planted my first seed in 2009, and i have cacti, euphorbia, pachypodium, haworthia, echeveria, sedum, gastrolea, aloe, agave, crassula, lihops, sempervivum, mesembryanthemum, and a couple more. It may be 98 containers, but its only about 85 species


The greenhouse
Greenhouse.jpg
#
#
Two views of my L/R window
Living Room R.jpg
#
#
Living Room L.jpg
#
#
Two views of my kitchen window
Kitchen L.jpg
#
#
Kitchen R.jpg
#
#

Wayne all I can say is wow ! That is an astounding collection ! , I've got a few questions , do you remember where your love of cacti first came from ? what were the first species you kept ? and do you have a favourite species / individual plant in your collection ?

[WayneByerly]

Wayne all I can say is wow ! That is an astounding collection!

Pfaugh... this is a tiny collection in comparison to some of the collections possessed by people on this forum. Go to Cactus Identification and Sick Cacti and look for some of the names of people that occur the most often, take note of those names, and then look up the collections that those people have posted. I've only been doing this for 8 years and I have a limited income. Some of these people on this forum have been doing it for a lot longer and have what I imagine to be larger incomes than I have. Some of the collections that people have posted on this forum look like they belong to museums. Some of their collections are just jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

... I've got a few questions ...

I was in the process of answering these two or three separate topics in your posting when it just disappeared and it didn't seem to appear to have been posted here on this forum. I don't know what happened to it, and I just felt too bad at the moment to want to try and accomplish it again. I suffer from some health problems. But I'm doing better today thank you so I thought I'd come back to this and exercise the courtesy of answering you.

... do you remember where your love of cacti first came from?...

I was just in one of the larger chain hardware stores one day when I noticed a packet of cactus seeds, which at the time I thought was unusual as it was mixed in with the displays of other vegetable seeds. And I was intrigued so I bought a packet. That was in 2009. I still have four separate plants, all the same species I believe, from that packet of seeds. Once they started growing, I was hooked. I have joked with other members of this forum that it is an addiction that there is no 12-step program for.

... and do you have a favourite species / individual plant in your collection?

Favorites... Wow... That is a question... there are so many that I don't think I could give you just one or two. I'll make a short list here of some of my favorites. Do a Google search on each of these names so that you can look at what it is I'm talking about without me having to prepare a list of 30 or so pictures that are small enough that I can post. I very much hope you enjoy this list.

In addition to the cactus, I also collected some succulents. Of those I think the Haworthia are my favorite genus. Gymnocalycium mihanovichi v. rysanekianum for its squat shape and lime green color. This Cactus is not any different from some of the other globular cacti, but for some reason it just appeals to me. Astrophytum asterias... it's a small Cactus rather hard to grow that very much appeals to me small and without Thorns. It's a very pretty little thing. Crassula kimnachi (buddhas temple) is a succulent. I've got one of those and just recently it's been putting out offsets like mad. (do you live in the United States? ) I mean like 30 or so offsets, all of the same parent. It's just astounding what it has done recently. Pachypodiums are a caudiciform (from the southern end of Africa) that has appealed to me greatly beginning in the recent past. I have several and I really, really like them. Euphorbia ammak is a tall columnar plant possessed of some really wicked short spines that greatly appeals to me for some reason. A lot of the euphorbia do, particularly E. obesa which is a short round globular plant with a very distinctive set of markings that is very pretty. Mammillaria seem to be a very popular genus, and I have several. I very much like my Mammillaria rhodantha for the flowers it produces, my, M. hahniana for its hairy white body, short spines and multiple circles of flowers, my M. fraileana as it's a pretty little cactus that produces some nice pink flowers.Many of the Echinocereus (also known as Lobivia) that have a tendency to produce large flowers, Lobivia aurea v leucomalla for its big yellow flowers. Leuchtenbergia principis for its odd shaped 'body'. Myrtillocactus geometrizans, a tall columnar cactus that has a interesting bluish color to its skin. Beaucarnia recurvata, which is a succulent, not a cactus at all. I think the popular name is ponytail plant. It's got a huge bulb at the bottom and very long thin leaves. Ortegacactus macdougallii which is a little tiny Cactus with a lime green body and black spines. Very pretty. Pilosocereus pachycladus which is another columnar cactus that again has a bluish coloration to its skin... and some more spines than the M. geometrizans does. Tricocereus grandiflora for its HUGE white flowers. Mammillaria bocosana "fred" monstrose, a tiny monstrous shaped, squishy monstrosity that I find extremely appealing for some reason. Sulcorebutia rauschii for its short black spines and it's very dark green / purple / black coloration. Austrocylindropuntia sublata cristata for it's truly interesting monstrose shape. Echinopsis oxygona for its HUGE pink flowers.

God... I didn't mean for that paragraph to get so big or for the list of things that I truly love to get as long as it did. There's just so many of them.

... and do you have a favourite species / individual plant in your collection ?

I don't think that I could give you just one name if I had to choose from all my plants and I could only pick one that I would keep. So I'm going to go back through the list of bug and just mark them with some color (how about green?)... maybe 5 or so of my favorites.

Well, looking back at a preview of this posting it appears that my list of top five favorites turned into my top 10 favorites. And that was a very hard choice to make. I think I'd be grief struck if I were to have to have even 10% of my cacti taken from me. I just dont know how to describe how I would feel about that. Somehow they have wormed their way into my existence and I... adore it's not an excessive word I don't think ... adore them one and all. It's an addiction. What else can I say? It truly is.

[WayneByerly]

Turns out i have a pulidonis too!

It turns out that this seems to be quite a popular (ubiquitous?) Echeveria ... and I have one too. This is probably my least favorite of all my plants, and while I recognized it as being an Echeveria, I did not know what the species was. And being my "least favorite" I was not much inclined to try and discover what the species is. But now I know.

And I thought, as long as mine was starting to flower that I would post a couple of pics so that you would know what yours WILL look like.

The first of the three pics i'll post is a closeup of the beginning of the E. pulidonis flower stalk. I don't know about E. pulidonis but my E. lucita (which I will make a new post about under "Member Topics" in just a few minutes ... I'll call it "Potting of Echeveria lucita offsets") put out a flower stalk (with flowers every inch or so) in the summer of 2016 that was nearly 2 feet long eventually. That's the second of the pics that I'll post here.

20180117_001200.jpg (41.52 KiB) Viewed 1526 times

E. lucita in flower. I only include this one as I think it reasonable to think that the E. pulidonis will appear similar.

E. lucita in flower.jpg (61.13 KiB) Viewed 1526 times

The third and last pic i'll post here is the E. pulidonis rosette showing both the flower stalk that's beginning in the first pic and another beginning stalk in the red circle. If anyone requests it, I'll post pics (at least 1) when the flower(s) of the E. pulidonis are better developed.

[Pompom]

I'd like to share some interesting things I noticed about propagating. (I've read about these, but it's still interesting to experience in real)
So, even if the babies are genetically same as the motherplant, it's fun to notice they are so different from each other. I took pictures to point out two individual babies I'm looking forward to grow to be adults.
In picture with many babies, I pointed with orange arrow one baby which is so much lighter in color than the other ones. Unfortunately I couldn't capture the difference in picture that well...
I took a picture of the one baby, which I earlier said was the biggest one of the all. It's still the biggest one, but also the weirdest one. It looks like it has lost its purpose to be an echeveria, and doesn't know what to do and how to do. Red arrows point leaves i'm confused with, i'm looking at them like "what is you? And what about you? What's going on with you two?". The upper arrow points to the leaf which has serrated edge and is rather wide than long. The lower arrow, well you maybe see why I pointed it out, it's having a life of its own...
Black arrow is pointing a leaf growing straight up.

babies1.jpg (95.47 KiB) Viewed 1519 times

babyeche.jpg (88.58 KiB) Viewed 1519 times

[ElieEstephane]

What i've noticed withy experiments is that leaves often produce more than 1 rosette at the end. Sometimes they fuse together and produce a weird rosette and sometimes stay separated. You may be experiencing something similar in the second photo

[Pompom]

What i've noticed withy experiments is that leaves often produce more than 1 rosette at the end. Sometimes they fuse together and produce a weird rosette and sometimes stay separated. You may be experiencing something similar in the second photo

Yeah, I'm expecting a couple of double babies, found out it's kinda normal. I searched the internet forever if I could find anything looking similar by weirdness but got no results yet. I've read about the mutations of cacti and succulents, but they are rare so I believe there couldn't be a spontaneous mutation going on. Well I told about drying problems some of the cuttings had, so if this one got some damage at that time, it can be a damage based mutation. Only time will tell how it's going to be like, a fusion, a mutation or just a normal looking plant.
This is why I love growing plants, and waiting so desperately my mammillarias fruit to ripen. It's so fascinating to see where my plants get over time!
I also told before I'm going to give all the babies away, I'm not sure right now. If the lightest one stay light and the abnormal one stays abnormal, those I'm going to keep with me.

[ElieEstephane]

You'd think mutations are rare but almost out of every sowing, i get several crested/monstrose/variegated/albino seedlings. But i don't put a lot effort into oddities. Anyways, as you say, it's always exciting to grow plants and see what they turn into

[Pompom]

It's been only a week since I last posted the babies growth. They really love the new tupperware environment and grow everyday. The weird one still looks weird and grows fast. It looks different everyday. The lightest one has become more greyish in color. I really love the color it has. I think two from the bottom left are forming double plants.

growingeche.jpg (88.8 KiB) Viewed 1472 times

weirdness.jpg (112.54 KiB) Viewed 1472 times

[ElieEstephane]

The tupperwear method wins!

[Pompom]

And here's Kurt today! It has slowed down a little bit by growing which is good in my opinion. As you can see, it takes just a little bit more to fill all the gaps and then I'm in trouble with watering since it's not so easy to water from top anymore. Bottom watering I'll go then. It has to be repotted again but now has to wait for the spring/summer! (which was my original thought from the beginning but things happen ) Kurt is a tough plant and I'm happy it pulled through so nicely.

Kurt1.jpg (31.36 KiB) Viewed 1467 times

Kurt2.jpg (24.9 KiB) Viewed 1467 times

[ElieEstephane]

IMO pompom it can grow at least one more year in that pot. Eceheverias have fibrous root and take a while to fill a container.
As for watering, if you have hard water, bottom watering is not such a good idea as lors of salts will build up. To water from the top, you can tilt the pot a little and let the water in between the leaves. But then again, if you have hard water will stain the leaves.

[Pompom]

IMO pompom it can grow at least one more year in that pot. Eceheverias have fibrous root and take a while to fill a container.
As for watering, if you have hard water, bottom watering is not such a good idea as lors of salts will build up. To water from the top, you can tilt the pot a little and let the water in between the leaves. But then again, if you have hard water will stain the leaves.

Or really?! Thanks for the notice, I always thought it's better if the pot is slightly bigger in diameter than the rosette so the leaves wont get over or something. I still have so much to learn.
Must check if we have hard water or not. Maybe I'll decide one gap for watering so just only one leaf suffers and others stay untouched when watered. Fortunately it takes some time to get to the point when watering becomes tricky.

[ElieEstephane]

You are right about the leaves but a larger than necessary pot will increase the risk of rot. If you don't wanna scar the leaves with the side of the pot, you can use a shallow pot with a larger diameter.

[the_cheshirecat]

Wow I really enjoyed this story!
I can contribute absolutely 0 under a technical point of view, however, here's a couple of thoughts:
1) the babies are Kurt's "sliding doors moments". Basically, if I'm right Kurt will never have to wonder "what if", because he will just have to ask one of the babies.
2) Kurt is a mother.
Maybe s/he needs a female name too?

[Pompom]

Wow I really enjoyed this story!
I can contribute absolutely 0 under a technical point of view, however, here's a couple of thoughts:
1) the babies are Kurt's "sliding doors moments". Basically, if I'm right Kurt will never have to wonder "what if", because he will just have to ask one of the babies.
2) Kurt is a mother.
Maybe s/he needs a female name too?

I'm sorry but I missed the point of the first notice since my native language isn't English
As for the Kurt being a mother plant and needing a female name too, maybe Kurtina, shortened to Kurt? He's a good motherfather.