Gotcha! These plants are outside, do you think I should just leave them to the predatory insects and birds? See this: https://www.cactiguide.com/cactipests/#aphids Imidacloprid soil soaks are a highly effective long-term solution to problems with mealies and armored scale. Since aphids are sucking ...

I wouldn't have put my plants outdoors. I would have kept them indoors under gro-lights. Bringing them outdoors exposed them to rust fungus which has killed about half my collection. That was about 18years ago. The remaining half remain infected after all these years. Well, it depends on where you ...

What do you think about Megacrop ? NPK of their current batch is 10-7-18 which is 10-3-15 after elemental conversions. Comes out to 1-0.3-1.5 which is right in line with the acceptable ranges you noted. The hard water in AZ should make for close to 3 or 4:1 Ca to Mg as well as 1:1 N:Ca. Packed with...

I agree with what Mike just said, although I'd like to add a few things here... First - sorry to be "Mr. Picky-Fussy", but the patches are beige, not yellow. Beige is the color of corking, and you have corking all over the place. There's a reason for that which I'll discuss in a moment. Se...

Happy Spring Steve! Happy Spring to you too! Conditions were finally right to give my collection its first deep watering of the year last weekend. I usually water at night, but when overnight lows are still in the low 50s (in my case it was 52 with overnight fog), I'll water in the morning as I did...

CoolestGravy wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 10:22 pm Right on, thanks again!

I hope life has been treating you well

You're welcome! I just gave my collection its first deep watering of the year last weekend, so it's nice to see the cacti finally waking up from their winter dormancy. Yeah, life here is pretty sweet.

For mixes which include soil, repot with fresh mix every 2-3 years. The iron in the TPS CalMag I recommended should be sufficient -- you'll see it listed on the product's label.

Hey Steve I wanted to thank you especially & I need to ask you another question, I have a few cactuses flowering right now and I was wondering should I still use the same fertilizer mix you taught me during flower? Using that mix u showed me has greened up my cactus plants quite a bit compared ...

Sorry for an confusion, but these photos are a continuation of my earlier post here. These offshoots were planted about 4 or 5 weeks ago. Looking good, Joe. To be technically correct, they're offsets (also known as pups), not offshoots. Now would be a good time to review something I said in your fi...

Imagine that you wake up one morning and discover that your collection was stolen overnight… or that an aggressive nematode killed all your cacti or that a small meteor hit your greenhouse 😊. Imagine you are forced to move to a different country and cant take your cacti with you… These all sound li...

I still haven't done that first watering of the year for my collection! Typically nighttime lows are consistently in the 50s by the end of Match, but thanks to the periodic cold storms NorCal has been getting it's bouncing between a few warm days and then several cold ones where temps go back into ...

CoolestGravy wrote: ↑Fri Apr 05, 2024 4:25 am Right on, that sounds much easier to deal with than what I was thinking.

As always, you totally rock Steve!

Well, thank you, and I'm glad to help!

Yellowing is caused by chlorosis, a sure sign that your Fairy Castle is nutrient-starved. I discussed the fertilizer issue with you here... https://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=405035#p405035 ...but I recently found something that'll simplify your fert situation: https://www.amazon.com/G...

Hi Zac, Back in May 2012 I spent a wonderful afternoon photographing the Huntington's desert greenhouse collection, so check out the photos in my Flickr album: https://www.flickr.com/photos/134602763@N02/albums/72157719863777449/ The top dressings on their pots are quite attractive, and they may giv...

That definitely makes things simpler to just use one things. Would you still add the CalMag as well? Yes -- add 1/2 tsp. TPS CalMag per gallon of watering solution. This supplements all NPK fertilizers. I was looking for something like this but had a hard time finding one. I appreciate all your eff...