Hi Steve, what a mess... I do feel with you and your plants. Good luck to you! To get rid of insects and spiders overground I suggest to spray the plants dripping wet with pure methylated spirit. It doesn't hurt the plants, but the insects incl. mealy bugs are suffocated. Only scale insects seem to...

Thankyou! I will do the same then

Hi, I have read a little about hydrogen peroxide and gardering but I am not good at all at chemistry nor do I have experience with sterilization of seeds or soil. Therefore I have som questions. I am under the impression that hydrogen peroxide can be used to sterilize seeds. I am planning to sow see...

Thankyou so much for your response! I will make sure to dilute it just in case and avoid getting the body wet then! /Malin

Hi Steve, what a lovely collection you have and also such an interesting and personal account about your endeavors with it! I read in one of your earlier posts that you soak the roots of newly purchased plants in hydrogen peroxide before introducing them into your collection. If you have time to con...

When in the future I get more space for my cacti a plunge bed is a great idea, seems like a good combo between giving the roots the shadow and temp they are made for while keeping the plants manageable individually. I would like to build stagings like that in the Windows of my future house and also ...

Putting styrofoam inside is interesting, i have never thought of that! Thankyou😊 It is interesting to see you write Steve because you are an inspiration to why I have this question in the first place. Yesterday i washed my first batch of pumice and now i want pots to plant in! I will ask if any of m...

Thats an imoprtant point, i guess in nature the roots are more protected from heat than the body of the plant due to being in the ground. Would you reckon they get significantly hotter than black plastic because thats what they came in from the grower. I have found that most glazed ceramic for sale ...

After reading about glazed ceramic va terracotta it got me thinking about other materials for pots too. I have some pots in stainless steel, colored glass, brass and copper. Is there anything for or against these materials regarding cacti? I know overpotting with regarding to diameter is bad and I d...

The read would have been better with pictures Steve but the main info i needed was in the letters so I am glad to take part of it regardless! /Malin

It took me a while to get a full read of the threads you adviced Elie but it was worth it!

Thankyou so much, I feel more confident in How to care for it after your responses! I have parents with a garage that is insulated and with the heater on a minimum with a window. That will be the resting place next year for winter time, I imagine it will never freeze but will be cold and dry and pro...

Regarding myrostigma, which is the soil and fertilizer/fertilizer regime of choice for those of you who grow these? The one i bought is in pure pumice so I am thinking i will need to fertilize it? Or is it enough to mix in some bone meal? (After reading i got the assumption that this can boost growt...

Such a helpful thread, glad I read this! My first myrostigma arrived a det days ago and I will be very careful to water it now after dormancy when it has wrinkles so it will not crack. I will also use the method of weighing the pots with the plants /Malin

I recently recieved my approx 6cm copiapoa cinerea var albispina from a vendor who has kept all of his cacti in a greenhouse at 10 degrees celsius and have not watered since september. I see wrinkling and wilting in the myrostigmas and cleistocactus straussii i recieved at the same time. The mammill...