A small collection: 2015 and beyond

[Steve Johnson]

From today as the "quiet riot" exploded:



Like Keith said, the deherdtiana really is exceptional, and way better than anything I could've expected when I was lucky enough to find it at the California Cactus Center in 2012.

[DeeCarpus]

Thanks, bartab and Dee!

M. deherdtiana is such a striking plant, and for the life of me I can't understand why they're almost impossible to find. I'm running into the same problem trying to find a P. aselliformis to go with my strobiliformis. In 2013 I did get a tiny rooted degraft from Craig Fry of C and D Plants, but sadly it didn't turn out well. Looking on eBay, there are plenty of aselliformis being sold in Europe, but only 2 here in the US. One is grafted, although I won't keep grafted cacti in the collection, so that's out. The other is being offered by a former member selling an aselliformis grown from seed on its own roots. That would be wonderful except for the price: $100. YIKES! Patience is a virtue, so I'll be virtuous and keep looking.

What is a “dirty” mineral mix?

Good question, and you'll find the answer in Part 1 of my 2017 review:

http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtop ... 92#p339492

Thank you for the link it was a good read!

[Steve Johnson]

2013 was a pretty big year, when my small collection expanded as I installed a new 2-shelf plant bench that June. Plenty of space to fill, so we'll start filling it with...

Another CoronaCactus summer

• Ariocarpus fissuratus -- link from 2018 review (Conclusion)

Wow, 7 months to wrap that review up? Amazing how long it takes to get these things done, although I hope it won't take quite as long to put this one to bed. But I digress...

Anywho, the Ario's first photo on 7/13/13:



A. fissuratus is a very slow grower, so we'll get to see how slow it is on 10/27/13, 9/19/15, 9/17/17, and 10/13/19:




Not bad, actually. However, I made a small boo-boo last year when I forgot that Arios need more water in summer than they do in the spring. Watering every 2 weeks instead of every 10 days last summer, so the plant didn't grow as much as it could've. With another summer beginning in a couple of months, I won't forget this time.

• Eriosyce napina ssp. glabrescens -- link from 2018 review Part 3

First photo on 7/13/13:



The move from "dirty" mineral mix to a new and deeper pot with clean mix on 5/9/15:



The glabrescens is an "earth cactus" par excellence with most of the plant growing below-ground, so that deep pot is perfect for the roots. Now we'll follow up on what I posted in the 2018 review...

The plant on 10/7/18 and 10/13/19:



In both of these side shots, the tubercles are nice and plump, so we know that the roots are alive and taking up water. Not sure if there's any growth above-ground, so let's try a view from above with the same dates:



If you're like "Mr. OCD" and your powers of observation are keen, you'll notice that the glabrescens is indeed growing just a little bit. Comparing notes with what I said in the 2018 review, any thoughts I had about giving it to Desert Creations are gone -- yeah, I'll keep it.

• Coryphantha retusa -- link from 2018 review Part 5

Item #3 coming out of the CoronaCactus Nursery box:



The retusa on 9/24/16, 10/9/17, 10/21/18, and 10/13/19:




I posted a pic of the new pup in my 2018 review, so we'll do a zoom-in on 10/21/18 and 10/13/19:



A bird's-eye view of the entire plant on 10/9/17 and 10/13/19:

• Copiapoa laui -- link from 2018 review Part 4

Last item from the wilds of Corona arriving on 7/13:



Of all the wonderful cacti Darryl Craig sent my way, this one might just take the proverbial cake -- 9/18/16, 10/8/17, 10/21/18, and 10/13/19:



Same dates with a "helicopter shot":




From Sunset Nursery (July 2013)

• Gymnocalycium baldianum -- link from 2018 review Part 12

First photo on 7/7/13:



By the end of summer 2018, it became pretty apparent that the baldianum was in need of a bigger pot -- 10/6/18, and repotting day finally came on 7/21/19:



Yowza! That pot was literally filled with roots, so we can go deeper (and wider) for the plant's new pot. Done deal:




Getting from there to here on 9/25/16, 10/8/17, 10/6/18, and 10/6/19:




An aerial view on 3/29/15 and 10/6/19:



The baldianum had to re-establish its roots, so what I saw at the end of last summer was to be expected. Once it starts filling out again, we'll see how big the plant can get as it continues to grow over time.

A few photos left over from July 2019 -- the baldianum's first (and so far only) fruit on 7/4:



I was hoping to get seeds out of it, but the fruit was "shooting blanks". Oh, well -- at least the bud on the left went into bloom on 7/28:



Mammillaria grahamii saying "me too, me too!"



Let's investigate that colorful baldianum flower:



I had another Gymno that set its first fruit last summer -- stenopleurum on 6/29:



And this one ripened (8/31):



The buds sitting next to the fruit blooming on 9/2:




Gymno baldianum obviously isn't self-fertile, but stenopleurum may be since its fruit did produce seeds. I'll bundle them off with a bunch of seed packets I have for Desert Creations, so hopefully those seeds will go to a good home, sprout, and turn into little stenopleurums.

This is just the beginning of what 2013 had in store -- for Part 9, we'll examine some cacti imported from a magical land called Arizona.

[keith]

Coryphantha retusa I grew a few from seeds and they grow way slower than I thought they would . At least for me they do. I think I finally got one to flower after 10 years flowering in late summer like after a Moonson season.

Have to see if yours grows faster maybe I'm doing something wrong ? They look like they can't take frost almost tropical.

[Steve Johnson]

I do have a few -- the following photos are "hot off the press" (so to speak)...

Sulcorebutia rauschii with 2 brand-new buds breaking ground:




Rebutia pygmaea with 7 buds in various stages of growth:



In Part 1 of the 2019 review, I introduced everyone to a Mammillaria matudae I got from Sunset Nursery in Los Angeles last summer. A young 'un, but mature enough to start setting its first buds this spring:



Copiapoa tenuissima:



Eriosyce odieri, looks like one of the buds is about to pop:



Echinocereus rigidissimus rubispinus, looks like bud #1 is about to pop too:



And yes, we have some flowers...

Gymnocactus ysabelae usually does its blooming in February and March, but the plant gives us a small springtime bonus:




Mamm matudae again -- going from first buds to first blooms:




Uh oh, there goes the neighborhood:



Mamm deherdtiana really is the life of the party:



A view of the top shelf with my Sulcorebutia callichroma longispina front-and-center:





The plant's first 2020 bloom toward the end of April:



The longispina produces a rather interesting aroma, although not from its flowers (they don't have a scent I can detect). Oddly enough, the aroma wafts its way from the top of the pot, and it reminds me of carrots freshly dug up from the garden. Pretty amazing to actually smell healthy roots growing in the pot, and the experience is quite pleasant. Sure beats the mushroomy smell of rot!

It's still early in the month, so I'll have more darling buds of May going into bloom for you later on.

[Steve Johnson]

July 2013 was my first time doing business with one of the best professional growers in the US cactus and succulent trade, Mr. Miles Anderson. Coming out of his nursery in Cortaro AZ, this bring us to round 1 of the cacti...

From Miles' To Go

• Coryphantha hesteri -- link from 2018 review Part 5

First photo on 7/7/13:



As I mentioned in the 2018 review, it took the hesteri about 3 years to start showing appreciable growth after I moved it from "dirty" mineral mix to clean mix in February 2015. The timeline going from 9/18/16 through 9/29/17 and 10/7/18, then a much healthier and nicer-looking hesteri on 10/13/19:




And yes, that's a brand-new pup -- let's zoom in for a closer look:



The pup is on the north-facing side, and we'll see another one on the south-facing side:



A bird's-eye view of the plant's first summer in clean mineral mix (9/20/15) and the result on 10/13/19:



The hesteri came ready-made with buds that went into bloom, and it flowered for me again in the summer of 2014. No flowers since then, although I have a pretty good feeling this will change after the marvelous burst of new growth I saw last year. From 8/16/14 -- if the plant keeps on growing, I think we'll see more of those colorful blooms in about 3 months:

• Copiapoa tenuissima -- link from 2018 review Part 4

First photo on 7/7/13:



Going from Miles' soil-based mix to my soil-less mineral mix, I kinda figured that it might lead to changes in the tenuissima's growth. For good or ill, everything starts out in the roots, and the change wasn't so good when I had the plant in "dirty" mineral mix -- the before-and-after evidence on 7/28/13 and 10/25/14:



Out with the "dirty" mix and in with the clean on 5/25/15, and once again, 3 years was the magic number to see signs of positive change. The sudden appearance of central spines in 2018 was the first change I noticed, and a nice one too. Even nicer in 2019, and the improvement is dramatic (7/1):




A view of the entire plant on 9/17/16, 9/23/17, 9/29/18, and 10/6/19:




I had to crop out part of the flower in the 10/6 side shot, so we'll do something about that with a view from above -- 5/25/15 on the left:



The difference between old growth before 2015 and new growth starting in 2018 is rather striking -- giving the tenuissima's roots a potful of pure, clean mineral mix is the best thing I could've done. And it's the only prolific bloomer in my Copiapoa group. Just a few other examples from last summer's tenuissima flowers -- a bud on 7/16 going into bloom the next day:




The plant usually flowers in onesies and twosies, but here's a rare "threefer" on 8/20:



In early July 2018, SoCal got hit by a brutal record-breaking heatwave, and I covered the story in my 11/17/18 post here. If you click on the link and scroll down to the bottom of that post, you'll find the particulars of what happened to my tenuissima. Now here's an update showing the aftermath on 9/29/18 and 7/1/19:



I like seeing how the damage is slowly being pushed down toward the base, and as the plant continues to put on more new growth, it may be almost like 2018's sunscorch never happened. Then the tenuissima got scorched again by a short heatwave in mid-September, although not as badly. Another case of blazing heat in the late afternoon/evening -- a shame I didn't come up with this idea already:



That's what I'll do the next time another heatwave keeps temps above 90 into the evening -- no more scorching for you, tenuissima.

The big beautiful puffball on the left takes us to...

• Mammillaria guelzowiana -- link from 2018 review Part 10

First photo on 7/7/13:



A "wow" factor in these shots -- 9/29/17 and 10/13/19 on the north-facing side...



...the (approximately) southeast-facing side...



...and the west-facing side:



The plant had done most of its flowering for the year when it arrived, but it held a bud in reserve that went into bloom on 7/14/13:



My guelzowiana has been a reliable bloomer ever since -- Mother Nature's latest psychedelic display on 8/2/19:




More on 8/10:






Although Mamm guelzowiana and bocasana are remarkably similar in terms of plant form, nothing beats guelzowiana with its showy and spectacular flowers. Unlike bocasana, they're not the easiest to grow, but if you're a Mammillaria fan, IMO guelzowiana is a must-have.

[Steve Johnson]

They were still buds when I posted them on 5/8, so let's see if they bloomed...

Copiapoa tenuissima:



Step back, and we'll see that my Turb polaskii from CoronaCactus was flowering too:




Something I didn't even notice until I got a good look at that bird's-eye shot:



Yep, it's a seedling! Since tenuissima is self-fertile, I "harvest" the seeds and give them to Desert Creations. However, not the first time a seed got away from me and sprouted in the pot. Unfortunately germination took place too late in the summer for the seedling to survive without water during winter. This one germinated at the right time, so with the parent plant's regular watering over the rest of this spring and summer, the new seedling should do well.

Eriosyce odieri:







No buds, just blooms -- Sulcorebutia callichroma longispina, on the plant's south-facing side showing wonderfully active growth points:



A close-up of the flowers:




The north-facing pup with a bloom of its own:



Not the biggest display I've seen on the plant compared to previous years, although an unusually warm (sometimes hot), dry weather pattern in the first quarter of 2020 might've had something to do with it. That's okay -- I'm just happy to see whatever I get.

Mammillaria deherdtiana still showing off, and a little show-off is sitting right next to it:



That'll be Mamm matudae:



Very pretty flowers, aren't they?



Now for the star of our May show -- Echinocereus rigidissimus rubispinus:






Given their size and the unusual variety of colors, these are the most spectacular flowers I see in my collection. Bud #2 hasn't bloomed yet, so the rubispinus will give us another bite of its gorgeous apple next month.

While we're here, I have a little something else to show you -- we'll end this presentation with...

New shade cloth

In my years as a young collector, I had too many problems with cacti getting scorched by the blazing sun during summer heatwaves. When I went to the California Cactus Center to start building my current collection in June 2011, I noticed that they had shade cloth over all of their benches. I asked the staff about what they use, and they said "40%", so the entire collection went under 40% shade cloth that July. The shade cloth enclosure continuing to be gainfully employed (September 2018):



Last summer, I added a plant table to increase my growing space. The idea was that some of the cacti could do perfectly well without shade cloth -- here's what came out and went onto the table:



Acclimating from shade cloth to full sun shouldn't be much of a problem, right? Well, that's what I thought until I detected a change to the top of my Cephalocereus senilis I didn't like. A lot of the surprises I see are pleasant, but the senilis delivered a surprise that was decidedly not -- rather than go into detail, you'll find the full bloody story here.

The portable greenhouses came off and got stowed in my garage last weekend, so the big Memorial Day weekend project was taking off the old shade cloth and installing new 40% shade cloth from a place called (oddly enough) the ShadeCloth Store. Facing east on the left and west on the right:



The early morning sun's light intensity can be pretty brutal during summer and early fall heatwaves. Having gone through a couple of really bad ones, I know that evenings can be kinda brutal as well, so shade cloth coverage top-to-bottom and end-to-end is a really important change I had to make. The new enclosure looks good, but was it too late for the Cephalocereus? The plant's root system is healthy, its growth point is definitely active, so with deep watering and fertilizer on a regular basis, I'm cautiously optimistic about seeing a lot of the damage reverse. However, I'm a long way off from declaring victory. If I do, we'll know it by the end of summer.

[Steve Johnson]

Low clouds coming in from the coast overnight, then hanging around until they burn off in the late morning -- that's typical "June gloom" here in L.A. However, today's gloom was high cloud cover that produced just a bare touch of rain, perfect conditions for outdoor cactus photography:



You've seen some of these cacti in my 2019 review, so the top shelf gives you a sneak preview of coming attractions as I post further installments. On the right of the Mammillaria matudae, we have Puna clavarioides, Turbinicarpus pseudopectinatus, Mamm theresae, and Frailea grahliana; on the left and right of my Sulco callichroma longispina, that'll be Cumulopuntia rossiana var. fuauxiana and Frailea castanea; and the Echinocereus rubispinus with a little bunkmate called Echinocereus viridiflorus ssp. canus.

Now let's get a closer look at the Sulco:




No gloom yesterday as the Mamm theresae's first flowers of the year opened up:





My "before and after" flower pics usually go from buds to blooms, but this time we'll go in reverse -- the theresae's buds on 5/16 and 5/31:



There's more than just buds going on here, so we'll zoom in on the 5/16 shot:



Yuppers, those are new pups being born. Don't look like much now, but they'll grow in nicely over the summer.

I have one item left over from April -- Eriosyce duripulpa coming out of its winter shriveling on 4/4, then a week after its first deep drink of 2020 (4/26):

[Steve Johnson]

There are only 2 species in the genus, and when I got a strobiliformis from TimN in April 2013, I set out to find the other. Craig Fry of C and D Plants had a few degrafted and rooted P. aselliformis for sale, so here's what he sent my way the following month:



I'm not normally a fan of cristates, but 3 normal heads and 1 crest on the same plant -- couldn't pass up on that opportunity. I was still using "dirty" mineral mix back then, but when I caught the boo-boo and started cleaning up the mix in 2015, this tiny guy went into a new glazed ceramic pot and clean mineral mix on 2/14/15:



Should've known better -- the new pot was too deep for those underdeveloped roots, and the poor thing thanked me by slowly dying. By the end of summer 2018, it became painfully obvious that I had been watering a dead cactus! Okay, gotta go back on the hunt to find a replacement. Unfortunately, aselliformis is almost impossible to come by here in the US, and when you find one it'll most likely to be a grafted plant. I won't keep grafted cacti in the collection, but as luck would have it, Planta Seca recently offered an aselliformis on its own roots at eBay. Then the offering came and went before I had a chance to jump. Nerts! Found a few grafted aselliformis on eBay, so maybe my only choice would be to buy one, degraft it and try rooting the scion. However, with zero experience doing this, I didn't fancy my chances trying it with such a difficult species.

The story continues when our member in Danville CA (that'll be bartab) alerted me to another own-roots aselliformis being offered by Planta Seca on eBay. No way I was going to miss another opportunity, and thanks to bartab's alertness, Bill Munkacsy's aselliformis landed on my doorstep yesterday. Time for repotting today:



Tipped out of the 2" nursery pot -- as we can see, his mix is nice and lean. But there's nothing leaner than straight pumice and granite gravel, so that's what the plant will be growing in.

Through the magic of Photoshop and Microsoft Paint, we'll get a look at both sides of the aselliformis (left), and all potted up on the right:



Yep -- nice thick taproots, and this is a really well-grown aselliformis. The pot's depth is pretty much perfect. The roots were gently brushing up against the sides when I fed in the mix, so if anything, the plant might be a bit underpotted. Nothing wrong with that, and having learned my lesson with Craig's aselliformis, I believe under is better than over -- maybe I got it right this time!

Now for a bird's-eye view:



My new aselliformis front and center in its spot on the top shelf:



The strobiliformis could use more sun, so that's a good spot for it too. By the way, this isn't my first time doing business with Planta Seca -- the Turb pseuopectinatus you see on the lower right came from Bill in 2014.

I'm thrilled to have a new (and better!) aselliformis joining the collection, and again many thanks to bartab for helping to make this possible.

[bartab]

Looks good Steve. Hope it settles in well.

[hegar]

Hello Steve,

it is nice to know, that you finally were able to purchase the cactus you were almost "dying for".
I hope, but am pretty certain, that you will take great care of it. With my limited skills and not perfect growing environment, I would not dare to even think of trying to cultivate overly expensive and hard to grow cacti. So I shall stick with the little jewels that Miles Anderson sells for less than 8 dollars each. Even losing a few of those plants does hurt, especially since I know, that Miles-2-Go does not have the same plants available year after year.
I wish you the best with your latest acquisition.

Harald

[Steve Johnson]

I started this review way back in October, and for those of you who missed the "preamble" in Part 1, here's the gist of it...

I covered a lot of my history in the hobby with the 2018 review, so my 2019 review is a continuation of the 2018 experience. If you'd like to get the detailed backstories on the plants you're seeing here, the links from 2018 will do just that. The "then and now" format seems to be working well, so we'll keep it going as we move forward.

2013 was a good year for buying new cacti from two renowned growers in the southwest, one being Miles Anderson. The other was Steven Brack, and I'm glad that I could do business with him before he retired from the nursery trade. Which brings us to plants...

From Mesa Garden (July and December 2013)

• Mammillaria crucigera -- link from 2018 review Part 11

First photo on 7/9/13:



As I said in the 2018 review -- misidentified by Steven Brack (excellent grower, but his IDs were sometimes a bit suspect), although a happy "accident" that I actually liked the crucigera better than huitzilopochtli (I still do). Spanning 6 years of growth on 9/22/13, 9/26/15, 10/1/17, and 10/6/19:




The view from above on 9/22/13 and 10/6/19:



Mamm crucigera is a prolific bloomer with flowers that are tiny, but pretty. In the middle of its wintertime blooming period on 1/31 and 2/18/20:




More flowers on 2/24:



Lots of tiny flowers produce lots of tiny fruits. Unfortunately, the species isn't self-fertile, so I never get any seeds out of them. That's okay -- the fruits are nice to look at anyway:

• Turbinicarpus jauernigii -- link from 2018 review Part 14

First photo on 7/9/13:



The jauernigii bore a certain resemblance to my polaskiis when I received it. The resemblance is gone as the plant's growth rate exceeds what I see on the polaskiis -- 9/20/15 and 10/13/19:




Thanksgiving cactus of a different kind -- the jauernigii flowering on 11/24:

• Epithelantha bokei and micromeris var. dickisoniae -- link from 2018 review Part 6

First photo of the E. bokei on 12/22/13:



Probably the slowest grower of the Epithelanthas, here it is on 9/20/15, 9/25/16, 10/6/18, and 10/13/19:




An aerial view on 9/25/16, 9/25/17 (with the plant's first -- and so far only flower), 10/6/18, and 10/13/19:




The bokei was done growing for the year in the 2019 shot, so we'll compare it with a brand-new photo I took yesterday (6/13/20):



That's what I like to see -- the growth point opening up with the appearance of new apical wool.

Most of the southwest is too hot and dry to support growing cacti in a soil-less mix. However, I don't have that problem in my rather temperate coastal microclimate, and a potful of pure, clean pumice and granite gravel has led to a more natural-looking bokei. Of course another flower would be nice, so I'll keep an eye out for one this summer.

We'll end today's presentation with the other Epithelantha from Mesa Garden:



Unlike the bokei, this little guy turned out to be a fairly fast grower -- as we'll see here on 4/26/14, 9/20/14, and 9/20/15:



Not bad for 2 years, huh? And it was another misidentification by Mr. Brack, although I didn't know it until pups started popping out in odd places. Took awhile to figure out the right name, but thanks to llifle, I was able to identify it as the dickisoniae variety of micromeris. (Interesting little factoid and something I didn't know until I made the ID on llifle -- gregii is actually a micromeris subspecies. Fun with taxonomy! )

Spanning 3 years of remarkable growth on 9/25/16 and 10/6/19:




A bird's-eye view on 9/25/16, and the plant in flower on 8/25/19:



Same date, as the dickisoniae and Mamm crucigera enjoy some shade on a hot summer afternoon:



The blooms on my micromeris from the California Cactus Center aren't much to look at, but the dickisoniae gives us a pretty little eyeful -- more flowers on 7/13 and 7/16:





Epithelanthas are some of the most wonderfully odd cacti you'll ever see -- maybe not the easiest to grow, but if you learn the ins and outs of what they want, they're definitely worth having in your collection.

I'll leave you with a tiny teaser for what we have coming up in Part 11:



Cheers, everyone!

[Steve Johnson]

My big presentations have always been after the end of summer, so why not mix things up with a small review to celebrate the beginning of this one?

The calendar says that the first day of summer is June 20, but more often than not, it doesn't feel like summer at all until the "June gloom" gives way to summertime heat in early July. Such was not the case this year, when the front end of the month was nice and sunny. In fact, the weather dealt a short heatwave to SoCal, and here at Casa de Jefferson Park, my collection experienced 2 back-to-back highs of 102 on June 9 and 10. Best to prepare for that before something gets scorched:



As I assembled a new portable greenhouse for the plant table last fall, I added 3.5 mm. twinwall roofs to the table and bench so that the tops of both GHs didn't turn into trout ponds as a result of the rains. After the rainy season is done and the polycarb "curtains" are tucked away in my downstairs garage, those roofs come in handy for a couple of other purposes -- easy to put up when they're needed, easy to take down when they're not:

• The filtered light is good enough to give the cacti extra protection from the blazing sun during heatwaves. The roofs went up for that purpose on 6/7.

• While sunny weather is great, it can lead to some pretty harsh cactus photography -- and especially when there's a lot of contrast between light and shadow. The translucent white twinwall is the perfect light diffuser, so the roofs are now this photographer's best summmertime friend.

Here are a few examples of the plant bench's light diffuser in action. First up, the top shelf -- after the scorching conditions came and went, things were still hot and sunny on 6/15:



The lighting in that photo is way better than it would've been without the twinwall.

My old shade cloth enclosure made it impossible to get a good straight-shot view all the way down the plant bench's west-facing end. Thanks to the new enclosure, that view is now open for business -- once again, the top shelf:



Sun Valley featuring 2 highly recumbent Mammillarias:



The Mamm in the background is grahamii, and the one in the foreground is another teaser for Part 11 of my 2019 review.

Looking down at Shady Glen:



Next, we have 4 individual cacti showing off for the camera. Day 1 of the heatwave -- Sulcorebutia callichroma longispina with a big flower letting it all hang out:




Astrophytum myriostigma quadricostatum on 6/15:



Astrophytum 'capristigma' with buds on 6/12 and blooms 2 days later:





Echinocereus rigidissimus rubispinus making good on bud #2's promise -- 6/12, 6/15, and the bud starting to open on 6/16:



The "June gloom" came back on the 16th, but that didn't keep the rubispinus from doing this:



It appears that something crawled into the flower, so let's investigate:



Yep, a winged critter sure got a snootful of pollen! Unfortunately I know nothing about insect species, but if we have any experts who can give us an ID, I'd be interested to know what it is.

We'll end today's presentation with this photo on the official first day of summer -- a "twofer special" with blooms (Copiapoa tenuissima) and buds (Astrophytum asterias):



The days are still kinda gloomy, but it won't be long until the summer gets going in earnest. To all of my friends here on the forum -- I hope your summer will be kind to you and your cacti!

[its_paul]

Awesome, thanks for sharing. I live in Los Angeles as well and was trying to find what your watering schedule is. I've been repotting with the same pumice/DG mix. And thanks for the 40% shade cloth tip! That will be next on the agenda.

[Steve Johnson]

Awesome, thanks for sharing. I live in Los Angeles as well and was trying to find what your watering schedule is. I've been repotting with the same pumice/DG mix. And thanks for the 40% shade cloth tip! That will be next on the agenda.

Glad to compare notes since you and I are using the same mix, and we're living in pretty much the same climate. I water most of my cacti every 2 weeks in spring and summer. There are exceptions, so I'll break it down for you:

• Spring

Ariocarpus fissuratus -- every 3-4 weeks depending on how warm the daytime highs are
Aztekium ritteri -- every 3 weeks, no watering until late April/early May
Coryphantha retusa -- every 4 weeks
Cumarinia odorata -- every 2 weeks
Discocactus bueneckeri and Melocactus matanzanus -- every 10 days
Echinocereus rigidissimus rubispinus and viridiflorus canus -- every 2 weeks
Eriosyce duripulpa, napina, and odieri -- every 3-4 weeks, no watering until late May unless we get a good stretch of heat before then
Frailea castanea and grahliana -- every 2 weeks
Gymnocactus ysabelae, Obregonia denegrii, and all Turbinicarpus except for valdezianus -- every 3-4 weeks
Turb valdezianus -- every 2 weeks

• Summer

Ario fissuratus -- every 10 days-2 weeks
Aztekium ritteri -- every 2 weeks
Coryphantha retusa -- every 3 weeks
Cumarinia odorata, Disco bueneckeri, and Melo matanzanus -- once a week
Echino rubispinus and canus -- every 10 days
Erio duripulpa, napina, and odieri -- every 2 weeks
Frailea castanea and grahliana -- once a week
Gymno ysabelae, Obregonia denegrii, and all Turbs except for valdezianus -- every 2 weeks
Turb valdezianus -- every 3 weeks

I have a Mammillaria grahamii and perezdelarosae that are getting really big, so I think they're thirsty enough to want water every 10 days in summer now. By the way, there's only one way to water in the growing season, and that's deep -- as in water coming down out of the drain hole like a faucet. You may already know that, but I wanted to mention it just in case.

40% shade cloth really does wonders to keep cacti from scorching in the hot summertime sun, so I think you'll like the results.

Happy growing!