Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

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Snowcat
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by Snowcat »

Yep, my collection is growing... Even in autumn. And the spare room is shrinking lol. But I still have room to double the collection. I just cannot buy more biggies, their pors take too much place... Well, maybe ONE more biggie :)

I am hoping to get Melo's fruits too. Thinking about seeding different melos in my next seeding attempt (in spring perhaps) and it would be nice to seed some of my own seeds among them.

I generally like terracotta/clay pots more then plastic ones, but it is hard to buy compact terracotta pots here... Not that many people are growing cacti and other plants require bigger pots usually. Some time ago I happened to know that one network shop has small round pots for cacti, like I used for my Melo matanzanus (you can see it on a photo above). They are clay pots. I visited two shops of this network and bought ALL they've had. And that was just 6 pots! Adnm they are not that small. So I have ti use plastic for everything smaller...
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Snowcat
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by Snowcat »

A huge update of my collection :) Well huge if you count the cacti not metering their size...

But let's take things one step at a time. First of all, I've repotted my smaller melos. And I must say, I was right, because only 1/3 of those deep pots were filled with roots, while 2/3 were an empty space. Clearly, Melocacti do NOT enjoy deep pots and I gave them shallow ones based on their roots size.

Ernestii had very small root system. I hope it will grow in this pot better.
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Conoideus had huge root system, it filled the upper part of its pot completely. Now it has more space.
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And now LOTS of newcomers... First - two small Oreocereuses. My wife asked for them so I seeked them out and bought them.
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A Ferocactus (?). It was in a very good condition, nice roots, just came from holland and was not ruined in the shop yet, so I just could not resist. Going to post it in ID section.
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And a gift from one of russian cactus lovers. Tiny seedlings. 9(!) of them! They are all from "wild" seeds.
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Parodia fulvispina VG-956 Seeded on: 08.01.2012
Parodia horrida var? VG-747 Seeded on: 08.01.2012
Parodia obtusa VG-959 Seeded on: 08.01.2012
Coryphantha kracikii RUS-026 Seeded on: 19.11.2011
Echinopsis leucantha VG-826 Seeded on: 13.03.2011
Gymnocalycium spegazzinii form VG 090/356 Seeded on: 08.01.2012
Gymnocalycium stellatum ssp. occultum VG 070 Seeded on: 22.11.2009

I've planted parodias and coryphanta together. They are all gonna be a VERY spiky beasts!
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New Gymnos were planted as an addition to the old two. I like their look :)
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Echinopsis is the only one that got a separate home... From it's looks it had a hard life as it should be green, not brown...
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Happy with the newcomers ^^
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CactusFanDan
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by CactusFanDan »

Those are some lovely newcomers! They look nice and hard grown to me. :)
-Dan
Happy growing!

There is always one more glochid. Somewhere.
My C&S blog
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sabotenmen
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by sabotenmen »

I like the pots your Melos are in now. The pots look just right for the plants. The Conoideus is in a rather wide pot. This is okay because the plant will still grow bigger. But I like to repot a Melo with a cephalium in a pot not much wider (about 3 cm) than the width of the plant. But really nice pots! The Oreocereus are beautiful plants. I once read that almost all Oreo species look alike. I don’t know the species of your Oreos, but the Oreocereus trollii is a very beautiful plant, with its awesome thick white hairs. I read they grow in the mountains, so they can handle quite low (even freezing) temps (how I wish Melos came from the mountains also!). I myself have become reluctant to buy columnar cacti, they often get too big! Don’t know about Oreos, though. Give them full sun in summer, Snowcat! Columnar cacti need a lot of root space; I don’t think you can keep these two in that pot for a long time. The Ferocactus looks healthy. I like the red spines. I agree with you that the Gymnocalyciums look nice. Do I see some flower buds on the left one? The Echinopsis is quite something. The spines are longer than the body! Amazing! Thanks for the upload and good luck with your new friends! :)
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Snowcat
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by Snowcat »

Dan, thanks you!

Sabotenmen,
That rather large pot for conoideus is not THAT large for it's roots. It has quite a large and wide root system that was packed in a small pot. Could not pack it that way again, it seemed cruel :) I hope it will grow for 2-3 years in this new pot.

I understand that Oreocereuses eventually will become like hairy spiky columns. And I am not sure what to do with them... But that will be in like 10 years, too far to think about that now...

And yes, that gymnos are having buds, but they are not active, they were sold this way and have not changed since then...

Those tiny seedlings are all VERY spikey. Look at the grown ups, they are amazing!

Echinopsis
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Parodia Fulvispina
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Parodia Horrida
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Parodia obtusa
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I am very excited to grow these little beasts :)
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Snowcat
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by Snowcat »

Here is how my humble setup looks like now ^^
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I have two zones. The ones that are closer to the window (which is opened all the time) are the ones that supposed to sleep. Next to them you can see a small barrier. It may seem small but it does it's part. Between it and window the temperature is 5-6 Celsius lower then on the other side, where my seedlings and Melocacti are enjoying the warmth. Yes yes, it may seem crazy bu only 2-3cm separate "winter" from "summer".

As you can see, Melo Curvispinus (the largest cactus) is giving me another fruit!
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And I've got myself an Epithelantha. It looks not that great, it is all-gray and is heavily bent. I've potted it a lot deeper then it was potted. To do that I've bought a special ceramic glass and turned it into a deep-deep pot... And still I could not make it look straight up :(
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CactIda
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by CactIda »

I think your windowsill looks fantastic! And congrats with another fruit on the melo! Are you going to use it to sow the seeds? I love the bright pink colour of it :)
Eutow_Intermedium
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by Eutow_Intermedium »

Your photo's always have such clarity. I struggle to take pictures at all now.

I've given up with Compact camera's now , my decision. The zooms always pack up. If I eve get the money for a new camera , I will probably get a fixed lens Digital SLR. Or a camera that has a limited amount of zoom.

Your collection is looking great in it's compactness. You seem to be getting into these Melo's. I love the berry on the Curvispinus. The colour reminds me stupidly of Bubblegum :D

I did get one fruit on my Melo Amoenus before the season abruptly ended.
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by sabotenmen »

[quote="Eutow_Intermedium"]Your photo's always have such clarity. I struggle to take pictures at all now.

I've given up with Compact camera's now , my decision. The zooms always pack up. If I eve get the money for a new camera , I will probably get a fixed lens Digital SLR. Or a camera that has a limited amount of zoom.Quote

Eutow. I bought a dslr two months ago. It was the cheapest one there was. But it's an awesome camera , it takes very good pics.The pic quality is way better than those of my point and shooter.I'm very happy with it. I'm not a camera expert , but I've shopped around a bit . If you want a reasonably cheap dslr, you have to buy a kit (that comes with a cheap lens) As far as I know, most dslr kits come with a zoom lens and not with a fixed lens since the cheapest zoom lenses are cheaper than the cheapest fixed lenses. Don't worry about a zoom lens on a dslr, you won't have any problems with it. My camera is light (for a dslr anyway)and smaller than average also.It may not be appropriate to tell you right now on this forum what camera I've bought , but if you're interested, I could shoot you an email. Having said all this, my camera was cheap for a dslr, but it's still quite a lot of money because dslrs obviously don't come very cheap.Sorry to have kind of hijacked your thread, Snowcat :oops:
Last edited by sabotenmen on Tue Nov 26, 2013 6:35 am, edited 1 time in total.
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sabotenmen
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by sabotenmen »

I like your set up, Snowcat. Neat! And of course, your Melos steal the show! :D
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Snowcat
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by Snowcat »

Ida, each fruit has like 100 seeds inside. This is second I am having, so I already have plenty of spare seeds, I'll give them away mostly. But some of them will be sowed i think. But that not gonna happen before spring. I just don't have place for new seed boxes under the lights. Actually I think my next seeding will be various melocacti and of course I'll sow my seeds also.

Sabotenmen, as I am a photographer myself, It doesn't irritates me if someone speaks of cameras here :)

Eutow, Even the simplest and the cheapest of DSLRs of Mirrorless cameras will give you HUGE boost in picture quality. I'd recommend you something from Sony (I am using Sony myself and happy with it) or from Olympus. They have the best JPEG engines out there and the best colors of all systems (which is important to me). If you want, I can consult you a bit more, just drop me a PM :)
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K.W.
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by K.W. »

Snowcat wrote:
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First class plants, wonderful !!!

Thank You for sharing them. . .


Best wishes

K.W.
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
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Snowcat
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by Snowcat »

Time has come to show my newcomers :) As you can see, I am building a collection of cacti that can grow on not-so-sunny window in a not-so-sunny country,

My first Discocactus. Sitting on eriocereus jusbertii. Discocactus subviridigriseus. I cannot even pronounce that!
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My first Ubelmannia. Also on eriocereus jusbertii roots. Uebelmannia pectinifera. A beauty, right!? :)
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A tiny Frailea asteroides.
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A tiny Gymnocalicium horridispinum.
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Some unknown melocactus (I hope)
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And another Echinocactus grusonii. A beauty I could not leave in a shop. It had a chewing gum sticked into it's spines. It was sitting in awful rock hard soil and had almost no roots but I hope it will survive, the plant itself looks very strong. Right now it's setting in an empty pot and drying it's roots after a warm bath :)
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sabotenmen
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by sabotenmen »

Snowcat, Latin is actually not that hard to pronounce. Unlike English, it’s a phonetic language. For example, pronounce ‘Kansas’, and then (try to) pronounce ‘Arkansas’ correctly! Or a word like ‘Leicester’, you will not have these strange pronunciations in Latin. Congratulations on getting your first Discocactus. However, Discos are not really suitable for indoor growing; when your Disco is in bloom, the whole apartment will notice the smell of the flowers :lol: . Nice Pecti, you should have taken the pic more from the top, it’s the top of the Pecti (the center) that’s particularly beautiful. Last summer, I saw a multiheaded one at a cactusfair for only 38 dollars. But I’m going to focus on more winter hardy cacti now (especially Mammillarias). I repotted my (supposedly grafted) Pecti last week, but I couldn’t find the graft stock. Repotted my (also supposedly grafted) Copiapoa cinerea, too, but didn’t see any stock either :o . The Fraila is indeed tiny, perfect for a windowsill. The grusonii is less suitable for a windowsill :lol: . I actually do have one sitting on my windowsill now, but next year I will have to put it outside. Yeah, the fifth plant looks like a Melo, hooked spines, wonder what species. Congratulations,nice haul, Paul. =D>
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Snowcat
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Re: Snowcat's dark window cacti collection

Post by Snowcat »

Re different viewpoint for beautiful photos. I am going to shoot some good pictures when I am on my winter vacations. These photos are just for reference, I fully understand that their quality is low. What I am going to create is an album with some macros with really good lighting (3 flashes). But right now I just have no time for something like that...

As for the last one - Echinocactus, it is a part of my devilish (he he hee :) ) plan of conquering of another two windowsills that will increase my cacti capacity greatly. My wife liked it alot, while it is rather big and will not fit my windowsill already. So I said that I'll place it on another windowsill and she agreed. And we all know - where there is one cactus, there soon will be another, and another, and another...

Re Discos flowering. I've heard that their scent is VERY srtong, but I also heard that it is very pleasant. And they bloom for only one night, so I don't really think it will be a problem. And... Mine still have no ceph, so I am not sure eve when it will happen...
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