All My “Children” (aka Cacti, Succulents & Seedlings)

[Lolavy]

Don't know if this would help, but go here...

https://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=16

...and dig through the threads. Some of them may be able to give you a few ideas worth pursuing. If you start a thread of your own on the Grown From Seed forum, you may (and probably will) get advice from members who aren't following your Member Blogs thread.

Good advice! Thanks!

[Lolavy]

There are many opinions on this site about what's best to use for cactus soil
The best advice I can give is to do your own research

I use coir for some seedlings mixes, and peat based mix for others
What's important is adding pumice or perlite to the mix so it dries out quickly

The major wholesale cactus nurseries in southern California grow everything in coir/perlite or peat/pumice
and they don't have any problems
Mixing coir with peat based soils has never been recommended

The coir should be well rinsed
some of your plants look like they may be over potted (pots are too big for the plant)

Agreed! I only wish I’d known about the rinsing and buffering beforehand; a small detail I’d missed previously, with unfortunate results

[Lolavy]

January Collection Updates - The Good

M.Plumosa is in near full bloom after a few January rain storms in LA. While the plants are covered with a translucent tarp when it rains, the rain still seemed to trigger flower production. Or maybe this is normal for Plumosas

Plumosa in Full Bloom

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This Ariocarpus Kotschoubeyanus bloomed for a second time this season after the rain storms we got in LA at the beginning of the month. By the time I took the tarp off and could get a picture, it looked like this:

Ariocarpus K. in Bloom

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Haworthia also seems to be responsive to the rain. After the first storm in early January, this happened:

Haworthia Bloom after First Storm

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After the rain from last week, I discovered this the next day:

Haworthia Bloom after Second Storm

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Close up of Haworthia Flowers

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Also, my Euphorbia Hybrids seem to have bloomed as a result of the rain. I had bought 2 of them hoping I could use one to pollinate the other, but I can now see that they are of the same sex.

Euphorbia Hybrids in Bloom

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The Lithops have been changing pretty dramatically this month as well, which is pretty exciting, because as hard as everyone says they are too grow, I assumed I would have killed them by now

This lithops flowered twice since I re-homed it, and now that it’s shedding its outer leaf, I think the second flower may have come from one of the inner leaves. So fascinating!

Double Flower Lithops

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Neither of these lithops flowered this summer, but have begun to split in the last month and a half. The first one was barely split a few weeks ago, but has caught up by leaps and bounds. I love the pattern on the second one and can’t wait to see what the shed leaf looks like.

No Flower / Splitting Lithops 1

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No Flower / Splitting Lithops 2

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My little green lithops had barely any roots when I got it, so I’ve been giving it weekly sips to spur root development, and now it’s having twins!

Splitting Green Lithops with Twins

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My other living rocks are all splitting, even the one that I was sure was dead after I discovered a few weeks ago that its roots were laying above the potting medium, in the top layer. I tucked it back in and started giving it weekly sips, and it seems to be on the mend.

Various Pleiospilos in a Single Pot

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Royal Flush

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Green Pleiospilos 1

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Green Pleiospilos 2

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Green Pleiospilos 3 - Back from the living dead

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My music teacher gave me these cuttings this past summer. The two succulents looked all but dead just a few months ago, with the one with the branches (no idea what it is…) having shed all but three leaves, but both are reviving nicely. The Mexican Fence Posts are also starting to show signs of life, with the spines turning white in response to root development. I checked yesterday, and all but three (and the two mini pups) have roots.

Purple Cutting

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Unknown Cutting

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Unknown Cutting Close up

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Mexican Fence Post 1

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Mexican Fence Post 2

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Mexican Fence Post 3

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I also got this dragon fruit cutting from her two weeks ago. I trimmed the end a bit, dipped it in a mix of sulfur powder and rooting hormone (2:1), and let it dry for 10 days before placing it in water. I changed the water yesterday afternoon and discovered it’s already started to take root. Both exciting and scary as I figured I’d have a few weeks before I would need to figure out what I’m going to do about actually planting it.

Dragon Fruit Cutting

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I actually harvested some dragon fruit seeds from fruit I bought last week and have them in my propagation chamber to germinate as of a few days ago. I know they grow rather slow and it’s better to buy cuttings, but I couldn’t help myself

Yellow Dragon Fruit + Seeds

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[Lolavy]

January Collection Updates - The Not So Good

I mutilated three of my cacti this past Fall when I thought they’d been beset with scale (it was more than likely just mechanical damage or a sign of healing from prior edema). It turns out that when you actually have scale, it’s pretty easy to determine as the little critters come right off, and move quite a bit when you try to get them off with tweezers or you squeeze them! Anyway, after skipping my weekly anti-critter spaying because of the rain, I found scale on my Astrophytum yesterday, right where the flower has bloomed then died, which must have attracted the little critters. I sprung right into action to remedy the issue and forgot to take a photo, but here’s the aftermath:

Slaughtered Bugs on Table

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Astrophytum Post-treatment

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After I sprayed the plant with rubbing alcohol, and used a soft toothbrush dipped in alcohol to scrub the top of the cactus where I found the bugs, I sprayed it with Sierra Natural Science’s pesticide; once that dried, I then sprayed it with their fungus control spray, and did the same (minus the alcohol) with everything else in my collection, just in case (hence why some of the plants look wet in these photos).

I also have several cacti, both rooted and otherwise, that are not doing so great with the sun + winter rest, or are just discoloring/corking for reasons I can’t figure out. I just hope they’ll all recover once I install shade cloth and resume normal watering in the spring.

Myrtillocactus - Side Directly Facing Southern Sun Exposure

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Myrtillocactus - Side Facing the Patio

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Gasteria - The Side Closest to the Sun is Not Looking So Great

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Discoloration on Spiralis Cutting 2

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Discoloration on Spiralis Cutting 1

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Corking on Dehydrated Unicorn Cactus 1

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Corking on Dehydrated Unicorn Cactus 2

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Corking on Aereole of Montrose Peruvian Apple Cactus Cutting

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New Growth is Red on 1 of 2 Boobie Cacti

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New Growth is Red on 2 of 2 Boobie Cacti

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Reddening Epiphyllum

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Here’s another one that seems to whither away more and more each day. I got it for free when I purchased a cactus at a yard sale, and the seller told me to treat it like a cactus, and water sparingly. Well, that does not seem to be working…

Dying Unknown Succulent

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Here are pictures from the day I got it:

Unknown Succulent 1

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Unknown Succulent 2

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If anyone reading this happens to know what it is and/or how to take care of it, I’m all ears!

I have no idea what’s going on with this Mexican Fence Post I purchased in September. When it first started discoloring, I moved it out of the sun and under the awning where I keep cuttings of the same type of cactus (pictures in post directly above), but it may look worse now than before I moved it. The first photo shows what it looked like the day I received it.

Mexican Fence Post Day 1

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Mexican Fence Post Present Day

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When I bought these Crested Euphorbias, the nursery gave me the one on the right for free because of the sun damage, plus the roots were virtually nonexistent. I’ve been keeping it on the second shelf of a plant stand that’s out of direct Sun and all seemed well, till yesterday when I noticed that the previously all green/healthy one was also starting to redden. Nothing else has changed since I purchased these, so I may need to start giving it sips in case the roots are dying off and causing the discoloration.

Crested Euphorbia Discoloration

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I noticed a small orange colored spot on one of the stems of my Christmas Cactus about two weeks ago before it started raining. I thought I was paranoid and it was probably sun damage, and so I did not treat it. Well, when I checked yesterday, it not only appears to be definitely rust, but it’s also spreading to adjacent stems. I used both an anti-fungal systemic as a root drench, and also sprayed it liberally with the Sienna Naturals Disease and Fungicide spray, but I’m not sure if I should cut off the impacted leaves. I’m not the biggest fan of this type of cactus, so I’m willing to take a gamble for now, but I’m also open to suggestions.

Christmas Cactus Rust 1

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Christmas Cactus Rust 2

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Christmas Cactus Rust 3

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Finally, after giving up on these seedling containers and putting them on a shelf to dry out, they developed all types of molds / fungi. I wonder if the heat of the seedling mats was suppressing the growth of these nasties, or if it’s just happenstance now that they’re only covered by netting (though I’m running an industrial air purifier right next to the grow space).

Contaminated Seedling Container 1

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Contaminated Seedling Container 2

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Contaminated Seedling Container 3

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I’ll post a seedling update soon (Summary: Not Doing So Well ), but the photos directly above can definitely be classified as some ‘Not So Good’ happenings from this month.

[Lolavy]

Realizing we may not see rain again in LA for some time, I stepped up my rain water collection and managed to bank 27L the last two days. After straining the water for debris and bottling it all up, I’m now looking forward to a day full of pressure cooking

[jerrytheplater]

Why are you sterilizing your water? Seems extremely labor intensive.

[Lolavy]

Good question, Jerry! I’d characterize my full thinking as follows:

1) Coming from the Myco world, I will normally sterilize something like grain water, whenever I plan to store it for some extended period of time and I don’t want anything growing in it while stored, but still want to retain the elemental benefits of the liquid. I also primarily intend to use the rain water for seedlings. Since I almost killed off all my current seedlings last month with a water-borne fungal infection after using water that hadn’t been boiled/heat treated, it felt instinctual to me to go the sterilization route.

2) I didn’t want to buy anything new as far as storing rain water for now (I live in a rented condo). I already have a ton of glass jars in the garage for my Myco hobby, so I decided the jars will be my storage vessel of choice for now.

3) I personally find the most tedious part of the process to be jarring up the water, which I have to do anyway for storage, so for me, the additional step of sterilization doesn’t seem all that labor intensive. That said, it does help that I have two high capacity PCs (again, Myco hobby…), liquids require an ~45 minute cycle time, and over the years, I’ve developed a pretty good system for running multiple PCs cycles at once while getting other stuff done.

All in, it took a bit more than 6 hours to get them all heat treated, and now I can just pull them out from the garage as needed without too much worry of the water going off, which was my ultimate goal.

[jerrytheplater]

Thanks for your answer. I see you have a system already and are willing to follow it. Good for you.

If you could see my algae filled rainwater that I use in the summer for non fertilizer watering, I think you'd faint.

[Lolavy]

I am due a proper update for February and March (though tbh, very little went on except a new cutting from my music teacher, lithops continued shedding their leaves, and my M. plumosa continued budding), but one new addition I wanted to share was my acquisition of pereskiopsis cuttings!

I got a great deal on eBay, and have them soaking in some sesol to root, with the hopes of turning them into mother plants to try my hand at some grafting experiment in a few months.