Search found 4545 matches
- Tue May 14, 2024 4:01 am
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Rot or Not? Please help
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6987
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
My first ask: don't mention sulfuric acid (highly tissue corrosive) as an acidifier option like they do lol. Agreed -- way too dangerous for hobbyist use, and best if we leave it to the professionals who know what they're doing. Going to look around and see if there's anything with very positive re...
- Tue May 14, 2024 2:04 am
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Rot or Not? Please help
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6987
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
I stumbled on this very in-depth piece all about water alkalinity/pH and why it's so important for it to be right for watering cacti, whether in-ground or potted. The one glaring thing missing is a reference to the added benefit of increasing the availability of cal/mag in hard water through the pr...
- Mon May 13, 2024 11:18 pm
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Cactus cutting gone bad (cont'd)
- Replies: 3
- Views: 210
- Mon May 13, 2024 8:00 am
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Rot or Not? Please help
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6987
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
Are there any risks or adverse effects associated with the acidification of hard water, whether it be changes in elemental composition or the water or impact on soil media/cacti health? For example, calcium acetate is a phosphate binder - unsure if that in turn makes phosphorous less available to t...
- Sun May 12, 2024 9:37 pm
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Base of cactus turning brown.
- Replies: 4
- Views: 116
Re: Base of cactus turning brown.
The beige areas around the base indicate premature corking, typical for mixes containing too much soil and organic material. Lean out the mix by adding mineral gravel -- pumice (the best if you can find it), granite gravel, or calcined clay granules. My default recommendation is a 50% soil/50% miner...
- Sun May 12, 2024 9:11 pm
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Rot or Not? Please help
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6987
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
I'm pretty confident our tap water has a high-ish pH (7.5-8), but I should probably test it personally to get a good sense. I wish there was a clear report breakdown of all the minerals in Arizona tap water, but I can't seem to find that info anywhere. Don't know if this is helpful, but I just want...
- Sun May 12, 2024 7:18 am
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Rot or Not? Please help
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6987
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
Thanks for some guidance on what to look out for! My pleasure! Btw - what role does urea nitrogen play and is ammoniacal superior because it removes one more step of conversion through hydrolysis? That knowledge is, unfortunately, beyond my pay grade. :lol: (One of my regrets is the fact that I cou...
- Sat May 11, 2024 12:33 am
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Rot or Not? Please help
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6987
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
Mike - do you exclusively use Osmocote's cacti fertilizer with a few other top dressings to supplement Ca/Mg? Do you know of any all-in-one water soluble solutions available in the US that are decent alternatives? Mike, I hope you won't mind if I answer question #2 for you... Generally speaking, gr...
- Fri May 10, 2024 1:06 am
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Rot or Not? Please help
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6987
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
Are you sure nitrate should be 2:1? I don't think that's accurate. I've seen a ton of cacti growers recommend Masterblend and it contains mostly Nitrate Nitrogen (no more than 15% ammonium). GeeBee even recommends a 80/20 ratio. A good description pulled from Reddit: From here : "Ammonium, the...
- Thu May 09, 2024 9:49 pm
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Unidentified Insects
- Replies: 7
- Views: 222
Re: Unidentified Insects
Gotcha! These plants are outside, do you think I should just leave them to the predatory insects and birds? See this: https://www.cactiguide.com/cactipests/#aphids Imidacloprid soil soaks are a highly effective long-term solution to problems with mealies and armored scale. Since aphids are sucking ...
- Thu May 09, 2024 9:39 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: If you were to start over, what would you do differently?
- Replies: 12
- Views: 498
Re: If you were to start over, what would you do differently?
I wouldn't have put my plants outdoors. I would have kept them indoors under gro-lights. Bringing them outdoors exposed them to rust fungus which has killed about half my collection. That was about 18years ago. The remaining half remain infected after all these years. Well, it depends on where you ...
- Thu May 09, 2024 5:34 am
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Rot or Not? Please help
- Replies: 50
- Views: 6987
Re: Rot or Not? Please help
What do you think about Megacrop ? NPK of their current batch is 10-7-18 which is 10-3-15 after elemental conversions. Comes out to 1-0.3-1.5 which is right in line with the acceptable ranges you noted. The hard water in AZ should make for close to 3 or 4:1 Ca to Mg as well as 1:1 N:Ca. Packed with...
- Wed May 08, 2024 5:17 am
- Forum: General
- Topic: Echinopsis yellow spots advice
- Replies: 4
- Views: 147
Re: Echinopsis yellow spots advice
I agree with what Mike just said, although I'd like to add a few things here... First - sorry to be "Mr. Picky-Fussy", but the patches are beige, not yellow. Beige is the color of corking, and you have corking all over the place. There's a reason for that which I'll discuss in a moment. Se...
- Sun Apr 28, 2024 6:53 pm
- Forum: General
- Topic: Northern U.S. Winter Melocactus care
- Replies: 24
- Views: 4671
Re: Northern U.S. Winter Melocactus care
Happy Spring Steve! Happy Spring to you too! Conditions were finally right to give my collection its first deep watering of the year last weekend. I usually water at night, but when overnight lows are still in the low 50s (in my case it was 52 with overnight fog), I'll water in the morning as I did...
- Sat Apr 27, 2024 5:48 am
- Forum: Sick Cacti - Pests, Diseases, etc.
- Topic: Fungal Infection or something else? (It's Chlorosis)
- Replies: 10
- Views: 3718
Re: Fungal Infection or something else? (It's Chlorosis)
You're welcome! I just gave my collection its first deep watering of the year last weekend, so it's nice to see the cacti finally waking up from their winter dormancy. Yeah, life here is pretty sweet.CoolestGravy wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:22 pm Right on, thanks again!
I hope life has been treating you well