Hi,
Thanks for adding me to this site. I live near Jakarta, Indonesia, so there are only two seasons, hot and rainy. I have my own cactus in 1994. But they are all gone when I moved to another city in 1996. Now, I start again in collecting cactus. I am happy with this site, very helpful and full of information. I already try to define my cactus species, but I still need your help to confirm. For your information, many sellers in Indonesia creates their own cactus name. It makes difficult to identify. Also, as far as I know, cactus is not the origin of Indonesia. Don't believe with name label appeared, it was created by me. Please correct if I make any mistakes.
1. Mammilaria albicans
2. Echinopsis obrepanda
3. Parodia magnifica
4. Parodia comarapama
5. Echinocactus grusonii
6. Mammilaria tetrancistra
Thanks in advance.
Plant everything
Learn to be patient with cactus
on Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia
A1essandro wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 4:32 am
Could you tell me please, what is the substrate? Is pale brown pieces is bark?
Of course, with pleasure.
I use this principle: media have to porous enough but enough to tight water. So, at the bottom of the pot, I use rotten leaves (easy to collect around my garden). On next layer, I mix malang sand (it is popular in Indonesia. They have rough shape and mix size, very porous but bad to tight water), with cocopeat (I use ex-tarantula, given by a friend. Maybe this part that you mean with pale brown), and sometimes I add burn husk. Also, sometimes I change cocopeat with my made compost.
As long as I know, cactus can grow in any media as long as the media are porous. To check the media porous or not, you can shower water over it. If the water flows directly down below, so the media is porous enough.
Plant everything
Learn to be patient with cactus
on Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia
popocenil wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 6:43 am
So, at the bottom of the pot, I use rotten leaves
Thank you.
But is it safe for roots to use rotten something? As I heard that it's the way to rot roots. Rotten leaves can contain fungi and bacterias that can lead to root damage and rotting.
Aha... nice question. I also have this question at first.
There are many things that can control the environment in the pot. Yes, some fungus and bacteria are not good for plants. And, we learn some fungus and bacteria are needed to plant. They help root to efficiently get nutrition from soil/media. But we have to control humidity in our media. Control of dry and wet are important. If we give water too much, the root will rotten. If we give too little water, growing will be slow.
This is my trick: after watering cactus, I will chek until the media get dry. Typically it happened after 2 or 3 days. After that, I will keep the media get dry for the next day. Then, I continue to water again. And I repeat the procedure. Usually, I water cactus twice a week in summer. At the rainy season, I water only a day after the media get dry.
I only watering cactus at day. It is to ensure excess water evaporate. For your information, I live in tropical areas, every day in a year, sunrise approximately at 6 a.m. and sunset at 6 p.m. (Indonesian people do not understand DST concept.. LOL). So, I water only before 12 pm. I live near Jakarta. The daily temperature is between 25 - 33 C (77 - 91 F).
Back to the concept, at my place, maintain at least one-day dry period after water cactus is important to kill un-important fungus and bacteria. Also, because I use ex-tarantula cocopeat, sometimes there are some isopods. Isopods help to eat fungus and control the bacteria population. Do you know why I use rotten leaves? They will act as a slow-release fertilizer for cactus. Psssst... one secret: I use only dry rotten leaves.[\b]
Maybe, my method looks weird. But, it works for me. I do not use any chemical agents. Everything is natural in my garden. Do not apply my method as-is for your condition. You have to modify and try to find the best method for you. I sure, every area has its own best-method. Do you know what is the bad things in tropical areas? Many cactus do not flower here because we have only two seasons. Some friend suggests me to simulate winter using the refrigerator. I will try and report the result on different topics.
Plant everything
Learn to be patient with cactus
on Bekasi, West Java, Indonesia
popocenil wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2020 1:15 pm
Aha... nice question. I also have this question at first.
There are many things that can control the environment in the pot. Yes, some fungus and bacteria are not good for plants. And, we learn some fungus and bacteria are needed to plant. They help root to efficiently get nutrition from soil/media. But we have to control humidity in our media. Control of dry and wet are important. If we give water too much, the root will rotten. If we give too little water, growing will be slow.
This is my trick: after watering cactus, I will chek until the media get dry. Typically it happened after 2 or 3 days. After that, I will keep the media get dry for the next day. Then, I continue to water again. And I repeat the procedure. Usually, I water cactus twice a week in summer. At the rainy season, I water only a day after the media get dry.
I only watering cactus at day. It is to ensure excess water evaporate. For your information, I live in tropical areas, every day in a year, sunrise approximately at 6 a.m. and sunset at 6 p.m. (Indonesian people do not understand DST concept.. LOL). So, I water only before 12 pm. I live near Jakarta. The daily temperature is between 25 - 33 C (77 - 91 F).
Back to the concept, at my place, maintain at least one-day dry period after water cactus is important to kill un-important fungus and bacteria. Also, because I use ex-tarantula cocopeat, sometimes there are some isopods. Isopods help to eat fungus and control the bacteria population. Do you know why I use rotten leaves? They will act as a slow-release fertilizer for cactus. Psssst... one secret: I use only dry rotten leaves.[\b]
Maybe, my method looks weird. But, it works for me. I do not use any chemical agents. Everything is natural in my garden. Do not apply my method as-is for your condition. You have to modify and try to find the best method for you. I sure, every area has its own best-method. Do you know what is the bad things in tropical areas? Many cactus do not flower here because we have only two seasons. Some friend suggests me to simulate winter using the refrigerator. I will try and report the result on different topics.
Thank you for your answer. May be it depends on climate. All (or most of) the russian collectors advice to minimise or ever avoid organic parts in substrate.
