Amazing! Everything looks healthy and thriving. Yet I see no real monsters trying to push out the roof.

To me the elephant in the room is 100% washed sand. I see you are using fertilizer. But it is hard to replace nutrients that are in good soil. I believe they are starving. I have yet to devise my perfect seed starting mix.It varies depending what I'm trying to grow. But I have read in the archives h...

I live in midwest USA where it's too cold to leave cactus out all winter. I overwinter my cardon in a Cool unused bedroom. There is afternoon sunlight,but not all that bright. ( Actually I probably have almost 100 cacti in there). I give them little sips of water with a turkey baster sparingly once ...

Don't separate them until spring. It never ceases to amaze me how anttisepp and others on here identify cactus. I actually have one and didn't realize it was the same as yours :roll: But as he says,they get HUGE. They grow very slowly. But you will have to separate them sooner or later,and early nex...

I have cheap Amazon heat mats,and not so cheap grow lights but the mats don't have thermostats,so I don't know about temps. But I put the mats to come on the same time as the lights do on a timer. That helps imitate day and night. Is it necessary? I don't know but it seems to work for me,and trying ...

Sounds like you just have above soil mealies? I would just keep the mealy bug cactus isolated from the rest,and keep spot picking with alcohol. I use both alcohol and insecticidal soap. Some plants are like magnets when it comes to mealies. And some they won't touch. I believe in this situation a ho...

I had an Opuntia I bought off of ebay a couple years ago. I got it in early summer. Put it in a pot with some cactus mix. But for the most part never put it into the direct sun because I figured since it had no roots it would dry out and burn in no time. It never rooted even into the following sprin...

I believe Jerry on youtube to be an expert on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX-iLSW0nCI
I believe your cutting to be a true San Pedro. But I know just enough to be dangerous

Can't answer about pure mineral mix. But as far as a substitute for peat. Co Co Coir works for me. There are those here that will tell you to "avoid it like the plague". But I use an awful lot of it. The way I use it for seedlings is I put a layer in the bottom of the pot. No matter what I...

I bought a Agave Havardiana seedling in early spring of 2022. Not long after I bought it the leaves went clenched and it just wasn't growing. I repotted it and tried a number of things. In early spring of 2023 nothing had really changed,if anything it was losing ground. I repotted looking for critte...

I would go easy on that Dynamite stuff. It's crazy high in nitrogen. Not sure how they get away with selling it for cactus. Looking in the background it looks like this isn't your first one. They are "jungle cactus" and like more water than regular cacti. It has been my experience when sma...

In my opinion the baggie method is the way to go for starting seed. Especially if you have a heat mat and grow light. They say cactus seeds need light,but I used to set tomato seeds in seed starting mix in a tuperware bowl. Sit it on top of the hotwater heater for a few days with no light,and when t...

I don't know the ideal temperature. I have 2 heat mats but they don't have thermostats. I use grow lights on timers and have the grow lights and heat mats both on the same timer so the heat goes off at night to mimic night and day temperature swings. I also only have one year experience but it has w...

I have read before and just looked it up again. How a 50 foot tall saguaro can have a root system 100 foot in diameter,and only a few inches deep. Which would put a Saguaro of any size in a container under a lot of stress. Also gives thought to planning on where to plant. Like next to a concrete dri...