CactiGuide.com

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This opuntia rufida minima gets a lot of pads taken off constantly. My goal is to get the bottom cladodes to caudicify and sort of get an opuntia tree bonsai. I feel if it's constantly being pruned that make force it to create a "caudex" storage of water. I've seen opuntia rufida develop a caudex, there is a large one at my school arboretum so I know it's possible.

This g. cardenasium is awesome. Grows so fast and I enjoy the spines bright yellow spines, especially when they're wet and shining.
Finally seeing some fibrous roots poking out of the bottom. Don't want to repot it because I like the red clayey top dressing that I don't have anymore of. I also want to see it turn the square pot completely round, but I don't want the lack of root space to stunt growth. Should I unpot, prune the roots and repot in a large pot or leave it to turn the pot round?
Any echinopsis growers here have an idea as to which hybrid this could be? Lost ID grafted seedlings, possible ID's are...
macrogonus "adelaide" x peru sharxx blue
fields pachanoi x "yeti"
psyco0 x sharxx blue
super pedro x sharxx blue

And lastly some ariocarpus retusus scapharostroides pictures. plant top dressed with limey fine-coarse sand with clay collected from the soil developed over the Vaughn Gulch Formation at Mazourka Canyon.

Very nice plants! The strong spined gymnos are my favorite.

Gymnos are certainly beautiful. The speggazzinni group almost looks like spiny lophs

Turbinicarpus photo dump

These two were sold to me as lophophoroides, but I'm pretty sure they're schmiedickeanus.
T. schmiedickeanus rubiflorus
T. ysabelae T. valdezianus
T. nieblae
And what I believe to be T. zaragosae, was sold unlabelled and the owner didn't know which turb it was either.

I like your soil. Looks quite loamy. What is it?

Aiko wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 8:36 pm I like your soil. Looks quite loamy. What is it?

I only use it for top dressing.
The two turbs together are top dressed with "surface sand". Surface sand is some trendy overpriced sand people are using for top dressing. I got a little leftover baggy from a friend and was able to top dress this pot with it.

The rest of the top dressing was collected from multiple locations in the Mojave desert.
The top dressing for the T. ysabelae is from a drainage at Marble Mountains, Mojave, CA. I would classify it as med-coarse sand with a small amount of silt.

The other turbs were top dressed with fine - coarse sand with a hefty amount of silts/clays (about 30%). Collected above an erosive limestone/limey shale rock unit at Mazourka Canyon, CA.

The top dressing looks great.

nes wrote: ↑Wed Sep 01, 2021 1:26 am

Dudleya Pachyphytum x Caespitose, asked my school arboretum if they would give me dudleya hassei, dudleya saxosa, and brittonii seeds. They said no . They told me they would have a native plant sale this november, and i could buy them there. My financial aid rolls in on November usually, think I may just buy a couple of the hassei and saxosa for resale value. They did say they'd have good student discounts.
pachyphytum x caespitose.jpg


Dudleya species are slowly becoming my favorite plants as they are the only "rare" species of plant that I have been fortunate enough to see in habitat. Maybe I'll dig up a photo of a dudleya I saw on a cliff somewhere close to oregon on the 101. As well as some other more common dudleyas that grow near me.

I know the UC Santa Cruz (University of California Santa Cruz) arboretum has a nice dudleya collection. It's not open to the public, but you can still look in...
If you saw one in Oregon, it's most likely D. farinosa.

Aeonium2003 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:36 pm If you saw one in Oregon, it's most likely D. farinosa.

It was farinosa. Such an interesting climate up there. Not necessarily arid but not thriving water wise. I read somewhere that redwoods actually collect more fog than rainwater.

The G. cardenasium..just

MrXeric wrote: ↑Wed Jun 15, 2022 9:53 pm The top dressing looks great.

I think so too, but isn't it too fine? Just wondering.

jerrytheplater wrote: ↑Mon Jun 20, 2022 1:31 pm
I think so too, but isn't it too fine? Just wondering.

It was my goal to get the clayiest soil for top dressing. It takes about a 4-7 days for the top dressing to completely dry after watering, but the cacti seem to love it and have gotten plumper since adding this top dressing.

My idea was most Mexican plants grow in clayey soils so I wanted to mimic a clayey look.

nes wrote: ↑Mon Jun 20, 2022 4:05 pm

jerrytheplater wrote: ↑Mon Jun 20, 2022 1:31 pm
I think so too, but isn't it too fine? Just wondering.

It was my goal to get the clayiest soil for top dressing. It takes about a 4-7 days for the top dressing to completely dry after watering, but the cacti seem to love it and have gotten plumper since adding this top dressing.

My idea was most Mexican plants grow in clayey soils so I wanted to mimic a clayey look.

A lot of food for thought there. I've received plants from commercial growers that appeared to be growing in a mix that contained some pretty fine particles, maybe even clay. Clay holds water, nutrients, and water. Did I say water? Seems contrary to what I've heard and makes me want to rethink what I've heard. So your top dressing is in contact with your plants at the base. No problems?
What is your growing mix like?

jerrytheplater wrote: ↑Mon Jun 20, 2022 5:21 pm So your top dressing is in contact with your plants at the base. No problems?
What is your growing mix like?

Nope, no problems so far. I believe it works out because of the California climate and overall I only top dress plants that I know grow in clayey environments.
It does hold a lot of water, but at the same time my growing mix is 95-100% pumice. 5% may be old organic material from nursery plants that I unpotted and tossed the substrate into my pumice bucket.

It's really strange. I know L. william and A. kostchoubeyanus grow in pure clay in habitat. They can also be submerged for days on end in habitat when temperatures are high. Some plants like A. retusus scapharostroides grow under broken up shale bits. I know from experience in the field that in places where there are piles of bits of shales, there is usually a very fine soil beneath.

Some growers on instagram will grow the special buttons and swear that they love a nice layer of clay top dressing.

I have some of my plants with a very fine top dressing, though perhaps not as clayey as what nes uses? mine seems more sandy. On my pots, that fine top dressing is less than a centimeter thick and below that is a another centimeter of sifted decomposed granite. When I apply the fine stuff I layer it by spritzing with a spray bottle and then sprinkling the fine stuff, then repeat until I am satisfied with the look. Moistening the fine stuff makes it sticky and keeps it from just falling through the cracks. When the fine layer dries, it's pretty stable, though I don't doubt some of it will make it's way through the substrate below. My substrate is pretty course so I doubt the fine stuff will clog it and choke the roots anytime soon. For me, the fine top dries within 2 days in the summer. It could probably dry in 1 day if I kept the pots under the sun when it's 110F+, but then my plants will burn!