CactiGuide.com

I guess I'll give a journal thread a try since there's a lot going on in my GH in propagator.

I'm not a very organized person by nature, but I find that if I keep records of things I get a lot more done, and at least have a record of it. So I maintain spreadsheets about my hobbies, work, finances, ect. Maybe it's a bit OCD, but over time I'll be able to weigh in on the germination rate of a given genus with data to back it up, and say how old a given plant is.

Here's most of my recent sowing.

Any pot you like as long as it's 3.5".
ctd

I can prioritize and plan with the spreadsheet, and look back if I lose a label to figure out what a NOID is.

Some highlights:
Pyg bieblii

Geohintonia

Pyg bieblii v kuhansii

Aztekium hintonii

Some variegated Fero herrarae (probably hybrids to be 100% variegated), half of these are grafted now.

Avonia papyracea


I don't get many GH pictures these days because it's cold and dark up there when I get home from work, leaving only weekends for photography. Besides, this Neochilenia occulta clearly doesn't need anything from me right now:

There are a few plants that are making plans though:




And the winter growers are on a completely different schedule. This trichodemia bulbosum decided to start a family without consulting me...

They flower almost year-round too:

I think that color is called Fukushima purple...

You can see I'm kind of a fan of turface...

I don't really buy plants much, and I've only been at this for 5 years so I don't have a lot of amazing specimen plants, but I do have a lot of rambunctious youngsters.

great looking seedlings, and of course other plants
looks like you have it under control

Very nice job. I've been sitting on two seed orders from Mesa last September, too anxious about screwing it up to get started. I need to just bite the bullet and do it. There seems to be no shortage of good advice on this forum for starting from seed.

Nice work Josh!

Awesome sauce!
Good work, Josh.
I especially like the comment for Mamm. inermis

Glad to see someone else using spreadsheets! As a quintessential Virgo, I can't go to the shed without a spreadsheet!

May have to usurp some of your formats/categories!

After all, plagiarism is the First Rule of Scholarship.

A packet of seed is only a buck or two, IMO the time it takes me to sow it and the space it'll need in the propagator (plus the risk of dirty looks from wife when microwaving dirt), is the main cost. If it doesn't work out, I can always try again.

>I especially like the comment for Mamm. inermis Wink

Yeah, I thought I planted 10 seed and got 19 seedlings. There was a strip next door that nothing came up, I might have overseeded the same spot with two different seed.

Some activity in the GH


NOID on the stapeliad (from mixed seed).

This guy is bulldozing it's topdressing out to make room. I think the damage was mouse nibbles.

Wow, looks great. I haven't put mine into a spreadsheet yet, partly because I tend plants in order to ESCAPE spreadsheets. But that does look practical.

A few more things happening in the GH.
This guy's just getting started, as you can see from the stalks from last year. G. lilliputania


Mam prolifera that I got on a trade last year:


Lithops all decided to start splitting at the same time. They were last watered in Oct, and won't be watered again until the old leaves are long gone.
L salicola C34

The other 3 are NOIDs.



I've added this section to my rock garden over the last week. T tershekii upper left, H. funifera upper right, the cacti in the middle are Trichocereus lobivioides 'grandiflorus' hybrids.
There's also an O. treleasei, a few Agave fillifera and a little Echinocereus triglochidiatus inermis. I grew all but the agaves and Opuntia from seed. The cacti were sown in 2006/2007.

My local soil is about 20% this kind of rock by volume, so anywhere I dig I turn up a lot of rock. Just digging holes for the plants turns up a fair amount of top-dressing.

Wonderful new garden! Must be so satisfying to know you grew those cacti from seed.
Love that little Mamm too!

Great stuff! Beautiful seedlings.

peterb

I documented the progress of about 1/3 of my seedlings tonight.
Epithelantha micromeris and unguispina

Thelocactus hexadraphorus

Thelocactus rinconesnsis and setispinus

Ortegocactus, mammillaria polythele 'inermis' and garden echinopsis

Escobaria minima and echinocereus davisii

Mammillaria nivosa, a no-show, and mammillaria crinita

Blossfeldia spec 'rio iclo'

Strombocactus siedelii

Strombocactus esperanzae

Aztekium hintonii

Echinocactus texensis and Peniocereus gregii (I grew penios to 3" tall in the bag last year before letting them out)

Mammillaria matudae, escobaria bisbeeana, Weingartia neumannia

Neochilenia aerocarpa fulva and napina

Adenium arabicum (this got upgraded from + to * this year, but I only got 5 Good germination though! )

Lithops aucampiae, gracilidelineata v waldroniae, and hallii 'brown'. I uncovered these the other day and sprinkled some more turface around them for support. I've found that mesembs like to come out of the high humidity environment much sooner than most cacti.



All but the strombos, aztekium, blossfeldia (and maybe the lithops) will graduate out to the shadecloth area of my GH this spring once I switch to my 'summer' schedule. Spring is a great time to 'graduate' plants to the GH because the light isn't too intense and the temperatures are relatively mellow. More towards the middle of summer I have to put them under a bench to start out. All but the lithops and adenium were sown in Oct.

Looking great! I like how you sow different species in the same pot. I haven't ever intentionally tried that. Also, lots of early growth under your conditions. About what time of year do they go into more sun?

peterb

I figure that the time it takes me to sterilize soil and prepare a pot costs me more than the seed does, plus light costs a certain amount per square foot per month, so I fill my pots to max occupancy (usually about 50 seeds). I almost never have problems with seedlings in bags like this, so I don't really worry about losing the whole lot. I wouldn't recommend it to people just starting out. I try to match up species with similar growth rates and requirements, but different enough that I can tell them apart.

Most will come out of the bags and go into the GH under shade cloth this spring once nights are over 50'F. The slow growers may stay inside for another year.