Starting Over

This is a place for members to post on-going topics about their plants and experiences.
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

Hello,
At one point in the past, I had a large collection of cacti & succulents. After a series of very unfortunate occurrences, all back to back, I lost the will to keep my collection going, and I turned it over to the care of some friends. After 5 years, an accident has destroyed much of the collection. The survivors are being turned back over to me, which is a good thing since my desire to have a collection again has returned.
The last 3 weeks has been spent transporting surviving plants back to my home, where I have been building a greenhouse expressly for my collection.
I'll be posting photos of my progress here, but I have lost a lot of knowledge through lack of use.
I'll need a lot of advice if I'm to save (and just maintain) many of the plants I had (and have again). Also many of their tags are missing or illegible so any help identifying many of them will be appreciated.
It's not the best time to repot a lot of these, but some are in desperate shape and will require it to survive. Some have lost their grafting stock and I cannot remember specific de-grafting methods.
Long story short, I'm starting over, and I'll post my progress in here as I go. Thank you for any suggestions, comments or help as I go along.

Cheers,
Alex
Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Re: Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

Here's a few pics of the new greenhouse I built over the last few weeks. I had to remove (and return) over 100 pavers to chop out tree roots so I could level them again.
The main feature is 5mm square mouse mesh, as numerous people I know, as well as myself have lost great plants to mice and other critters. 5mm square steel will keep out the worst damagers. It's still not done and needs the last piece or two of roofing, plus permanent shelving (and a coat of paint), but this is enough to start putting plants safely inside.
Cheers,
Alex
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Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
DaveW
Posts: 7369
Joined: Thu Dec 20, 2012 2:36 pm
Location: Nottingham, England/UK

Re: Starting Over

Post by DaveW »

You in friendlier climates may not loose many through cold, but with a cold greenhouse in the UK in very bad winters I reckon I have lost a couple of collections in my 60 years growing them. Happily not all at once, just a few every winter, but it adds up over the years. But as a friend says if you did not loose a few periodically you would have no room left for new ones!.
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Aiko
Posts: 2367
Joined: Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:26 pm
Location: the Netherlands

Re: Starting Over

Post by Aiko »

DaveW wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 1:32 pm Happily not all at once, just a few every winter, but it adds up over the years. But as a friend says if you did not loose a few periodically you would have no room left for new ones!.
Ah, yes, I have a box filled with old labels of plants that have died under my care or of pots that have failed to germinate throughout the last twenty years or so. There must be a few hundred labels in there by now (I don't dare to count them)...
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Steve-0
Posts: 716
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:55 pm
Location: Salt Lake Valley, Utah...high mountain desert climate

Re: Starting Over

Post by Steve-0 »

That's a great looking re-boot!
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Re: Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

Thanks for the comments and encouragement.
I found almost two thousand old seeds of various types, mostly Astrophytum. Unfortunately, they are 4 to 5 years old, and likely none will germinate, but I'm going to have a go at it. There's also a few Ariocarpus seeds in there so I will try with those and may even have some luck as they last a lot longer than Astros.
Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Re: Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

Steve-0 wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 4:51 pm That's a great looking re-boot!
Thank you. It's been tricky to build solo and my back is paying for it too!
Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
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Steve-0
Posts: 716
Joined: Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:55 pm
Location: Salt Lake Valley, Utah...high mountain desert climate

Re: Starting Over

Post by Steve-0 »

I once built a 3 Bay pole shed for my tractor, truck and bush hog. 60' long, 20' deep, 15' tall in the front, 10' tall at the back with tin siding.

Built it solo, mostly under moonlight in two weeks time...the framing part. The roofing and siding during the windless days. Yeah, I was younger then, too. But the aches and pains happened. My wife and I had a favorite cocktail ...3 ibuprofen and 2 tylenol at happy hour.
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Re: Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

Steve-0 wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 2:40 am I once built a 3 Bay pole shed for my tractor, truck and bush hog. 60' long, 20' deep, 15' tall in the front, 10' tall at the back with tin siding.

Built it solo, mostly under moonlight in two weeks time...the framing part. The roofing and siding during the windless days. Yeah, I was younger then, too. But the aches and pains happened. My wife and I had a favorite cocktail ...3 ibuprofen and 2 tylenol at happy hour.
I can only wish I was in that good a condition. My back's been messed up since I was in a car accident when I was 11. It takes a lot less punishment to set mine off. I've got pics to update everything, but now the bloody laptop's screen has died.
Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Re: Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

I cleaned this Astro asterias as best I could. It's looking pretty bad. Do you think it's even possible to save, or it is even worth trying?
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Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Re: Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

From the thousands of seeds I had 5 years back, I planted all that didn't have any fungus on them. Surprisingly it seems like 8 or 9 Astrophytum seeds (out of about 2000) have actually germinated.
Not so surprising, a number of what look like Loph seeds have germinated. It's good after those years of not growing anything to see those little green specks in my germination trays again.
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Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Re: Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

Removing the upside down birdcage stands and bread trays that have served as benches so far. Permanent benchtop frames are now in place.
A friend of mine just renovated his house and had a ton of hardwood flooring that he's delivered to me. I'm going to custom cut and fit it all, sand it and just seal it. The rest of the greenhouse gets painted but the benchtops will all be the natural hardwood.
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Bench frames added.
Bench frames added.
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Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Re: Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

Another item, when I used to grow tons of seeds, I used to use Fungarid. The makers of it really put the 'fun' in fungacide because I never had any rot problems with seedlings after I started using it. Obviously it worked too good because it was made illegal out here a few years ago.
I'm now trying what is supposed to be just as good, Mancozeb. I'll let you all know when I see how well it does or doesn't work.

Alex
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Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
Traveller
Posts: 101
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 10:54 pm

Re: Starting Over

Post by Traveller »

Today's fun was cleaning up some of my old collection. Most of them were dirty, and had been top watered, which mats and discolors their hair. Some were even covered in spider webs.
This Obregonia denegrii is one of my favorites and cleaned up well (hair styled!) and repotted after a root check. What a great plant.
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Zone 10, Sydney Australia
I love the Mexican Miniatures best!
vitt13
Posts: 93
Joined: Sat Aug 04, 2018 7:00 am
Location: EU, USDA zone 7b

Re: Starting Over

Post by vitt13 »

Traveller wrote: Fri Mar 12, 2021 1:30 pmI cleaned this Astro asterias as best I could. It's looking pretty bad. Do you think it's even possible to save, or it is even worth trying?
It looks almost dead for me. Is it just over drying or some infection? You can try to graft a living piece with areole but be careful to avoid infection against rootstock.
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