CactiGuide.com

Nice..

They are so beautiful when they have grown a big cephalium and even more when there are buds and fruit on it! Thank you!

I love the shape and it looks so cute.

How much water or how often should Melocactus be watered?

I grow several species of Melocactus. Mine like A LOT more water compared to desert cactus, but they need smaller amounts more frequently. Their roots are shallow and don't like drying out for very long.

The soil can get dry, but it shouldn't stay dry for more than a few days, even in winter.

Hi,
I have only this one and only Melo, so I can't say anything general about watering. I think, Aloinopsis is right: I am always surprised how much water it wants. These days it flowers very nice -- in PINK. Smallest cactus-flowers I know. And it loves loads of sun during summer! During winter it resides in my living room because it doesn't like it cold.
N.

Some Melocactus do have tiny flowers, but some of the polyploid African Rhipsalis varieties have even tinier ones. Heres one of mine. They're tiny and translucent white.

Thank you for the nice picture, Aloinopsis. Lovely. And a good idea with the pencil for comparison.
I won't compare the size, though. Important: I like them both!
N.

I like them both too! I think Melocactus are sometimes cleistogamous, which is why you often get many more fruits than there were visible flowers.

What is "cleistogamous"? Is it a word for hiding their flowers away? -- This is what I see with my Lophophores williamsii, too. The buds are nearly invisible until ready to flower.

It means that some or all of the flowers on any given plant never open fully. Instead, they pollinate themselves and form seed without ever opening. Frailea almost always does this. So you may not even see flowers, but you will still get fruit.

I suspect that some Blossfeldia, Epithelantha, Lophophora, Melocactus, and Turbinicarpus species also show cleistogamy, but I haven't seen anything in the literature and I couldn't prove it. That's just based on personal experience.

I also bought my plant 2012

I give it plenty of water in the growing season
It really plumped up this year

Do you all groom the cephalium?

I brush mine and clean them out of old fruits, seeds, and loose hairs once or twice a year. That's honestly a little bit anal of me, so I'm just curious if you all do that as well.

I find that it keeps them looking nicer and more prim all year. But I also like the ugly, unkempt, look too, like you'd see in Cuba on a beach.

I water over the tops of my plants to clean them off

Never have I brushed it, but pulled off seeds last year for sale.