A Maltese and his experience

[Kristofer1990]

Hello everyone,

I'm a new member here, only decided to make an account last year but I have been snooping around for a few years...
I'm a young 28 year old cacti and succulent grower from Malta that has recently got his own house with a decent sized roof for growing some of these plants.
I have been keeping cacti and succulents for about 4-5 years now so still quite a newbie to this. I have read a lot of posts and threads on here and Facebook and with these I have improved my growing techniques a lot, albeit a lot of improvement still needs to be made.

For now I keep a mixture of everything but I will be limiting my collection to fewer species, as I believe specializing to a certain extent produces better results. Some of my favorite species are Astrophytum cultivars, Ariocarpus species and cultivars, also i keep a few Haworthias and cultivars. I love grafting as well as it produces amazing results in a limited amount of time.

This thread is meant to be a diary for me and for you to enjoy. If you have any questions feel free to post a comment or private message me.
Below is a picture of my current very small greenhouse. Will build a bigger and better looking one in the future (I doubt it's the near future).

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Cheers,
Chris

[mmcavall]

Welcome, Chris, please feel free to share your progresses with us.

[DaveW]

Welcome Chris. A friend of mine is Secretary of the Maltese Cactus & Succulent Society. It's nice that you are able grow cacti outside in Malta, also put greenhouses on your flat roofs..

Rene' Zahra has grown most of his plants from seed. The large Cerei like the Espostoa's he grew from Ritter's seed in the 1960's.

https://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/v ... wed.390663

[Kristofer1990]

Thanks for the warm welcome mmcavall

I know Rene, he is one the most dedicated growers we have on the Island. He also has one of the largest collections with regards to variety and numbers locally.

Today it's raining in Malta so I collect water for the coming growing seasonof cacti and the current growing season for Hawrothia. for now about 200 liters of water will be more than enough for my small collection. I have already collected some 160 liters which is good. I use a basic method of just placing trays on the ground for now but will adopt a better method later

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[Kristofer1990]

Checked on the plants this morning, and as always the Strombocactus disciformis is one of the first plants to announce the onset of spring.
a tiny flower bud (red dot) is visible in the photo.

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Also the pereskiopsis are growing slowly again. I will be using these to push growth on my seedlings and some permanent rooting stock. for now they grow very slowly but come summer they will grow anywhere from 1cm to 2.5cm a week if well watered and fed.

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[DaveW]

Pereskiopsis grow like mad as long as you don't treat them like cacti and keep them moist in summer. I grow them in one of the clear plastic unheated domed top plastic propagators in the greenhouse in summer in a "Turkish Bath" steamy type atmosphere with condensation streaming down the plastic. I have even rooted just a one inch length of stem in those conditions within a few days and you can keep topping the plants to produce even more stocks quickly since the topped stems will send out more cuttings too.

For grafting you want soft wood anyway, not slower growing lignified stocks. After grafting you gradually harden off the stock and scion.

[Kristofer1990]

That much I found out dave with regards to pereskiopsis. I never had such an easy plant, it grows fast, roots fast and pups like there is no tomorrow.

Will be using it to impale grafy the tops of chopped of myrtillo. New technique I got off a guy from facebook.

[Kristofer1990]

Went to do some succulent watering today in the greenhouse. The temperature right now is at 10C and strong NW winds.
While giving water to the Haworthias and Adromischus I had a look around at the cacti and more have started to wake up.
Here is an Echinocactus grusonii var intermedius that has come out the winter slumber.

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[ElieEstephane]

It seems our similar weather is waking our cacti up. Ferocacti, stenocacti, mammillarias, echinopsis and many more are waking up and showing new spines or buds. I'm still reluctant to water as there is still time for the weather to turn. I will probably water after the first week of february has cleared

[Kristofer1990]

I will not water either for now, it's still too cold. Will wait till mid February for a light drizzle with the spay gun. I have lost one too many plants because I watered to early.

[Kristofer1990]

Sunny but cold day today in Malta. Went to check on the plants tonight and found a new flower bud an astrophytum asterias var nudum and a ferocactus that has started to grow again. Sowed some seedlings earlier this week but nothing germinated presumably because it is still quite cold at night (11-13 degrees celsius). I watered the pereskiopsis again because they seem to have started growing well although slow.

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[Kristofer1990]

Temperatures are slowly rising and the days are getting loner. Went to have a look at the plants tonight and more plants are pushing flowers buds and new growth. Trying to start some early seeds on heat mats. still no shows for now, time will tell if they are viable or not.
Below are 2 photos of plants pushing flowers which are a T.Alonsoi and a Astrophytum myriostigma CV Fukuryu.
The Astro is the first time it flowered for me ever since I had it.

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[Kristofer1990]

It's still pretty cold here in Malta, this night we had 8 degrees Celsius in the greenhouse. Plants are slowly waking up but it is still not ideal to start seeds. I have built the propagator below (still a draft version) so that I can start my seeds now and give them a month head start before I take them outside. Temperatures are around 27 degrees with both heat mat and bulb switched on. Tonight I will switch off the bulb to simulate a night drop and see what temperatures I get. if it drops only to 19-20 degrees I will be happy. With this set up I will be able to accommodate about 20 small containers easily.

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[Kristofer1990]

Today it got 33 degrees in the greenhouse, so spring is around the corner. I lost one Astrophytum myriostigma to rot today but all others are doing fine. The propagator is working s the pereskiopsis cuttings have woken up well and one ferocactus and one trichocereus have sprouted. I am also to build table height cold frame this winter to house even more plants. Will post pictures when and IF I start it.

The pereskiopsis are amazing plants, I have some cuttings in water and in a matter of 24 hours they sprouted roots and already have leaves 2 days later. The growth is phenomenal.

[Kristofer1990]

The propagator light box is working well. I have seedlings of Trichocereus pachanoi and Echinocereus viereckii sprouting and growing well.
Only 2 seedlings of T.Pach have come up while all of the seedlings of the Echino sprouted. Yesterday I sowed some Turbinicarpus and plan to sow more seeds this week, maybe some Ariocarpus.
If everything goes well, I will probably order more seeds later on to increase my numbers.

T.Pachanoi

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E.Viereckii

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