I suspect you will eventually come to dislike the Schultz too. It is also made from peat but they have used a mix of sphagnum moss peat and sedge peat (plus sand and perlite) which is relatively crumbly and appears superficially like a mineral soil. But it isn't! Over time, even just a matter of mon...

1. Fero, take your pick. Actually not too many with just straight spines.

2. Mamm, I'll go with M. matudae until someone comes up with something else convincing. I don't find M. haageana convincing.

3. Not Stenocereus. Definitely not Stenocactus, Harry Polaskia chichipe.

Either product should work but you're the one with the label. If the label says spider mite then you can give it a try. Spider mites are quick to develop resistance and you should use different sprays at different times. Both these sprays are contact only, you will need to spray at least twice a wee...

I just want to add a little more about the artifical light. I am of the opinion that you can grow anything you want successfully under artificial lights, but it takes considerable effort to provide sufficiently intense light for an adult cactus. Plan on a minimum of 30W of HID or modern fluorescent ...

From the label: "This product is regionally formulated from composted materials (derived from one or more of the following: forest products, peat, or compost)"

I think John Prescott knows the word to describe this stuff

Is it rot? Soft and mushy? Always hard to be sure from a photo. Lets assume it is. Get it out of the pot and see what you have. It needs to be thoroughly dried out anyway so the soil has to go. A rotting cactus can sometimes be saved just by keeping it completely dry, but rot like this in the body t...

Rancid, try these miniature Opuntioids in the open air, they like high light levels but appear to go dormant if it is too hot. A bit of a generalisation for such a large diverse group but worth a try.

Spider mites.

Could you elaborate about the soil on that root?

And on the insecticide

Its not like fired clay, it is fired clay :) To say APS doen't have any nutritional value is misleading. All clays, fired or not, have a high CEC, typically around 30, which means that it stores lots of nutrient ions for use by the plant. A typical fertiliser dose contains far more than the plant re...

Regular plants have an inbuilt mechanism for keeping cool. They continually take up water through the roots and evaporate it from the leaves. Uses a lot of water but automatically takes away heat. Cacti do not do this, they keep cool by hiding in the shade, shading themselves with spines wool or col...

Five? Oh no! They breed like rabbits. The pups drop off at the slightest knock and usually have roots before they hit the ground. Small cream flowers erratically in winter.

Strange as it may seem, this might be underwatering. The brown area at the base is something you will have to live with. Old cacti get corking at the base, some more than others, slowly if they are treated just right and maybe very quickly if they are very stressed. I don't grow a lot of these vigor...

Yes, I use much less solid grit/gravel now, mostly because of the weight. Drainage is obviously excellent because solid grits hold even less water than the fired clay particles. They also hold less air, potentially an issue but I never had any trouble. I use grits now only when I want the extra weig...

Take a look at Cumulopuntia sphaerica for the first one. No guarantees but they are quite similar.