A Morning with Herr Hochstaetter

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Wed May 02, 2007 6:36 pm

Hi- After a drenching rain that lasted for nearly 5 hours last night, Fritz Hochstaetter and I met and began looking for Toumeya and Pedios at about dawn. Man, that guy has an enormous amount of energy! His English is not too strong and I totally lack German so it was a funny morning. We visited a few sites and then he took off to Pediocactus knowltonii country, up on the Colorado border.

Here's FH photographing a Pediocactus simpsonii, which we reached by fording a very rain swollen Rio en Medio 5 times, with all of the little forest service stepping stones completely washed away:

and the pedio itself:

(note the flash! it was still "dark" at 9:30)

peterb

Post by **daiv** » Wed May 02, 2007 7:37 pm

Neat Peter - it is great that you found the plants!

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Thu May 03, 2007 1:46 am

Cool. That's a nice pedio lots of buds.

Mark

peter · Post by **peter** » Fri May 04, 2007 6:16 pm

You have the right roving spirit!

Spiniflores · Post by **Spiniflores** » Thu May 17, 2007 3:12 pm

great plant!

and what an interesting landscape...

looklike "sotobosque" (¿underbrush is the right word?)
with high humidity and not too exposed to sunlight.
Also there are some lichen near the plant (left), many leafs... look like humid and acid surface of the soil...

and I have this P. knowltonii, but in very very dry soils and conditions...

do you have more photos?
for have more new ideas about this plants...

greetings from Chile

and thanks for sharing your "trips"

Juan Acosta

peterb · Post by **peterb** » Thu May 17, 2007 10:14 pm

Hi again Juan- You're doing great growing that P. knowltonii on its own roots. Generally dry is good for that species, as it is from a very dry location. (well, it grows in soil that is very open and gravelly and sandy and that dries out very very quickly). I've learned that in spring, when the best growth is put on by these more "desert" pedios, they can take pretty much all the water you give them. As soon as temperatures reach 90F or so they immediately fall asleep for the rest of the summer!

Pediocactus simpsonii prefers things cool, much wetter. It doesn't need an acid pH in the potting mix though, despite often growing in acid soil in the wild.

peterb