My small collection

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Pompom
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Re: My small collection

Post by Pompom »

7george wrote: Fri Feb 16, 2018 1:43 am Keep cacti dormant if no artificial lights.
Forgot this one! Yeah, actually I'm keeping only one of my plants (mamm. karwinskiana) dry right now, since inside house is around 20-22 degrees warm and I have a growing lamp and no cooler place for them. Keeping almost all the others on the edge of surviving, they are smaller and have smaller pots so I can weight them with kitchen scale so I'm sure they are dry before watering. I water all my succulents when they are bone dry and looking sad and feeling soft to touch. Opuntia doesn't have pot with draining holes so keeping it mostly dry, but if it starts to look sad, I give it a sip of a water. The aloe/gasteraloe I saved from ant infestation has finally rooted nicely and got it first real watering a week ago, it gets water next time it's completely dry again. My echeverias tend to dry fast, and need water more frequently than the others, especially the PVN, she's a real sucker. The newest one, melocactus, it's one I'm confused what to do with it. I hope it survives with me and I learn its way to live before it dies because lack of right care...
I only got 9 plants but keeping them alive almost feels like a job already :D And of course, I want more! Can't get more right now since there really is no extra space, I've tried to reorganize the pots but all the space is filled under the lamp.
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7george
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Re: My small collection

Post by 7george »

The Melocactus will survive dry or with occasional (1ce a month) watering. For most succulents winter watering is rather normal. Will be nice if you find some sunny windowsills for all the plans but I know: not always things depends on you, like northern exposure or other building shades you. Do you have a balcony? At frost-free period (mine starts in May) you could use it to take out some plans out.
If your cacti mess in your job just forget about the job.
°C = (°F - 32)/1.8
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WayneByerly
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Re: My small collection

Post by WayneByerly »

Pompom wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:53 pm Yeah, actually I'm keeping only one of my plants (mamm. karwinskiana) dry right now, since inside house is around 20-22 degrees warm and I have a growing lamp and no cooler place for them. lamp.
Hey pompom... I've got a M. karwinskiana myself... doing some dichotomous growth, and i thought you might like to see it for comparison purposes. Want to see the flowers?
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Pompom wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:53 pm I can weight them with kitchen scale so I'm sure they are dry before watering. I water all my succulents when they are bone dry and looking sad and feeling soft to touch.
I've done exactly the same thing. I waited until it got completely dry and then weighed it with the kitchen scale and recorded that weight as "DRY" . Then I watered it completely and recorded that weight as "WET" . Then I weighed it daily, measuring the difference between one day and the next until I got into it down to the DRY weight and I recorded the number of days that it took to go from wet to dry as "DAYS". That way I know what it weighs when it's dry and how many days after watering it, before I might start thinking about watering it again. It's an amazingly simple methodology. I don't quite let them go so dry that they look withered and go soft. But I do let them go completely dry between waterings. It cost me the life of many a cactus to learn that I should do so.


Pompom wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 12:53 pm ... but all the space is filled under the lamp.
The place where I live only has two windows that are appropriate for plants. My space is very limited. So I've got to make the most of it that I can, by adding a lot of light. I use four foot long fluorescent lights in the living room window, and 45 watt is a ű and 65 watt CFL's (compact flourescent lightbulbs) in the kitchen window. I thought you might like to see pictures of that, so I've included one of the living room and one of the kitchen. The lights in the living room are indicated by red stars. The lights in the kitchen window are indicated by red circles. You can see I've added a considerable amount of light. And they stay on for 16 hours a day. I calculated what this cost me by using numbers that I got from the company that supplies our electricity. Granted we have some of the lowest electric rates in the country but from what I've calculated it only cost me somewhere between $16 and $20 a month to run these lights. I think it is entirely worth it to keep my Cactus and succulents alive. It's not quite enough for some of my cacti, so they had to go outside to a greenhouse. But for the most part this lighting is entirely sufficient.
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Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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WayneByerly
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Re: My small collection

Post by WayneByerly »

Sorry people... the light from the windows caused everything else to be too dark.
Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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ElieEstephane
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Re: My small collection

Post by ElieEstephane »

WayneByerly wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:38 am Sorry people... the light from the windows caused everything else to be too dark.
You can work around that by focusing on the object. To do that (if you are using a phone or tablet), just touch the object on the screen and the camera will focus on it and eliminate much of the back light.
Im afraid i can't help you if you are using a digital camera
There are more cacti in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
One of the few cactus lovers in Lebanon (zone 11a) :mrgreen:
Pompom
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Re: My small collection

Post by Pompom »

WayneByerly wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 1:34 am Hey pompom... I've got a M. karwinskiana myself... doing some dichotomous growth, and i thought you might like to see it for comparison purposes. Want to see the flowers?
Flowers are always beautiful :mrgreen: . According to llifle, the color of the karwinkiana flowers are different between subspecies, so it would be nice to finally see wich karwinskiana I have. Karwinskiana with yellow flowers or with white flowers. Basically it really doesn't matter but if there is possibility to finally give him a complete ID, why wouln't I do it.
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WayneByerly
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Re: My small collection

Post by WayneByerly »

ElieEstephane wrote: Tue Feb 20, 2018 9:13 am You can work around that by focusing on the object. To do that (if you are using a phone or tablet), just touch the object on the screen and the camera will focus on it and eliminate much of the back light.
Im afraid i can't help you if you are using a digital camera
Hi Elie

Yeah, I'm sure I could have done a better job with the exposure of the pictures, but the point was not to show the plants, but to depict the lighting setup for pompom. Thanks for the tip about the tablet. I didn't know you could do that.
Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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DesertSun
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Re: My small collection

Post by DesertSun »

@Wayne, you've got a nice set up there! And a beautiful collection too! The weighing the wet and dry pots, is such an amazing way to water your cacti, I've never thought of anything like that! Thank you both, Wayne and Pompom for sharing!
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Pompom
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Re: My small collection

Post by Pompom »

7george wrote: Mon Feb 19, 2018 1:56 pm The Melocactus will survive dry or with occasional (1ce a month) watering. For most succulents winter watering is rather normal. Will be nice if you find some sunny windowsills for all the plans but I know: not always things depends on you, like northern exposure or other building shades you. Do you have a balcony? At frost-free period (mine starts in May) you could use it to take out some plans out.
Once a month watering I'll try with melocactus. We'll see how it's going to say about that. This is my first one so if it dies, I know I did something wrong and maybe with next one I'll succes.
Bad thing for my plants is my apartment has only two windows, one on northern side and one west side. I have balcony and I'll move the plants there when it's warm enough. There the sun shines in angle from south in the morning for a hour or so. After that a big old larch and other pinaceae shade whole balcony. I hate that, can't enjoy the sun in my balcony. In the evening (after 17 o'clock) the sun comes out again and shines from the angle to the balcony and the window. So my plants get sun two times a day, a morning sun and evening sun and always from agle. This north the sun never gets up in the sky and is always somehow angled.
If it's sunny though... Mostly our summers are rainy, chilly and cloudy. Temperatures are around 15-20. Normally, but there is also hot and sunny summers and there is cold and only rain summers. Hopefully next summer is sunny.
Pompom
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Re: My small collection

Post by Pompom »

Couldn't wait posting pictures of my new plant! I HAD TO BUY this beautiful plant as soon as I found it. I think it's mammillaria hahniana and it's going to flower soon. First I thought I'll post pictures of it when it flowers but I'll post these pictures and pictures later when it flowers :lol:
I loved the flattened way it grows, it looks like a cake or muffin or so. Also beautiful white hairs are adorable. The whole plant is adorable. I've fallen in love. This one is about 7,5cm in diameter and 4cm tall.
Do you have good name suggestions for it? :D This one too, I'd like to name based of it's story or characteristics, it's easier to remember that way. I have Kurt, Boris and Darth Karw named already. This one has this never-ending hole in the middle so I was thinking something based on that? In real life the depression feels like if you looked into it too long, you'll lose your soul (I've already though... Sold my soul to the cacti). Maybe the name shall be Abyss? Do you have better suggestions? Partly I want to name them all since their real names are either too hard to pronounce in my native language or sound just stupid pronounced in Finnish. Some of them have finn name, but most have not.
I took the pictures under "party light" for the better quality.
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WayneByerly
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Re: My small collection

Post by WayneByerly »

Pompom wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 4:50 pm ... the sun shines in angle from south in the morning for a hour or so. After that... the sun comes out again and shines from the angle to the balcony and the window. So my plants get sun two times a day,
It sounds to me like you really need some form of secondary lighting. The 4 foot long flourescent light fixtures--annotated with red stars in my earlier posting with the pictures--that I use in my living room were only about $40 each. Another $2 maybe for the thin chains to hang them. Approximately 1.2 meter long & €32 cost for my European friends.

I don't know what your electric rates are, but it could only be a few euros a month to run them. And they would provide enough light that you could expand your collection. Which could only make you happier.
Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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ElieEstephane
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Re: My small collection

Post by ElieEstephane »

Very beautiful mammillaria congratulations pompom!
As for the name, do you remember the kraken from pirates of the caribbean? The depression in the apex with all the spines sort of look like the kraken's mouth and teeth
There are more cacti in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
One of the few cactus lovers in Lebanon (zone 11a) :mrgreen:
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WayneByerly
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Re: My small collection

Post by WayneByerly »

Pompom wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 6:50 pm I think it's mammillaria hahniana and it's going to flower soon. First I thought I'll post pictures of it when it flowers but I'll post these pictures and pictures later when it flowers :lol:
You are just going to die with love for this Cactus when it flowers. Here are a couple of pictures of mine when it flowered., It flowers in concentric circles from new growth at the top of the cactus.
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And it doesn't just bloom in 1 Circle either. Mine made 8 rows of circles around the top of the cactus when it flowered... and it flowered for months.
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Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
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WayneByerly
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Re: My small collection

Post by WayneByerly »

P. S. My M. hahniana is now 7" tall and 5.5" wide (approx 17,8x14cm). Its wider now than the pot it originally came in August of 2013

And as far as a name goes... considering the very great number of short, very stiff spines, how about... Maxx???
Make the moral choice & always do what's right. Be a good example. Be part of the solution & make a contribution to society, or be part of the problem & end your life with nothing but regrets. Live a life you can be proud of! Zone 7a
Pompom
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Re: My small collection

Post by Pompom »

ElieEstephane wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:09 pm Very beautiful mammillaria congratulations pompom!
As for the name, do you remember the kraken from pirates of the caribbean? The depression in the apex with all the spines sort of look like the kraken's mouth and teeth
Oh yeah I remember that! Kraken is a Leviathan so maybe Leviathan shortened to Levi goes too? Do you remember the huge creature from one Star Wars movie, the one in sand being some kind of dumpster eating everything they threw in? Appears it has a name Sarlacc. So Abyss, Kraken, Levi, Sarlacc... Hmm maybe in the future I can tell which name it got after I've gotten to know it better.
WayneByerly wrote: Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:11 pm You are just going to die with love for this Cactus when it flowers. Here are a couple of pictures of mine when it flowered., It flowers in concentric circles from new growth at the top of the cactus.
And it doesn't just bloom in 1 Circle either. Mine made 8 rows of circles around the top of the cactus when it flowered... and it flowered for months.
Can't wait to see that! Yours flowers look way too beautiful!! In real everything looks so much better, so it's kinda fortunate for the cactus it isn't squeezable... :lol: I'll have to stick with just observing and crying next to it because I can't touch it and hug it. Judged to the fluffiness on the plant, mine will give many rings of flowers too. Hopefully it'll flower long.

I'm going to save some of the pollen for later use. I have just a perfect container for it, a tiny tube which had little edible gold foil in it. I hope somehow the karwinskiana flowers. I want to try to make a hybrid. Just because science. I like to make science experiences. Poor plants.
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