Zac's Cacti

[zpeckler]

Hello all!

I've been growing cactus seriously since 2016 and have amassed a modest-sized collection of mostly North American desert cacti. I've moved around a bit during that time, but for the last four years I've settled back in my home state of California outside Chico in the Sacramento Valley. The climate here is definitely Mediterranean, with very hot, dry summers and cool, moist, rainy winters. Average temps in summer are consistently in the 90's, frequently in the 100's, and rarely in the 110's. Winter temps basically never get below freezing, and rarely even into the 30's.

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I grow my cacti outside on a home-made elevated shelf. I have a little metal frame over it that I hang my shade cloth in summer, and plastic to protect from rain in winter. When temps are in the 90's I grow my cacti under a 30% shade cloth, and 40% when it gets over 100. Almost all my cacti are grown in a medium consisting of 25% potting soil, 50% Turface MVP, and 25% pumice, with a few of my Mammillarias in pure Turface.

I figured I'd start off documenting my collection with my barrel cacti after a request from another member. As I find the time I'll post pics of other categories of cacti. If I have even more time I'll document my seed growing journey, which has had its ups and downs. It might not be super aesthetically pleasing in the pics, but I included a ruler to show a sense of scale.

Two Echinocactus grusonii... I know it's basic, but every collection needs a few! The bigger one is one of the first cacti I got way back in the day from a big box store, and I'm really happy with how much its grown.

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Echinocactus platyacanthus, purchased in 2017. Really, really slow growing.

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Echinocactus horizonthalonius. Super small, I just got this one this spring at the start of the growing season.

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On to the Ferocactus! An Arizona classic, Ferocactus wislizenii.

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Two Ferocactus viridescens, a SoCal native. The second pic is ssp. occultii.

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Ferocactus chrysacathus. On the advice of members here on the forums I'm planning on separating these two into their own pots when I re-pot this winter. Love the twisted spines!

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Ferocactus emoryi. Another one that's growing very slowly.

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Ferocactus glaucescens. This one has been one of my faster growers. It's been putting out a ton of new spines every year since I bought it in 2020.

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Ferocactus gracilis ssp. coloratus. Love the color, but I wish the spines would bulk up a bit.

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Ferocactus hamatacanthus. Literally the first cactus I bought from a street fair on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia. This one is a survivor! During our move back to CA in 2019 my wife and I stopped in Moab during our cross-country drive. We went hiking in Canyonlands and when we got back to the car I realized I had forgot to leave this cactus in the hotel room, and it SCORCHED in the hot sun. 90% of its epidermis was completely blasted. Clearly it recovered nicely over the years! You can still see the sunburned epidermis down around the bottom.

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Three Ferocactus latispinus, because I just really like this species. After I switched to Steve Johnson's DynaGro All Pro fertilizer regimen a few years ago the spines bulked up a ton.

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Ferocactus macrodiscus... because I gotta have one Ferocactus that might flower within the next decade.

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Ferocactus pilosus. Another slow grower, but the spines are the coolest deep red color.

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And last but not least, Ferocactus rectispinus. 10-15cm spines—I love it! I wish they grew a little more dense, though.

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And that's it for my barrel cacti! I have F. cylindraceus, F. viridescens,F. wislizenii, E. polycephalus, and E. polycephalus ssp. xeranthemoides seedlings that I sowed this year. They're all going well so far (fingers crossed).

[MikeInOz]

Nice. That glaucescens is a very nice nice blue.

[anttisepp]

Nice cacti. Is it possible that coloratus and emoryi labels were changed each with other? Slow growth maybe a bit deficience of water and fertilizers? Do you plan to grow some of them without any protection?

[Tom in Tucson]

Great pics Zac!

"I figured I'd start off documenting my collection with my barrel cacti after a request from another member." I wonder who that was?

If you don't think I'm being overly critical, I'd like to give you some advice.

Barrel cacti for the most part fall into 2 "camps": Those that grow in the valley floors (1), and those from the mountain slopes(2)

Echinocactus platyacanthus is mostly from camp 1. so a finer textured soil should speed it up.

I would leave your Ferocactus chrysacathus together like they are for 5-10 years rather than slowing them down from transplant "shock". Camp 2.

Ferocactus emoryi another from camp 1. Like the 1st.

Ferocactus (Hamatocactus) hamatacanthus one "tough customer". Camp 1.

Ferocactus rectispinus even tougher than the last one. Give it all the sun you can. It's in a league of it's own "no camp".

[zpeckler]

If you don't think I'm being overly critical, I'd like to give you some advice.

Barrel cacti for the most part fall into 2 "camps": Those that grow in the valley floors (1), and those from the mountain slopes(2)

Echinocactus platyacanthus is mostly from camp 1. so a finer textured soil should speed it up.

I would leave your Ferocactus chrysacathus together like they are for 5-10 years rather than slowing them down from transplant "shock". Camp 2.

Ferocactus emoryi another from camp 1. Like the 1st.

Ferocactus (Hamatocactus) hamatacanthus one "tough customer". Camp 1.

Ferocactus rectispinus even tougher than the last one. Give it all the sun you can. It's in a league of it's own "no camp".

Not at all, man! Thanks for the details. I love Feros and Echinos, but with a few exceptions don't know a lot of the particular sites or climates they grow in beyond average temp maximums and minimums, and even less about the geology and soil compositions of those areas. I have a copy of Pillbeam's book "Ferocactus," but he hardly talks about habitat and focuses mostly on describing anatomy for the purposes of species identification.

[zpeckler]

Nice. That glaucescens is a very nice nice blue.

Thanks Mike!

[zpeckler]

Nice cacti. Is it possible that coloratus and emoryi labels were changed each with other? Slow growth maybe a bit deficience of water and fertilizers? Do you plan to grow some of them without any protection?

I got the coloratus and emoryi from the same nursery, but a few months apart. I guess it's possible that the nursery had it mislabeled or that I mixed them up, but it's tough to put odds on it. Pillbeam's anatomic descriptions in "Ferocactus" aren't that helpful in this case since both species have hooked central spines with an overlapping range of numbers of radial spines. I've seen an emoryi in habitat in Arizona, but it was pretty sun-bleached and the spines didn't have much color to them.

I can't say that I'm actively trying to get them to the point that they're able to grow without any shade cloth, but if any of them did that would free up space on the shelf and I could get more cacti.

[zpeckler]

All right, the next set of cacti I'd like to show are my Echinocereus. For most of these, I'm hoping for a little advice on how to better take care of them. They receive the same care as most of my other cacti, and are all potted in a medium composed of 25% potting soil, 50% Turface MVP, and 25% 3/8" pumice. All are still fairly small, and are planted in 4" pots for a sense of scale.


My Echinocereus englemanii. This one has a lot of sentimental attachment for me. To borrow a term from birdwatchers, E. engelmanii was my "spark cactus" that set off my cactus-growing journey. I so far haven't had a ton of luck getting this one to take off. It grows consistently every year, but knowing this plant from my travels across the Colorado Plateau I suspect my climate may be just a little hot for it. It starts off its growth in spring, but only puts out a few new areoles before growth stops for the season. Making the switch to Steve Johnson's DynaGro fertilizer regimen during the 2021 growing season, and then updating that to the FloraMicro/FloraBloom fertilizer regimen this growing season didn't make much of a difference in the length of time it would grow. Is this species just a spring grower that quits when it gets hot, or is there something I can do to take better care of it?

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E. pacificus. This one has the same slow growth issues that my E. engelmanii does. As you can see it's putting out pups (it only had 2 when I bought it, now it's got 6!), but the mother stem and the pups only put out a few new areoles each year at the beginning of the growing season before quitting for the year.

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E. rayonensis. This one grows great throughout the year—the upright stem has grown by 5cm in just the last few months! The thing that makes me wonder about this plant is that both stems just feel generally soft and bendy. The reclining stem started out straighter but then has laid down progressively more over the years. (Normally the reclining stem is supported by laying on its neighbor Mammillaria, which I moved for the picture. This plant is gonna get repotted this winter and I'll put it in a larger pot with some rocks and top dressing that will support the reclining stem.) Is this bendy-ness normal for the species? Maybe it's just trying to imitate my Stenocereus erucas. This plant is a case study in how much a difference a proper fertilizer regimen can make. Midway down the reclining stem you can see an abrupt improvement in the quality of the spines when I started the high K/low P fertilizer regimen.

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E. triglochidatus. Another species that may be a spring grower in my climate? One thing that puzzles me is that on this particular plant the length of the spines per areole is really veraible. Some will come out really long and cool looking, and other areoles put out little spindly spines that just look weak. Maybe this is just an idiosyncratic characteristic of this particular plant? Making the switch to Steve Johnson's DynaGro fertilizer regimen during the 2021 growing season, and then updating that to the FloraMicro/FloraBloom fertilizer regimen this growing season didn't make much of a difference in the presence of the weird weak spines, but the normal spines got longer and thicker.

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These last two I just got a few months ago during the start of the growing season, so I haven't gotten to know them very well yet. E. fendleri and E. coccineus. So far they've been growing well and I haven't identified any major issues.

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So yeah, I really like this genus, but am still getting my sea legs when it comes to dialing in how best to care for them. I wonder if most of them are just spring growers? Of course any advice for their future care is certainly appreciated.

[Steve Johnson]

Very nice collection, Zac! Unfortunately for me, you're growing quite a few species I have zero experience with -- and the Mediterranean climate in my part of L.A. is coastal, so I'm not sure if I would do well with cacti that want it hot and dry like where you live. Due to the humidity here, my "problem children" are:

• Astrophytum myriostigma got hit by the "ugly stick" with callused-over water blisters everywhere. Such a little beauty when I got it from the California Cactus Center in June 2011, not so beautiful these days. Oddly enough, my other Astros don't mind the humidity at all. Go figure.

• Puna clavarioides -- I received the cactus from C and D Plants in December 2015. Not much growth until I supplemented the Dyna-Gro 7-7-7 with potassium sulfate in August 2020. Now that I have the new fert regimen going, my one and only stem is really growing, but the growth is kinda weird. I've been waiting for a new stem or two to appear, although I wonder if my local climate just isn't suitable for the genus.

Speaking of...

When I say "fert regimen", that includes the ammonium sulfate-potassium sulfate and sodium molybdate stock solutions which supplement the General Hydroponics ferts. And we shouldn't forget about the TPS CalMag supplement either. If you're supplementing the GH ferts, you're on the right track. With that said, it'll take more than 1 growing season with the new regimen to see major improvements in a number of species. Any progress you see now is just the beginning.

[zpeckler]

Very nice collection, Zac! Unfortunately for me, you're growing quite a few species I have zero experience with -- and the Mediterranean climate in my part of L.A. is coastal, so I'm not sure if I would do well with cacti that want it hot and dry like where you live. Due to the humidity here, my "problem children" are:

• Astrophytum myriostigma got hit by the "ugly stick" with callused-over water blisters everywhere. Such a little beauty when I got it from the California Cactus Center in June 2011, not so beautiful these days. Oddly enough, my other Astros don't mind the humidity at all. Go figure.

• Puna clavarioides -- I received the cactus from C and D Plants in December 2015. Not much growth until I supplemented the Dyna-Gro 7-7-7 with potassium sulfate in August 2020. Now that I have the new fert regimen going, my one and only stem is really growing, but the growth is kinda weird. I've been waiting for a new stem or two to appear, although I wonder if my local climate just isn't suitable for the genus.

Speaking of...

When I say "fert regimen", that includes the ammonium sulfate-potassium sulfate and sodium molybdate stock solutions which supplement the General Hydroponics ferts. And we shouldn't forget about the TPS CalMag supplement either. If you're supplementing the GH ferts, you're on the right track. With that said, it'll take more than 1 growing season with the new regimen to see major improvements in a number of species. Any progress you see now is just the beginning.

Thanks Steve!

Oh yeah, I'm following the whole regimen. It's just easier to use the eponym "Steve's (and MikeInOz's) Fertilizer Regimen" than it is "FloraMicro plus FloraBloom plus ammonium plus potassium plus molybdate plus TPS CalMag" every time.

Prior to upping my fertilizer game I was using a Miracle Grow cactus fertilizer from the big box hardware store. Clearly that was deficient in something critical because for some of my plants switching to the new regimen was like turning on a lightswitch! You can look at a few of them and see a literal line demarcating before and after.

It's good to know that everyone's gonna have a few problem children. I feel like most of the cacti in my collection are doing well, and show positive improvements when I do things to up my game. A good chunk just kinda chugs along and do ok but don't seem to show any huge improvement no matter what I do. A few of them just struggle and I haven't figured what to do to get them out of their doldrums. And don't get me started on seedlings! Oh well, the first step towards being kinda good at taking care of plants is sucking at taking care of plants and trying to do better.

[Steve Johnson]

Oh yeah, I'm following the whole regimen. It's just easier to use the eponym "Steve's (and MikeInOz's) Fertilizer Regimen" than it is "FloraMicro plus FloraBloom plus ammonium plus potassium plus molybdate plus TPS CalMag" every time.

Fair warning -- you're talking to "Mr. OCD" here. I tend to get hung up on a lot of technical detail sometimes, and I just wanted to make sure that you're following the complete regimen. But I do agree -- calling it "FloraMicro plus FloraBloom plus ammonium plus potassium plus molybdate plus TPS CalMag" every time is going a bit overboard, so I'll have to keep that OCD under control when I get into my 2023 end-of-summer review. Speaking of...

Prior to upping my fertilizer game I was using a Miracle Grow cactus fertilizer from the big box hardware store. Clearly that was deficient in something critical because for some of my plants switching to the new regimen was like turning on a lightswitch! You can look at a few of them and see a literal line demarcating before and after.

The "lines of demarcation" in my cacti are more obvious going from 9 growing seasons with nothing but Dyna-Gro 7-7-7 to 2 growing season with the 7-7-7 and potassium sulfate supplement, followed by the new fert regimen this year. A noted succulent expert once said that "cultivation is the art of observation", and even the smallest changes good or bad can be significant. With 4 years of before-and-after photos I'll use for comparison on a lot of my cacti, the 2023 review won't be just about "look how much better they're doing!" -- when I describe the changes that may not be obvious to our members at first glance, I hope it'll help them improve their powers of observation. Zac, your photography skills are solid, and you can apply them to your own before-and-after pics as you track the progress of your cacti over time. And the human memory being what it is, your own progress photos can help you improve your powers of observation too.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again -- endless amounts of credit go to MikeInOz for the best education on fertilizers we could ever hope to have. After absorbing the lessons I learned from him, my epiphany was this -- fertilizers are nutrient systems, not just a bunch of parts that aren't connected to each other. When the system is in balance with a full spectrum of nutrients (major, minor, and micro), cacti under cultivation reach the genetic growth potential that's simply impossible with their counterparts fending for themselves in the wild. When the system is out of balance and/or some parts are missing, cacti may grow fairly well, but they won't be able to reach that potential. Unfortunately there are no "off-the-shelf" fertilizers which get all of it right, so that's why the right supplements for those ferts are important. If it weren't for Mike, none of us would know anything about this.

I feel like most of the cacti in my collection are doing well, and show positive improvements when I do things to up my game. A good chunk just kinda chugs along and do ok but don't seem to show any huge improvement no matter what I do. A few of them just struggle and I haven't figured what to do to get them out of their doldrums.

One of the mysteries about cacti I could never understand -- why some species respond to significant changes in growing practice immediately, while it takes years to see them in others. Maybe the difference between fast-growing and slow-growing species? Wish it was that simple, but it isn't from what I've seen. If your powers of observation are good, at least you'll be able to pick up on small changes. If they're good, that's progress. But if they're not so good (or downright bad), you can spot problems early, identify them, then look for solutions.

[MrXeric]

Awesome collection! Great selection of Ferocactus too. I should really get to growing more of these...

I suspect my climate may be just a little hot for it. It starts off its growth in spring, but only puts out a few new areoles before growth stops for the season.

This really struck a chord. You perfectly described the life of the handful of Echinocereus I own. Even 2 year old seedlings show the same growth behavior. I suspect the same: it's too hot! Makes me want to risk watering earlier in the season, like in February. Give them a longer "spring". Both my E. nivosus started branching this season, but I can almost swear the offsets have grown more areoles this year than main stems have since I bought them almost 3 years ago.

[madkactus]

Very nice collection. I especially like the variety of Frero's .

[anttisepp]

<...> if any of them did that would free up space on the shelf and I could get more cacti.

I think that if you'll bring some of them outside the shade this autumn they'll have enough time to accomodate to full sun. First candidates I'd say Echinocerei and E. grusonii as F. emoryi, gracilis, wislizenii, chrysacanthus. The spines of plants grown under the direct sun are awesome. IMHO

[zpeckler]

Next group of plants to exhibit: Mammillaria! All these pics are from earlier in the spring when the plants that do flower were in flower.

Mammillaria bombycinia... One of the oldest cacti I have. I got this as a seedling about 5cm tall amongst the first batch of cacti I ever bought. It's certainly done well over the years! The offsets started growing from the main stem two years ago, and have just grown like crazy. So far only the main stem flowers.

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Mammillaria hahniaha. Another older one. Bought in 2017, early in my cactus growing journey. Has flowered regularly for years.

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Mammilaria gemnispina. Another reliable flowerer. It's pretty cool that the main stem is splitting in three!

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Mammillaria parkinsonii. Fantastic dense spines. So far it hasn't flowered for me, but both heads are in the process of splitting into four heads total.

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Two Mammillaria grahamii. The darker one I've had for a few years, and the smaller one I just got this spring. Can't take credit for the flower; the bud was already growing when I purchased it.

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Mammillaria senilis. No flowers yet, but it is growing steadily. Definitely a candidate for full sun given those dense spines.

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And last but not least, Mammillaria schiedeana. Slow but steady growth through the years. Has such tiny flowers that they barely poke through the spines!

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That's it for this batch. Up until a few weeks ago I had a pair of Mammilloydia candidas that died a gruesome death, detailed in a separate post.