My greenhouse and plants

[mmcavall]

Ah, you got one blooming, great!
I haven't seen any blooms in mine after maybe 3 years of having them? Right now they are being attacked by red mites, so things are not looking good.

Thank you, Spok. Yes, red mites had attacked my Mesembs twice in the dry season. Watering from above helps prevent them.

[mmcavall]

Some of my cacti, mainly Mammillarias and Fraileas in the pictures. All taken this season (Autumn here).

M. polythele ssp obconella.jpg (138.57 KiB) Viewed 8243 times

M. karw. nejap. and M. polyth. ob.jpg (145.62 KiB) Viewed 8243 times

M plumosa and hahniana.jpg (153.59 KiB) Viewed 8243 times

M hahniana.jpg (156.55 KiB) Viewed 8243 times

Frailea horsti.jpg (134.28 KiB) Viewed 8243 times

Frailea perbella.jpg (144.17 KiB) Viewed 8243 times

frailea buenekeri.jpg (126.28 KiB) Viewed 8243 times

[Harrisdunlap]

What a fantastic collection! I particularly enjoy the scenes you create in many of your pots. I try to do the same with a few plants that I have collected from the woods around my home (mostly evergreen trees that I keep as bonsai and a few temperate succulents). Yours have inspired me to try to do the same with my cacti. Thank you for sharing.

[mmcavall]

What a fantastic collection! I particularly enjoy the scenes you create in many of your pots. I try to do the same with a few plants that I have collected from the woods around my home (mostly evergreen trees that I keep as bonsai and a few temperate succulents). Yours have inspired me to try to do the same with my cacti. Thank you for sharing.

Thank you, Harris. I really enjoy doing these landscapes, good to know that it inspired someone.

[mmcavall]

After a long time, an update on my thread... Unfortunately, because we have to resize the picture, attaching them is a boring process that usually makes me give up. Maybe it could be improved?

Frailea buenekeri

IMG_20191104_141115711_HDR-768x1024.jpg (96.91 KiB) Viewed 6609 times

Matucana krahnii

IMG_20191104_085649969-768x1024.jpg (76.24 KiB) Viewed 6609 times

Frailea perbella

IMG_20191104_141030419_HDR-600x800.jpg (144.06 KiB) Viewed 6609 times

Weingartia sp

IMG_20190911_114059063-600x800.jpg (99.16 KiB) Viewed 6609 times

Echinocereus fitchii

IMG_20190828_122106123_HDR-768x1024.jpg (77.29 KiB) Viewed 6609 times

[mmcavall]

Just showing my mix, as it has been discussed in some other threads here.
Apparently the "weird" thing I do is using charcoal (common charcoal used to the grill). I found that it is light, adds volume, its porous, grab some water but dont make the mix wet.
Other "weird" thing is the use of dried leaves in the mixes of the South American species. I dont like "vegetal soil" or peat or any kind of dark soil, but dried leaves are really part of the mix of some plants.

So there is an standart mix, composed of different kinds of grit and gravel (things I find here in countryside roads, like laterite, basalt and siltite), some crushed brick, diatomite (Purina Tidy Cats) and charcoal. This is used pure in north american desert genera such as Mammillaria, Turbinicarpus, etc.

To the standart mix I add dried leaves and/or little top soil, and more charcoal, to south americans such as Gymnocalyciuns, Fraileas, Notocactus, etc.

All material I collect to compose the mix is separated in about 5-6 different sieves, so they receive a letter from A to F to be stored, meaning that A is the more fine particles (used mostly in the sowing mix) and F is really coarse.

Whenever I repot some plant I collect the used mix in a tray, and when it is full, I cook everything in the oven to kill root meallybugs. The material is then sieved and classified in A to F, according to its size, washed to clean it from soil and organic matter, and stored as, for example, "standart mix C" (meaning it is composed of particles of the "C" size).

When I make a new pot, I use the recycled standart mix with the appropriate size and/or add new material.

To some limestone-dwelling species, I add dolomite. Mixes with dolomite are kept separately because once it is mixed, I can't separate it by size. Standart mix does not have dolomite.


In the pictures of previous posts, what you see in the surface is usually what is inside the pot.



Here is a mix prepared to be used in the Mammillarias. The "nine" components are not nine, in fact, because some are recycled standart mixes of different sizes.
In the clockwise direction, starting from the black thing (12:00), there is charcoal, diatomite, crushed brick A, standart mix C, standart mix B, standart mix D, laterite A, laterite C, laterite D. Basalt in the center. Obviously I dont necessarily use all these different sizes of the same thing to compose a mix. It is just a random picture. (Usually it will be more like the "standart mix C" - at 4:00 o' clock).

standart mix ingredints.jpg (200.76 KiB) Viewed 6305 times

Here is a mix made for Gymnocalyciuns: charcoal, soil, dried leaves, basalt and laterite

Gymnos mix ingredients.jpg (110.72 KiB) Viewed 6305 times

And a mix for Sulcorebutia (potted in tall pots): you can see charcoal, standart mix size B-C and very coarse particles (size F). There are also some pieces of wood.

Sulco tarabucoensis mix.jpg (156.84 KiB) Viewed 6305 times

[Edwindwianto]

Good morning Cavall

Wow...you put some big rocks in your pot, as if tge cacti were planted in habitat
This is beautiful and inspiring

Sadly, i cant do this
Maybe when i'm back to my own country, i'll do this with my cacti
Thanks for the inspiration

EDWIN

Other "weird" thing is the use of dried leaves in the mixes of the South American species. I dont like "vegetal soil" or peat or any kind of dark soil, but dried leaves are really part of the mix of some plants.

Cavall,

Thanks for taking some time to explaine your mixture, on your busy schedule

Yes, i agree, south american cacti lives in leaf litter in their habitat

Do you also cook this dried leaf before use?

EDWIN

[mmcavall]

Thanks for the kind comments on my displays. I really enjoy doing that.

I don't cook the leaves. There is no harm for the plants (usually). I only cook the mix that was in use, to kill root mealybugs.

[Edwindwianto]

(1) Thanks for the kind comments on my displays. I really enjoy doing that.

(2) I don't cook the leaves. There is no harm for the plants (usually). I only cook the mix that was in use, to kill root mealybugs.

Cavall

1) and you are doing a very nice job
And those number on your cacti nametag, 0274 etc...what are those?

2) have you had any root mealy investation before? Or you cook only for prevention and you have never had root mealy?
What is your everyday temp, Cav?

Thanks

EDWIN

[mmcavall]

(1) Thanks for the kind comments on my displays. I really enjoy doing that.

(2) I don't cook the leaves. There is no harm for the plants (usually). I only cook the mix that was in use, to kill root mealybugs.

Cavall

1) and you are doing a very nice job
And those number on your cacti nametag, 0274 etc...what are those?

2) have you had any root mealy investation before? Or you cook only for prevention and you have never had root mealy?
What is your everyday temp, Cav?

Thanks

EDWIN

Hello Edwin sorry I didn't answer...I have been away fr the forum.
1. This numbers are my catalogue number for the collection. Basically every new plant gets a number when entering the collection . There are particularities in my cataloguing method. Someday I may explain it here
2. Yes I have had root mealybugs before. Sometimes I use systemic insecticides. But prevention is the best remedy and there is now a while I don't have infestations. I think cooking the mix is very important, otherwise I would spread the mealies when repoting.
3. Summer is wet and hot, winter is dry and hot...average winter temperatures are about 20 degrees celsius with ocasional cold nights below 8...

[mmcavall]

Looks like I have (by chance) finally found a way to post pictures more easily. I'll wi try it here, so random pictures below:

IMG_20200906_110503146_HDR_copy_600x800.jpg (142.14 KiB) Viewed 5937 times

IMG_20200905_161020317_HDR_copy_600x800.jpg (103.46 KiB) Viewed 5937 times

IMG_20200906_111237391_copy_600x800.jpg (91.67 KiB) Viewed 5937 times

IMG_20200906_110641845_copy_600x800.jpg (136.75 KiB) Viewed 5937 times

IMG_20200906_165131734_copy_600x800.jpg (131.63 KiB) Viewed 5937 times

IMG_20200827_164413301_HDR_copy_600x800.jpg (111 KiB) Viewed 5937 times

It worked!

[Arash37]

I love the way your cactus groups are planted, it totally looks like in natural environment. A lot of insirations can be found here. Amazing wievs

[mmcavall]

I love the way your cactus groups are planted, it totally looks like in natural environment. A lot of insirations can be found here. Amazing wievs

Thank you , Arash, for your kind words. Comments like that prompt me to post some more pictures (soon).
Here is a blooming of today. My first Mammillaria grahamii to bloom. Seeds were gifted from a friend that I met here in the forum.

Mgrahamii.jpg (122.07 KiB) Viewed 5845 times

[anttisepp]

Hello, very nice healthy happy plants! I think you hold all of them all year round outdoors, not in greenhouse? Do you protect them from sun or rain?

[Snowcat]

Hello, thanks for sharing your soil mixes... That's what I am still making experiments with. Not always successful ones

And I like your Fraileas very much! I really like those species but every one of the Fraileas I had passed to the better world. And I cannot figure why. Soil? Water? No idea so I stopped buying them.