Expanding inside quarters
Almost all of the 190-ish pots/species sown in 2018/2019 have to be housed somewhere, since only a couple of them were removed from the wet-boxes and have passed my resistance test
. I was thinking about how to expand my space under artificial lights, then suddenly the simplest idea came to me! Why be a craftsman?(Im not, anyways).Call IKEA for help!
Assemble two IVAR cabinets, and suddenly you have 150X50 centimeters of space PER SHELF!
If you are as bad at DIY like me, then you can buy wired top shelves, so its easier to fix the lights on the wires. Notice the old microwave in the bottom right? Present from my wife just for sowing purposes! Or did she resented the smell? Ill never know..
Look with the covers on, which IKEA also provides!
Lights on the left are LEDS.
https://www.sanlight.com/en/luminaires/ ... ex-series/ . I have been eyeing LED lights for a long time, and finally I found something appropriate for cacti. They are much more expensive than neon bulbs, but supposedly give batter light output for twice as less power and last longer. They also dont emit excess heat, but I dont know if it is a positive or a negative thing for cacti breeding, since I suppose I will spend more on bottom heat. Its too early to say anything, I will report later about overall experience. At least they have normal color, they are not purple as majority of LED lights for growing. Maybe too bright for eyes even - I have to get some glasses for that.
Anyway, season 2018/2019 wasnt so bad after all. We were runners-up in the World Cup(Yeey!!), and cacti were growing at a satisfying rate, concerning my neglect.. Overall, the survival rate is a little over 50 percent. Im not satisfied with Sulcos and Weingartia(merely 25 percent in almost 40 pots, with many duds), and Im very happy with Volker Schaedlchs Gymnos! Echinocerei grown like weeds, and I have quite a few Mammillaria lasiacanthas. Some other oddities in the next post...
DodoBrooke wrote: ↑Mon Oct 21, 2019 1:03 pm
And that's a huge greenhouse man!
How come you are re-potting in September?
Thanks for the kind words Dodo! Regarding repoting, Im quite relaxed lately about the time in the year when I do it. As long as the supstrate is bone dry I dont have any losses. And as you now, we have an extended mild autumn/late summer here! It was 26 Celsius here today with no sign of rain or bad weather for at least a week so a good month for cacti!
As for the greenhouse, its 4,3 by 2,5 meters, so merely 10 sqare meters, you wouldnt beleive how fast it is being populated
May 2017. - official moving in. Most of these plants were on the balcony before. Just two years later I am officially out of space, in the greenhouse, on the balcony(again) and some other places also
I thought, when I was setting it up, that I dont have to worry for at least five years. Boy was I naive...
Most recent photo to follow.