Ron's Collection Rebuild

[ElieEstephane]

Quite some progress. I wish i was able to find a stenocereus eruca

[piyeron]

Hey Elie~

It's been on my wishlist for some time, and luckily, enterprising collectors and sellers here in my country are rather adept at finding some pretty cool, rare plants. It wasn't cheap though, and I only have one right now (though I intend to me a cutting out of it since the form is uneven due to changes in growing conditions). Trying to find some seed sources, though it seems to be one of those that's pretty rare to come by, even in the best of times.

[Aiko]

How do you get enough water? I don't see a way for you to gether water from the greenhouse roof and collect it (yet, anyway). For my greenhouse of about 30 square meters the regularly rain fall throughout the year is more than enough to supply all my plants year round. Just occasionally during long dry spells in summer I might need to use a pump to pump up ground water and use that.

[Salazar]

Hello Ron, if you don't mind me asking, are you by any chance "The Midnight Hardinero"?

[piyeron]

@Aiko Right now I do not have any rainwater collection system, although groundwater is always available. A pressurized system is available a few meters from the structure, and I can easily extend a hose inside, though I haven't thought about installing a permanent fixture inside the greenhouse itself. I will construct a rainwater collection system in the future though, to last me through the dry months (when it rains here, it really rains haha)

@Salazar Yes, I am

[piyeron]

Hello, haven't updated in a while

The greenhouse is about to reach its anniv, and I haven't encountered nor suffered any major issues (save for a bit of sunburn, and some scale outbreak which I have been able to contain for the most part.)

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I've been acquiring plants regularly, though a bit slow (compared to some of my friends and a few other hobbyists here in my area anyway), although I tend to get only really choice plants and varieties.

Speaking of choice plants, a generous acquaintance gave me a bunch of plants and cuttings from Australia, and one of them was a pad of Opuntia microdasys CV. Caress, a spineless, glochidless cultivar. Apparently it's pretty rare, and since I couldn't bear to wait for the single pad to just branch and grow, I made multiple section grafts, and all are going nicely. I aim to get to a hundred grafts by very early next year, so I will be grafting further these first few pads.

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I've also decided to try and propagate in volume certain varieties for two reasons: most peoples especially beginners and casual collectors generally hesitate to purchase expensive, rare or difficult plants, and to try and supply retailers and sellers some uncommon or common varieties for reasonable (i.e. cheap, relatively speaking) prices.

This entails utilizing rapid propagation techniques such as grafting and good timing in making propagations... Pereskiopsis thankfully multiplies like bonkers, so I am able to sort of keep up with my rootstock volume requirements (though I expect to just suddenly need several hundred or even thousands of stocks at once in the near future, so I need to prepare for that). Right now, I'm trying to propagate en masse these Copiapoa tenuissima monstrose, and they're a treat to graft and grow (I can get a half cm pup to more than an inch across in a month with Pereskiopsis). Hopefully I can get to a few thousand pieces by next year... I'm set to sow and try my hand with a few hundred Echinocactus grusonii seeds in the coming weeks, and I will most probably graft a few of them as well to see how fast I can get them to go.

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For my own collection, I've been slowly adding Haworthias, some of the newer Gymnocalycium cultivars, Astrophytum cultivars, Mammillarias, etc. A generous, generous friend has given me a seedling variegated Uebelmannia pectinifera and a couple of variegated Haworthia springbokvlakensis seedlings... Needless to say, I was floored when I found out how much these cost (in the tune of fiftenhundred usd just for the three small plants alone), though I really hope to be able to keep them alive in my tricky climate.

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A few seedlings of Gymnocalycium friedrichii LB2178 Agua Dulce (the prettiest G. friedrichii form, in the opinion of many) are doing strong, and I hope to produce seeds come next summer

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[Aiko]

A few seedlings of Gymnocalycium friedrichii LB2178 Agua Dulce (the prettiest G. friedrichii form, in the opinion of many) are doing strong, and I hope to produce seeds come next summer

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This one just went on my wish list!
Too bad I already have my order in from www.gymnos.de. I see it is also on the seed list. Tempting to order again along with some other Gymnocalyciums I might have missed...

[piyeron]

@Aiko
I've been kinda waiting for Volker's seedlist to go live-- I saw he updated last October, but I couldn't put in my order then, and now he's on a short hiatus till mid December, so no choice but to wait till then to see his offerings. Volker does have a couple of other different localities of the same/similar form with LB2178, and those are what I want too, along with a few other interesting Gymnocalycium species...

I learned of the plant sometime in 2015, and I said to myself then "I will get that plant and grow a lot of them!", so I'm well into fulfilling that promise right now haha Here's a few more seedlings, started early 2017

LB2178 seedlings, almost 2 years old

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[piyeron]

Just got this baby. Might not be apparent in the photo, but this thing is huge!

Lophophora

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[piyeron]

The one-and-a-half-year old greenhouse is filling in nicely, and I think I need a new one soon. Or two. lol

I manage to take a few photos everytime I'm there, but I keep forgetting to take truly showcase worthy ones. In any case, I've been trying to consistently get new stuff these past couple of months, things that I can propagate easily and rapidly since I want to sell/retail propagations soon.

I got a nice Lophophora specimen:

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This plant has a bit of history behind it, but here's the short version: When I was still in uni, there was this plant center near the campus that I frequented. I gave a farmer who was a stall owner in that garden center a small Lophophora seedling (this was maybe 8, 9 years ago) but we lost contact after that because the garden center closed. Their farms are around 8-10 solid hours away by car where I live, and apparently she went back there to focus on farming and didn't really come back to the city again after. Forward to last year, I met her again when we toured her town/province, and apparently she was able to grow that single Lophophora seedling I gave her, and was even able to propagate a significant number of plants from that single specimen. And by significant, I mean pretty much all of the solitary Lophophora williamsii specimens that were being sold by her relatives and fellow farmers originated from that single plant that I gave her. She was so happy that she met me again, and she gave me a smaller specimen (which was still a big one really). A few weeks ago, I came from that province again, and a distant relative of hers was selling another descendant of the plant that I gave her, so I bought that one too. Their production techniques are a bit crude, or should I say decidedly unconventional, but they are wizards as they can grow plants rapidly and of excellent quality. The photos speak for themselves just how nice the plant is, and the seller said it only took just over a year (from 1.5-2cm diameter) to get it to this size.

Thailand has been aggressively producing a ton of new Gymnocalycium cultivars, with the vast majority of them being variegated forms and hybrids. While they do come up with some pretty interesting cultivars, I prefer only a few (I think most aren't that unique or well differentiated from other cultivars), and try to acquire them when I can. This one has a unique/weird skin coloration, and its cultivar name is a bit apt-- Gymnocalycium CV. Sepia. I will take more photos of those new cultivars in the near future and post them here since I don't think a lot of people know about them (outside of Thailand and neighboring countries anyway).

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I've also been trying to acquire large plants (I generally prefer getting smaller plants that I will grow myself to size.) This Coryphantha, my father fell in love with at first sight, and immediately had it set aside on the seller's stall as soon as he laid eyes on it. Couldn't really fault him lol

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I've also acquired a Mammillaria theresae and it seems rather eager to flower here despite the tropical climate. Mammillaria luethyi on the other hand (I've had one for years) absolutely refuses to push out any flower. Oh well, perhaps I will someday get lucky

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[piyeron]

A friend based in Japan got me a Miracle Kabuto (Astrophytum asterias CV. Miracle). The kicker is that apparently the specimen comes directly from Mr. Tony Sato's collection (THE Tony Sato, aka the guy who bred the popular Super Kabuto cultivar and named the Miracle cultivar himself). I won't be getting the plant till later this year, but whoowheee, am I excited!

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[piyeron]

I am REALLY happy the forum's back. Anyway, my collection is still going, althougg the greenhouse isn't in it's best state and needs a lot of cleaning and repairs. I've been trying to eke out maintenance of my plants best I could, but I can only work on so much every day.

Anyway, here are some plants of interest from my current collection:

My biggest Gymnocalycium friedrichii LB2178

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A dark skinned asterias with orange variegation

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Sansevieria "Golden Wendy"

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Some flowering Lophophora

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A tray of Haworthia

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This is the same exact Astrophytum Miracle kabuto in my last comment on this post. It has grown quite a bit.

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A recent Gymnocalycium mihanovichii hybrid cultivar from Thailand, with a distinct reptilian skin. They call this Gymnocalycium "T-Rex"

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A flowering Turbinicarpus polaskii

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[k.maks]

Wow, your cacti just amaze me! All of them look absolutely perfect (any spots, dust or limescale from the water drops). How do you manage to keep them in such a perfect condition in a greenhouse?

[piyeron]

Hey k.maks! Thank you, but don't be fooled, they aren't that perfect in reality. I just angled most of them to view in their most flattering side haha. Although, I do make it a point to try and grow them best I can. Inside a greenhouse is actually easier in terms of keeping them pristine since I don't have to worry about sudden rain, too much dust, falling leaves, fruit, or branches from nearby trees and whatnot. Also it's a matter of keeping diseases and pests away from the plants since those will definitely mess with the plant's skin and health. Cheers!

[k.maks]

Thank you, but don't be fooled, they aren't that perfect in reality. I just angled most of them to view in their most flattering side haha.

I see! Thank you for sharing the tip, just find the most flattering side!
Yeah, nothing is perfect, I understand.

Although, I do make it a point to try and grow them best I can.

You're doing a great job!