A small collection: 2015 and beyond
Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2015 7:25 am
Well, here we are on New Year's Day, and I'm eager to hit the ground running for my 2015 Member Topics thread. I have a few things for you as we get the party started, and I hope you'll enjoy following what this small collection will be up to over the course of the year...
Since the rainy season in SoCal runs November through April, some sort of portable greenhouse has been an important feature in my winter routine. The plastic sheeting I used to get from Home Depot wasn't durable enough for constant outdoor exposure during wintertime, so I'm putting UV-resistant polycarbonate film to the test with the hope that my new rig (AKA portable GH 3.0) will last a good long time before it needs replacement. (If you'd like some details on 3.0, check out Turb jauernigii & friends.) With a chilly week between Christmas and New Year's Day going on, I've been keeping the front up as the new design does its job -- protection from the rain that came through on the 30th, and trapping a really nice amount of heat when the sun is out. From today, let's have a look "under the hood":
And the low and high temps reported by the outdoor thermometer on my plant bench:
Yep, that was an overnight low of 30. Very unusual to see it now, although L.A. could be in for an unusually cold winter -- something I'll have to keep my eye on in January and February. Luckily, most of the cacti are fine being outside as long as they stay dry (thank you, portable GH!). However, there are a handful I've been keeping inside since Christmas began a string of cold nights which could spell trouble. The temporarily housebound plants are:
Discocactus buenekeri and Melocactus matanzanus are fine down to 38, but not a good time for being outdoors at the moment. I don't think the Uebelmannia pectinifera would be happy about it either, so it came in too. My 2 Eriosyce senilises are the only cacti that could use monthly soaks in winter -- normally not a problem, although after I gave them a deep drench on December 20, the unpleasant possibility of a 32-degree overnight on the 27th was something I certainly didn't expect. Seems that I dodged a bullet there, and because I could see the prospect of a freeze coming on the heels of our recent storm, I tossed them into "cactus jail" Monday night. If the National Weather Service 7-day forecast covering my area holds up, the indoor cacti can go back outside on Sunday. The daytimes should also be warm enough to warrant taking off the front of GH 3.0. How I approach further winter watering care will depend on the forecasts I monitor on a daily basis. I've gotten pretty good at comparing them with the temps observed by the outdoor thermometer, and the only concern I'll have is to make sure I time the sips and soaks right.
While we're at it, I'll show you a couple of cacti developing buds. I detected these on my Mammillaria perezdelarosae as I got ready to skip town the day after Christmas:
Probably difficult to see in the above photo -- here's a close-up, and you should be able to notice tiny cream-colored buds hiding in among the tubercles:
My guess is that I'll have flowers for you in about 2 weeks.
One of my talents is playing "spot the bud" -- for example, Turbinicarpus valdezianus with a teeny tiny bud way back on November 22:
Now it's New Year's Day, and you won't need a close-up to spot this bud:
There's another bud (possibly 2?) you won't be able to see on camera yet. The species is slow to go from buds to flowers, but I'll continue putting another talent of mine to work with side-by-side "before and after" pics as we see the buds develop, then go into flower. Figure on sometime next month, and the valdezianus won't be the only winter-blooming cactus that'll put on a display in February!
While the front end of January is definitely a slow time for my cactus-related activities, I'll have more interesting stuff for you coming up soon -- stay tuned, my friends!
Since the rainy season in SoCal runs November through April, some sort of portable greenhouse has been an important feature in my winter routine. The plastic sheeting I used to get from Home Depot wasn't durable enough for constant outdoor exposure during wintertime, so I'm putting UV-resistant polycarbonate film to the test with the hope that my new rig (AKA portable GH 3.0) will last a good long time before it needs replacement. (If you'd like some details on 3.0, check out Turb jauernigii & friends.) With a chilly week between Christmas and New Year's Day going on, I've been keeping the front up as the new design does its job -- protection from the rain that came through on the 30th, and trapping a really nice amount of heat when the sun is out. From today, let's have a look "under the hood":
And the low and high temps reported by the outdoor thermometer on my plant bench:
Yep, that was an overnight low of 30. Very unusual to see it now, although L.A. could be in for an unusually cold winter -- something I'll have to keep my eye on in January and February. Luckily, most of the cacti are fine being outside as long as they stay dry (thank you, portable GH!). However, there are a handful I've been keeping inside since Christmas began a string of cold nights which could spell trouble. The temporarily housebound plants are:
Discocactus buenekeri and Melocactus matanzanus are fine down to 38, but not a good time for being outdoors at the moment. I don't think the Uebelmannia pectinifera would be happy about it either, so it came in too. My 2 Eriosyce senilises are the only cacti that could use monthly soaks in winter -- normally not a problem, although after I gave them a deep drench on December 20, the unpleasant possibility of a 32-degree overnight on the 27th was something I certainly didn't expect. Seems that I dodged a bullet there, and because I could see the prospect of a freeze coming on the heels of our recent storm, I tossed them into "cactus jail" Monday night. If the National Weather Service 7-day forecast covering my area holds up, the indoor cacti can go back outside on Sunday. The daytimes should also be warm enough to warrant taking off the front of GH 3.0. How I approach further winter watering care will depend on the forecasts I monitor on a daily basis. I've gotten pretty good at comparing them with the temps observed by the outdoor thermometer, and the only concern I'll have is to make sure I time the sips and soaks right.
While we're at it, I'll show you a couple of cacti developing buds. I detected these on my Mammillaria perezdelarosae as I got ready to skip town the day after Christmas:
Probably difficult to see in the above photo -- here's a close-up, and you should be able to notice tiny cream-colored buds hiding in among the tubercles:
My guess is that I'll have flowers for you in about 2 weeks.
One of my talents is playing "spot the bud" -- for example, Turbinicarpus valdezianus with a teeny tiny bud way back on November 22:
Now it's New Year's Day, and you won't need a close-up to spot this bud:
There's another bud (possibly 2?) you won't be able to see on camera yet. The species is slow to go from buds to flowers, but I'll continue putting another talent of mine to work with side-by-side "before and after" pics as we see the buds develop, then go into flower. Figure on sometime next month, and the valdezianus won't be the only winter-blooming cactus that'll put on a display in February!
While the front end of January is definitely a slow time for my cactus-related activities, I'll have more interesting stuff for you coming up soon -- stay tuned, my friends!