Let's grow some Melocactus!

[WayneByerly]

You might also want a bit more heat for the melos. I have 2 greenhouses but the melos come into my office for winter. Remember in their native areas they don't really go dormant. Just my 2 cents of what works for me.

hello again oldcat61

i've just recently learned (foolish me, that it took me so long to learn this, sigh) is that Melos are not like other cacti ... they like more water, they like more warmth ... than other cacti do, and they don't do the same dormancy thing ...

So ... although my greenhouse IS heated (45F for a min), I have just this year decided, because of comments like yours and others that actively grow Melos, that my Melos are going to come inside for the winter. I think that THAT will probably help the cactus to mature faster, and therefore to produce
a cephalium.

[oldcat61]

Hi Wayne - 4:15 am; got up to take a pain pil,l so I can go back to sleep. You know the name of that song. I use a lot of glazed pots so the roots don't glue themselves to the sides. Just can't stand the look of plastic, they are my compromise. Cheap at IKEA. Wish I had a quick answer to the how big part of your question. Depends on the variety & conditions. Some don't get their hats until quite large; some will pop from damage. I have a big, perfectly round guy who started a circle of red spines ( scared me at first). Growing slowly this year. There is a wonderful book just on melos but need my husband to reach it. Get you info & a photo in the morning.

[WayneByerly]

I use a lot of glazed pots so the roots don't glue themselves to the sides.

Got the number of those myself. They're my favorites. A kind of way compromise between plastic and ceramic. But I've still got to wait to contend with, and as bad as I hurt consideration.

Cheap at IKEA.

I wish I had an idea that was close. Remember that was one of my favorite places to go to buy things when I lived in Philadelphia. Nowadays it's 11 miles to the closest anyting, and 65 to the nearest city of any size at all. I live in an area that so rule that I cannot see my closest neighbor's house.

Wish I had a quick answer to the how big part of your question.

Yeah, I figured the answer to my question would be "it depends" . Thanks for even giving it a thought.

Get you info & a photo in the morning.

Thanks, I appreciate that.

[WayneByerly]

Text deleted by author, as multiple corrections are in a later posting.

[oldcat61]

Wayne - did you get the photos I sent?

[WayneByerly]

Yes i did. We were having internet connection problems. The joys of having a satellite connection to the internet. Responded with emails of my own, but they were just sitting in the outbox as I had no connection. I just looked... they're gone... Sent by the email system... you should have gotten them (my responses) by now.

And if I did not express my appreciation for them in the email, then I will do so now. Thank you very much for the pictures. Very nice cacti. You should also post them here for the other members of The Forum.

[oldcat61]

Wayne suggested I post this photo. No ID but it looks so cute with the little flowers in its new ceph. Had it for several years & it was cool to see the ceph begin.

[ElieEstephane]

Wayne suggested I post this photo. No ID but it looks so cute with the little flowers in its new ceph. Had it for several years & it was cool to see the ceph begin.

Very beautiful melo! What size is it?
It kind of looks like a curvispinus to me

[oldcat61]

It's in an 8 inch pot. I've given up iding melos. Can say what it isn't, that's the easy part.

[WayneByerly]

My profoundest apologies to you all. I feel so ignorant when I fail to proofread what I've composed before posting it and then later discover that it has the most egregious errors! I used my tablet to contrive this posting, and I always use voice-to-text transcription as I can speak much faster than I can type with one finger on my tablet. And it does sometimes make the most egregious errors. I'm of the opinion that what I post should be correct, or I should not post it at all. If it can't be read and understood as what I am trying to say, then there's just no point in putting it out here!

I wish I had an idea that was close. Remember that was one...

SHOULD have been: I wish I had an IKEA that was close. I Remember that THAT was one..

... I've still got to wait to contend with,

SHOULD have been: I've still got THE WEIGHT to contend with,

.... and as bad as I hurt consideration.

SHOULD have been: and as bad as I hurt, THAT IS A REAL consideration

I live in an area that so rule that I cannot see...

SHOULD have been: I live in an area that so RURAL that I cannot see...


Again, my apologies for such inexcusable errors. I'll make an effort to do better in the future.

[cosmotoad]

Ha, considering you're usually good with grammar and easy to understand that did seem a little out of character.

I've only got one small melocactus (azureus), I ordered from Succuterra here in Canada which I think is relatively new but I've got a few nice cacti from them. Seems like they're sold out of a lot of stuff right now but I'll check them out once in a while. I'm keeping it in my growing shed under a 250w metal halide, so it's nice and warm and plenty bright, I assume it'll like that better than the sometimes chilly greenhouse. It's a little purple from a LED light off to the side, but most of the light comes from the MH.

rsz_1rsz_20181012_094831.jpg (92.26 KiB) Viewed 48068 times

(It is a melocactus right? Now that I look at the picture it looks so much like a ferocactus, hope there wasn't a mix up of some kind)

When I was in Mexico last year (I forget which city/region exactly) there was a cactus garden that was along the way on one of the tours. Most people just took a quick look and headed up to the cave area, but the cacti were probably the highlight for me. There was a few big melocactus that were flowering or at least cephalum-ing, those stood out as some of the most interesting. I think my mom might have pictures somewhere but I'd have to sort through something like 2000 pictures to find it, so maybe not today.

[WayneByerly]

Ha, considering you're usually good with grammar and easy to understand that did seem a little out of character.

What an extraordinarily kind statement. I try very hard to not let errors creep into my postings, but I use voice-to-text transcription as I can speak faster than I can type. It's just more convenient. But sometimes the voice-to-text transcription produces the most egregious errors. And sometimes I fail to do the rigorous editorial proofreading that I feel that i should do. Which is quite evident. At any rate, it's nice to know that my efforts are noticed. Thank you very, very much for your courtesy and your kindness .

As far as the cactus goes, it's a little hard for me to say for sure, considering the purple shading induced by the grow light, but I don't think that's a melocactus at all. I think it's a Ferocactus glaucescens. At least that is what the one that I've got that looks so much like yours is. I think... I'm not absolutely certain... And I am far from being an expert at any of this. Unless you want to count getting your fingers stuck by spines as an expert category!

Maybe you just took a picture of the wrong cactus with the Melocactus in mind. At least that's exactly the kind of thing that I have a tendency to do. Get my mind on something else, not paying the strictest attention to detail and make some kind of substitution error. I'm such a dumb jerk sometimes. You can tell by the corrections in the above posting.

I'll let someone else decide and hope that this picture provides some assistance. This is my Ferocactus glaucescens, and this pic was taken just a few minutes ago.

20181012_131052-1280x960.jpg (113.41 KiB) Viewed 48063 times

[cosmotoad]

I don't have many cacti under lighting other than seedlings and some cuttings I'm rooting, so that's definitely the one that's supposed to be a melocactus but now I'm not so sure. Anyway it was inexpensive and ferocactus is fine with me. I was thinking maybe they were out of stock and sent a different one but it was labeled melocactus, so maybe something got mixed up. Or maybe it is a melocactus, I really have no idea. The spines do have a bit of red/pink to them, it's not just the LED glow, and I usually associate that with ferocactus so who knows.

[oldcat61]

The easy way to tell the difference is that Melos have very distinct ridges where the spines are. Harder to be sure when they are small. Here's one of mine that's big enough to be getting his ceph.

[WayneByerly]

I was thinking maybe they were out of stock and sent a different one but it was labeled melocactus, so maybe something got mixed up.

Ive gotten my share of mislabeled cacti before! Always a disappointment. And not anything that you have any control over whatsoever. I will say, however, if I were you, I would keep an eye on that seller in the future.