Let the end of the cuttings dry and callus for a good while before planting them in anything. Then when it is well callused you can put it in new soil. Big Lophocereus stems like that will often grow new roots without being in the soil at all. When the callus has formed (which could take weeks), pl...

Thanks, Darryl. I quickly realized that after checking serveral times, so try to "read/feel" the soil (my fairly std. homemade cactus mix), & trusting it more. Also realizing the downside of small gravel over much of top -- can't feel the soil! Generally don't water anything for a wee...

Looks like I'm doing well with my Melo matanzus so far. If I can get it through the winter into the next growing season, I have a dilemma about possibly changing to a new mix. I found a source for decomposed granite that's a fine enough grade for mixing with pumice. Although I haven't started yet, m...

Why dont you keep it simple then and just grow in straight pumice. Lots of growers do that around LA and it seems to work great. You just have to water and fertalize a little more IMO. Unfortunately, my collection is on the porch of my apartment over a 2-car garage. Here's what the exposure looks l...

You could substitute the pumice for crushed granite #5, which is about the same size chuncks as pumice, it's cheaper too. The rest of the mix would be for water retention. Personally, i'd chose one or the other. I've used both but see no reason to anymore. or Substitute the sand for DG (the sandy, ...

So I started learning about cacti today...right after I watered all of them. I have seven cacti, four of them are new, one I bought in September, and the other two I've had for several years. None of them have flowered since I've had them and now I'm learning the lack of dormancy is likely the prob...

Thanks from an observer of this thread. I've have an asterias that I've gone thru this the last 2 winters. I thought it was root rot, but never saw a tear @ neck d/t rot. So I replanted in Summer & come Nov/Dec -- same ol, same ol. Right now it's pulled out, sitting in the pot because I just di...

Today I spoke at some length with an arborist at Sunset Nursery in Silverlake. This lady has been around for quite awhile, and she really knows her stuff when it comes to plant soils. Yeah, I know -- an arborist? But she was pretty good on cactus soils too, so she comiserated with my problem when I ...

Your water is very likely to be at least slightly alkaline. That if the correct MSU fertilizer at RePotme. I'd buy the one for tap water and also get the granules not the liquid unless you just like paying them for their water and higher shipping weight. The fertilizer may lower your final watering...

Okay, I've been researching this a little more, and I'd like to give another try at coming up with my own cactus mix. For those of you hardy souls who haven't become exhausted of this whole thing, I'd like to propose some ideas. First, I'll see what I can do about going for a mineral soil without an...

Hard water is almost always alkaline, sometimes very alkaline. Tap water is almost always alkaline whether it is hard or not, because the water companies dose it to prevent corrosion, but soft tap water will only be slightly alkaline. Rainwater will be mildly acid except in very unusual conditions....

I think that was Hanazono, here's his post: http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22688&start=30 Yep, that's the one. In fact, I'm glad you caught up with the thread again, as I found it rather interesting. I'm going through an A. asterias that already lost its roots. Now it's sitting...

The fertilizer mentioned above looks a lot like the various fertilizers commonly available for orchids. Most of them are not very effective for either cacti or orchids when based on Urea as this one is. In a cactus mix that dries out rapidly, most of the urea is not going to be available to the pla...

BTW, it is massively overpotted and that will probably kill it at some point. As a general rule of thumb, I have always sized my pots by the plant's diameter using a margin of 2.5 cm: 2.5 x 2 + plant diameter = width of the pot. For example, if your asterias has a diameter of 3 cm, the pot should b...

Now... I'll say up front that I grow more succulents than I do cactus. (Maybe 700 to 300? That's a guess.) But the more I circulate around L.A. growers, the more I hear people growing with high pumice quotient, often 100%. You have to feed more often but—as I overheard Miles Anderson telling a cust...