Page 1 of 1
From Russia with cacti
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 10:44 am
by A1essandro
Hi everyone!
This is my not first topic, but let me introduce myself.
I'm from Samara, Russia. This area has long and cold winter. Usually from October/November to March/April. As you can see on the photos today is snowy
Last November I bought a few cacti.
- IMG_20200320_071508_HDR_1584873169555.jpg (155.36 KiB) Viewed 9628 times
It was spontaneous but I like cactuses long time ago and had a about 25-35 ones when I was a child.
My first cactuses on the first photo. Other ones without chronology.
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 11:49 am
by Edwindwianto
Hi Alessandro,
Welcome to the forum
Your collection is neat and well cared, i can see
How do you raise you cacti in constant winter?
And where did you buy your cacti?, local russian grower?
EDWIN
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 12:06 pm
by A1essandro
Hi Edwin. Thanks.
All my cacti are from Holland. I have bought its in local shops mostly.
At the winter I keep cacti dry in place with 5-8 °C. It's a rest period.
BTW I use mineral substrate Lechuza pon and my own mix - gravel + zeolite + expanded clay + a little bit charcoal.
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 12:27 pm
by Edwindwianto
A1essandro wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 12:06 pm
Hi Edwin. Thanks.
All my cacti are from Holland. I have bought its in local shops mostly.
At the winter I keep cacti dry in place with 5-8 °C. It's a rest period.
BTW I use mineral substrate Lechuza pon and my own mix - gravel + zeolite + expanded clay + a little bit charcoal.
Alessandro,
How hot is it in summer?
It must be very challenging to do it in Russia...maybe even consume a lot of electricity for constant heating?
BTW, don't forget to fertilize your cacti, since you plant them in mineral substrate
As Dave has said
DaveW wrote: ↑Thu Mar 19, 2020 10:51 am
If you are growing in a rocky soilless substrate Angelina don't forget you will need to fertilise every few watering's with half or quarter strength fertiliser since the plants will extract very few nutrients from your potting mix.
EDWIN
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2020 1:22 pm
by A1essandro
Edwindwianto wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 12:27 pm
How hot is it in summer?
It's quite hot I think.
I have lived in Samara for 6 years and have noticed maximum and minimum temperatures from -35 °C (Jauary-February) to 35 °C (June-August).
Edwindwianto wrote: ↑Sun Mar 22, 2020 12:27 pm
BTW, don't forget to fertilize your cacti, since you plant them in mineral substrate
Thanks. Yes, I'm planning to fertilize cacti every second watering.
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 2:24 am
by hegar
Hello A1essandro,
I too welcome you to the CactiGuide cactus and succulent forum. Compared to you in Samara, I do have it easy growing cacti here in El Paso, Texas.
Most of my plants are planted in the ground and - except for the more tender ones, which I do cover with a tarp when the temperature drops down to minus 4 degrees C - they do survive the winter months here without any protection whatsoever.
It looks like you do have a good supply of cacti coming in from the Netherlands and you are on the way to build up a sizable cactus collection.
Harald
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 5:44 am
by gemhunter178
Welcome!
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Mon Mar 23, 2020 6:04 am
by A1essandro
Hello Harald and gemhunter178! Thank you!
Harald, you have great conditions for cacti growing! That's cool!
Regarding cactuses from Holland I can say that it provides very common species, Mammillarias primarily. For example Gymnocalyciums and Astrophytums are rare and Lophophora is never supplies in our shops.
But anyway I think supplied species are good for newbies.
Alexander
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 3:13 pm
by Newton
Greetings and welcome to the forum from Pakistan with Love
Your cactus collection is very neatly arranged. You seem like a person who pays a great deal of attention to detail. I'm sure you will be a most successful cactus grower with your skills
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Sun Apr 05, 2020 5:40 pm
by A1essandro
Newton wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 3:13 pm
Greetings and welcome to the forum from Pakistan with Love
Your cactus collection is very neatly arranged. You seem like a person who pays a great deal of attention to detail. I'm sure you will be a most successful cactus grower with your skills
Thanks for the kind words!
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Wed Sep 23, 2020 1:45 pm
by Snowcat
Hello, Alexandr!
I am also from Russia )
There are not THAT many Russian cactus lovers here on english-speaking forum. You have a nice collection, it is very good organized, mine is much more chaotic.
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2020 4:50 pm
by A1essandro
Snowcat wrote: ↑Wed Sep 23, 2020 1:45 pm
Hello, Alexandr!
I am also from Russia )
There are not THAT many Russian cactus lovers here on english-speaking forum. You have a nice collection, it is very good organized, mine is much more chaotic.
Hello! Thanks a lot for kind words! Yeah, unfortunately there are no many Russian speak members on forum.
I have looked through your topic with your collection - looks good and you have really interesting cactuses. Especially I like Uebelmannia and your Melocactuses.
It's really cool to have Melocactuses with this cephalium. But these cacti needs a bit another conditions for growing so I even not think about purcharging.
Also you have great Astrophytums!
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2020 9:02 pm
by Snowcat
A1essandro wrote: ↑Thu Sep 24, 2020 4:50 pm
It's really cool to have Melocactuses with this cephalium. But these cacti needs a bit another conditions for growing so I even not think about purcharging.
Actually, I find that Melocaci are LESS difficult to cultivate in a flat then most other species. The main problem for me is to ensure a cold winter for my collection. They are standing all year round on a regular windowsill with central heating under it. So they spend winter in too warm conditions for almost all cacti. This situation takes it's toll - I don't have many flowers on Summer.
BUT Melocacti don't enjoy cold and absolutely dry winters! So I water them once in a month in winter and I don't have to think about keeping them cold! They bloom all summer and then they give berries all the time until next spring. One of them developed it's cephalium in the beginning of the last spring. Other two I've bought as grown up plants already. So don't be afraid to keep them!
That said, I must mention that I've killed my largest melocactus (M.Azureus) unfortunately. I have it's flower on my avatar. But that was purely due to my stupidity, not because it was too difficult to grow...
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Thu Sep 24, 2020 10:01 pm
by A1essandro
Snowcat wrote: ↑Thu Sep 24, 2020 9:02 pm
Actually, I find that Melocaci are LESS difficult to cultivate in a flat then most other species. The main problem for me is to ensure a cold winter for my collection. They are standing all year round on a regular windowsill with central heating under it. So they spend winter in too warm conditions for almost all cacti. This situation takes it's toll - I don't have many flowers on Summer.
BUT Melocacti don't enjoy cold and absolutely dry winters! So I water them once in a month in winter and I don't have to think about keeping them cold! They bloom all summer and then they give berries all the time until next spring. One of them developed it's cephalium in the beginning of the last spring. Other two I've bought as grown up plants already. So don't be afraid to keep them!
That said, I must mention that I've killed my largest melocactus (M.Azureus) unfortunately. I have it's flower on my avatar. But that was purely due to my stupidity, not because it was too difficult to grow...
Yeah. I know that Melocactuses don't like cold wintering. But... As I understand you have bought Melocactuses as "Cactus Mix 5cm"? How long did you wait to cephalium creation?
Because as I know it usually about 10 years from seed to cephalium. It's too long for me to wait flowers
Actually I have Ferocactuses... But it's one of the first cacti of my collection
At this time I was buying all that more beautiful than Echinopsis hybrid
Re: From Russia with cacti
Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2020 9:44 am
by Snowcat
A1essandro wrote: ↑Thu Sep 24, 2020 10:01 pm
As I understand you have bought Melocactuses as "Cactus Mix 5cm"? How long did you wait to cephalium creation?
Because as I know it usually about 10 years from seed to cephalium.
Nope, not all of my cacti come from shops. I buy some of them from other cactus-crazy people ) Plus there are exhibitions that are old once in a year here in Moscow where you can buy cactus plants. One is going on right now -
http://kaktusklub.com/htmls/news.htm
YET lots of my cacti come from shops. And these two as an example -
One of them (the big one) was bought in OBI shop. The smaller one came from a shop also but I don't remember what shop. They both were fully developed melocactuses. The large one died unfortunately due to my stupidity and I replaced it with another large plant I have now. Unfortunately, melocacti come almost without any roots and you have to reanimate them. But it is possible. It takes 1-2 years for them to become healthy...
The Large one's roots looked like this:
