CactiGuide.com

These are my two Echinocereus triglochidiatus v. inermis purchased from Miles2Go back in 2009. I purchased a few winter hardy cacti back then to start an outdoor dish garden/trough where I'd leave them outdoors over winter here in the cold and wet winters of New Jersey. I met John N. Spain at an Annual Spring Show of the Connecticut Cactus and Succulent Society. He had been growing cacti outdoors for decades by that time. I purchased his booklet, "Growing Winter Hardy Cacti in Cold/Wet Climate Conditions" which gave tips on which plants to try. The CCSS has one of John's Powerpoint slide shows on their Home page and you can scroll through it to get some good ideas: https://www.ctcactussociety.org/john-spain-slide-shows

So here are these two plants when purchased in the Spring of 2009:
I took another photo on Nov 18, 2009: Next spring on April 1, 2010. Notice the plants are growing some offsets already: Next photo I have was taken April 13, 2014. The plants have grown significantly. The next photo was taken March 27, 2015. You can see some grey corking showing up. Granted, these plants are not even awake from the winter. I also found that the pot was not draining well. The whole pot filled up with water over winter. Not all made it. And an overhead shot of the whole pot taken also on March 27, 2015. The only other cactus in the pot is a Escobaria vivipara. It too is still alive and growing as of this posting on Oct 26, 2022: I eventually repotted all of these cacti into individual pots. The E. triglochidiatus v. inermis came down with some problems and I had to cut away all of the offsets and had to re-root the plants. This next shot brings us up to Spring 2021 on March 23, 2021 when I washed all of the old potting mix off of a lot of my cacti and repotted after long years of neglect. Here they are three months later on June 5, 2021. No offsets showing up. I am hoping they do, but I'm not sure they will through the corking. Anyone know if they will still offset?: The May 31, 2022 shot shows the plants swelling and growing much more noticeably in response to some TLC long neglected. The Aug 15, 2022 shot is the last so far. If you compare it to the previous photo, you will see a lot of new growth, but still no offsets: To be continued. These plants have been outside all summer and are now in my unheated garage getting ready for winter. I stopped watering early in October.

Good evening Jerry,

the poor little plants, they lacked water, fertilizer and light.
Take good care of them! Good luck!

K.W.

K.W. wrote: ↑Thu Oct 27, 2022 9:40 pm Good evening Jerry,

the poor little plants, they lacked water, fertilizer and light.
Take good care of them! Good luck!

K.W.

Yes, I have not taken the best care of these plants. That one winter when I discovered the drain holes were frozen allowing surface melting of ice/snow and trapping it around the plants really hurt them. All of the clumps that formed had to be cut off due to rot. I was able to save what you see now. I'm going to see what happens next summer, if there is any further growth. I'm hoping for more offsets. Might even cut them in half and root the top and allow the bottom to grow some pups.

Some of clones of this species are very cold-hardy: I keep one plant in my back yard next to the house in a raised bed and it survives canadian winters with -20 to -30 C colds but with limited progress. Last year I changed the soil around it. Will see if any difference will be seen some day.
An old photo of it.

7george wrote: ↑Sat Jan 21, 2023 7:02 pm Some of clones of this species are very cold-hardy: I keep one plant in my back yard next to the house in a raised bed and it survives canadian winters with -20 to -30 C colds but with limited progress. Last year I changed the soil around it. Will see if any difference will be seen some day.
An old photo of it.

Nice bed. Funny how I can see dandelion seedlings just like in my backyard. Can you say something about your bed: soil, plants, survival records, ....?

I've never made a bed yet. I was just in a container.

Can you say something about your bed: soil, plants, survival records, ....?

Well, it is not the best one. The soil is mostly loamy with some gravel on top. It is facing west, about 10 cm above ground and close to my house. I've got some shrubs, flowers, succulents and cacti growing there. And lot of creeping weeds now that is hard to eradicate. Also an ant-house so success is limited.
Many seedlings and larger plants grow much better in pots in the same back yard maybe because of the better soil mix.


Hardy Opuntia and different stonecrops grow well there.








Seedlings of smaller cacti not so well.




And another photo of that Echinocereus.

7george wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:57 am

Can you say something about your bed: soil, plants, survival records, ....?

Well, it is not the best one. The soil is mostly loamy with some gravel on top. It is facing west, about 10 cm above ground and close to my house. I've got some shrubs, flowers, succulents and cacti growing there. And lot of creeping weeds now that is hard to eradicate. Also an ant-house so success is limited.
Many seedlings and larger plants grow much better in pots in the same back yard maybe because of the better soil mix.

Thanks for posting. The Opuntia flowers are really nice. Too bad about the weeds getting the upper hand. I guess you'd have to dig up all the cacti and get the weeds out in a major overhaul. Lot's of work!!

Well, I said last fall that I'd wait till the summer to see if I get any offsets. None yet, but I just de-potted one of these two E. triglochidiatus v inermis because it was loose and shaking in the pot. No rot, good roots. Just not deep enough for support. The photo in my first post from March 23, 2021 shows the roots then. It looks almost the same now, except for a bit more vertical growth.

Any ideas on how to promote offsets? Still have not cut the top off of the plant. Still no flowers yet.

7george wrote: ↑Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:57 am

Can you say something about your bed: soil, plants, survival records, ....?

Well, it is not the best one. The soil is mostly loamy with some gravel on top. It is facing west, about 10 cm above ground and close to my house. I've got some shrubs, flowers, succulents and cacti growing there. And lot of creeping weeds now that is hard to eradicate. Also an ant-house so success is limited.
Many seedlings and larger plants grow much better in pots in the same back yard maybe because of the better soil mix.


Hardy Opuntia and different stonecrops grow well there.








Seedlings of smaller cacti not so well.




And another photo of that Echinocereus.

Lovely photos of the cacti growing in between the Sedum ( wonder if it is S.acre?)