Attempts at growing Mesembs in the tropics

[mmcavall]

I decided to start this new thread to report my attempt at growing Mesembs in the tropics. Some of you guys have been following my first experiments on sowing Mesembs in my thread “So I decided to sow” (http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtop ... 16&t=37654). However, the Mesembs I sowed are growing up, and they deserve another “status”. Moreover, I’ve asked many questions here in the Forum about how to grow these plants in the tropics, and I noticed that there is no single answer, because each one of the Mesembs growers has a different climate condition and could not tell me exactly how to care of my plants in a so different climate (nevertheless I have received very good and useful advices, for which I’m very grateful; sure I’ll continue asking these people for help). So, in conclusion, I thought it would be interesting to discuss this particular case in a separated thread. Anyone is invited to join.
I’m near the Tropic of Capricorn, at latitude 22 south. In the coldest month of the year (July), mean temperatures varies from from 12C (54F) to 25C (77F), but sometimes we have lower temperatures such as 6C (42F). That’s the dry season. On the other hand, summer is the rainy season, with temperatures from 19C (66F) to 29C (84F) on average, in December, but it can easily reach 35C (95F).
I would have lots of things to report here, but I prefer to post short communications. Most of the things I had experienced until now is reported in the above cited thread. From now on, I’ll use this thread; people that have similar (or different) experiences please feel free to post here too.
Today I just want to show how my plants are, since this was a very very hot week.
Take a look at the thermometer. According to it, today the maximum temperature reached 45C (113F). But it is not true, since the thermometer took some direct sun at noon, and it is overestimated. However, this picture was taken at 7:30 p.m., just 30 minutes after sunset, and it was really 27C (80F). So it was really a hot day, no doubts.


Below, pictures of my young Mesembs, along with some comments. These plants are 5 months old.

That’s the Monilaria moliniformis. It is an obligate summer dormant, and I probably should expect it would lose its leaves by this season. But it has not occurred (yet?). It has put new leaves recently. This is the only plant I do not water with a hose: I just give it some water spray when the substrate is really very dry. It is protected from sunrays, under light shade. I had also tried Lapidaria margaretae, but it died about two months after germination. Until now, Monilaria is surviving, but probably I’ll have no cold nights in winter to satisfy this plant requirements.





The following plants are receiving what I consider very little water. I use a hose to give a good soak each 15 days, approximately. All gets very dry. They are under silver shade cloth, but it is really light. Some of the plants get little red or purple.
Pleiospilos nelli


Pleiospilos bolusii


Pleoispilos compactus



Pleiospilos compactus minor


Cerochlamys pachyphylla


Nananthus wilmaniae, maybe a little thirsty


Schwantesia loeschiana, also a little thirsty today (but I don’t watered it)


Schwantesia loeschiana minor



Under this watering regime, the Schwantesia herrei is the first to show some shriveling. Today I watered it!


The following plants are receiving more water, about every 5 days or so.
The two Tanquana prismatica are the only survivors of several. I sprayed water frequently to save them from death, which seems to have worked. Now I’m a little afraid to let them dry for 15 days, but probably it would be the correct thing to do.




Another thirsty one is the Marlothistella uniondalensis. It grew a lot in the last weeks, with this more frequent water regime.



And finally, the ones I’m not very afraid of overwatering (maybe I should ?):

Delosperma crassum


Delosperma esterhuyseniae


Glottiphyllum peersii


Glottiphyllum pygmaeum



Apart of these young Mesembs, I have also Carpobrutus edulis, Trichodiadema densum, Delosperma echinatum, Lampranthus amoenum, Corpulascaria lehmanii and Faucaria tigrina, all mature plants.

Lampranthus is in bloom today:


And I’m very impressed with the drought resistance of the Faucarias. They are under full sun, in clay pots (one of them in a very small and shallow one). They appear to like being a little stressed! I have no recent pictures to show how good looking they are, but ...


That’s it for today.

[mmcavall]

The two Tanquana prismatica are the only survivors of several. I sprayed water frequently to save them from death, which seems to have worked. Now I’m a little afraid to let them dry for 15 days, but probably it would be the correct thing to do.

Definitively not! I've watered the Tanquanas in Dec 27th, and them I went to a short trip and came back again in 6 days. One of the Tanquanas had fallen to the side and was very soft (as in opposition to turgid), withered.

I watered it, a good soak, and the following day it had recovered. So I think this plant will require frequent waterings, at least during the hot summer.

The other plants were fine, but I watered all of them...I'm thinking in choosing some of the repeated plants to try a dryer regime.

[meizzwang]

very inspiring, thanks for sharing! I think as long as you have cool nights, they should be okay.

Regarding T. prismatica, I was under the impression that it's a summer grower like lithops? That's what I read somewhere, but they're clearing growing right now here in California, and we're getting lows close to 0C and highs around 10C.

[mmcavall]

very inspiring, thanks for sharing! I think as long as you have cool nights, they should be okay.

Regarding T. prismatica, I was under the impression that it's a summer grower like lithops? That's what I read somewhere, but they're clearing growing right now here in California, and we're getting lows close to 0C and highs around 10C.

Thanks for your kind comment meizzwang! I really hope to have some cool nights, let's wait until July to see.

I also read that T. prismatica is a summer grower and that it can have all sun one can provide. My two Tanquana indeed showed a more consistent growth when wheather became hotter and days became longer, contrary to yours. They sprouted during winter and most of the seedlings died; these two just stand in the pot with no growth until mid Spring, when something occured and they became stronger.
However, these two little plants are not read to take full sun and/or to experience more than 10 days of drought. I'm tempted to do this test with one of the Pleiospilos...

[mmcavall]

Another hot day, and when I visited the greenhouse in early afternoon, I found the Marlothistella uniondalensis damaged. I believe that it is because of the intense heat. I moved the pot to a cooler spot, and the damaged plant was repoted in a new one, because I didn't want it to rot among the healthy ones.



I also choose some seedlings of other Mesembs to grow in pots alone, separated from their brothers. This way, I can test different spots in the greenhouse and find better conditions for each species. I used a super draining mix, something new for me (5 parts grit : 1 part soil). I hope they survive!

[mmcavall]

The repotted ones are doing fine, except for the M. uniondalensis, which died. But the Delospermas, Nananthus and Pleiospilos transfered to new pots are fine. I noticed that I can softly press the Pleiospilos and Tanquanas between my fingers to check if they are thristy; If they are soft I can give them some water and they recover turgidity in one or two days.

Also, I noticed that the repotted Pleoispilos became soft in a shorter period of time than the ones in the original pots (those were watered for the last time in January 3th, more than 20 days ago, and are not soft at all). Probably because the substrate is much more draining and aerated.

Anyway, this season is not a good season for Mesembs... No sun in the last 10 -12 days. It rains a lot. Mud on the ground. Slugs…
It is all humid. The grasses on the ground grew quickly and are hampering the ventilation that used to come from the floor. With humidity and tall grass, come the slugs…

I’m afraid of watering the plants, because they will stay on damp soil for too long. So I keep them dry, waiting for better days. As a result, they still dry maybe for too long (although there is no water demand from the atmosphere). For most plants I see no problems (for example the Pleiospilos). But others are thirsty: the adults Delosperma echinatum, Lampranthus, Faucaria and Corpuscularia (I watered them).

The seedlings are protected from the summer sun under shade cloths. But now its been cloudy for 12 days. It is dark for them. But I can't take the shade cloth out, because the sun can sudenly appear and burn the young plants.

These are strange days I’m not sure what to do. Dry winter is much more comfortable.

The Faucaria decided to bloom again, this time, two flowers. This little plant flowered in June (winter), September (Spring), November and now in January (Summer).

[mmcavall]

Some update. Pictures of the transplanted young mesembs.

P. bolusi. Using almost pure grit. Hope it works out.


Nananthus:


Delosperma esterhuyseniae


Delosperma crassum (the left one was transplanted about 20 days before the one at right, showing that transplanting was good to the plant).

[mmcavall]

Planning to move some of them to full sun. Starting from Delosperma. Does anyone has anything to say otherwise?

[Mark]

Those look great! Job well done.


Mark

[mmcavall]

Those look great! Job well done.

Thanks Mark for the compliment!

I've tried to give more sun to the Delosperma (full sun until noon, and them shade). But it is not prepared to that. It became thirsty very quickly, probably it needs a bigger pot or a less draining substrate to endure the strong summer sun.

By the way, the summer is not a good season to these plants. Monilaria is still with leaves, but starting to get yellow...

[mmcavall]

The summer never ends, and I experienced some problems with mites, which seemed to prefer the Mesembs amongst all my plants.

Also, I went out for a short trip and the previously transplanted Marlothistella uniondalensis did not endured the lack of water… Only four days without water and it collapsed. Kind of weird…The substrate is very draining, composed of pure grit, so I figure out that it dried very quickly in those hot days. Anyway, four days is a very short period, never imagined it would die. But it did.



The other “brothers” are in the original pot, which is soil-rich, so they did not dried out…




On the other hand, I’ve noticed a very consistent growth on the P. bolusii (but not at P. compactus and P. nellii). All single plants are putting the second pair of leaves, see the picture:





They look healthy and strong, don’t’ they?

My question to you, Mesembs’ experts: do I continue watering every 10-15 days, or should I keep them dry until they completely consume the first pair of leaves? I have some growing in separate pots, so I can do some differential treatments… any suggestion is welcome.



I’ve just decided to bring some Pleiospilos to the sun. My plan is move all my seedlings to full sun from now (Autumn) until Spring, so next Summer they will be able to take full sun, and I can treat them as adults.

That’s my “apparatus” for hardening plants to full sun (before that stage, they are under light shade cloth, not under deep shade):





So, another question to you, Mesembs’ experts: do Pleiospilos and Tanquanas and Schwantesias etc can take full sun and endure hot weather (just the way my Faucarias do)? This will require more waterings or the contrary?

(not talking about summer dormants like Monilaria; but I think all this about dormancy is not very applicable here… all Mesembs, including Monilaria, grew at least a little in the summer).

Thanks for any comments and tips.

[mmcavall]

Looks like I'm loosing control. I've just noticed that my Tanquana prismatica died out. I watered all my plants on friday, and them the weather changed and turned dull and humid. Some of the Mesembs are in wet soil now, and the Tanquana became a jelly "thing". Glottys the same. I noticed this tonight. So (even being night) I transplanted many of the Mesembs to a new pot, mix 100% grit, to save them from wet soil. Much more are still in their original pots.

Delosperma esterhuyseniae, on the other hand, seemed to suffer from lack of water. Almost died last week, and then after a good soak it recovered.

I hope I can control the situation quickly, otherwise I'll lose several plants.

[greenknight]

Losses happen. You've really been doing incredibly well, considering the challenges you've taken on. Inevitably you're going to lose some in the process of discovering what it takes to grow them in that climate, since there's so little information available.

[mmcavall]

Hi Spence, thanks for your kind words. I concluded that I took too long to start repoting the seedlings. Maybe I did correctly because we were in the middle of the Summer, and this could not be the right season to start treating these plants as adults, but you never know... Also, I noticed that as I'm not very used to plastic pots, I did some wrong watering.
So I decided to repot most of the plants to clay pots, taking care to not disturb their roots. I’ll try to just change the pot without changing anything else. I know this is not very recommended, but is something I have confidence to do, and I have to follow my perception, even if it shows to be wrong latter. After doing this delicate operation, I’ll choose some of the seedlings to be transplanted to square plastic pots with pure grit mix.
So I’ll have plants of the same species (same batch) under different growing conditions, and I can gradually observe which is better. For now I’m concerned in taking them out of the plastic pots where they were sown 8 months ago. Any suggestion otherwise is, of course, much welcomed.

[mmcavall]

So here it goes a tip for Marlothistella uniondalensis, it is something I’ve learned through the worse way: I lost 3 out of my 4 plants before learning that.
This species does not like as much water as Delosperma or Glottys, so it must be kept relatively dry in a well draining mix (clay pots proved to be better for me).

HOWEVER, and that is the tricky, once it gets thirsty, with shriveled leaves, it must be watered. I know it seems to be obvious, but the fact is that the plant will dye in a few days if it continues without water (and this is not the rule for Mesembs).

I lost my 3 plants leaving it dry for longer that they could deal (for comparison, Delospermas and Glottys can stand much more time without water). The plants simply collapsed within few (about 3) days without water.

So what I learned is:

After watering, let the plant dry until it shows little signs of thrist. If it is kept dry, it will look like that:

Note the shriveled leaves and also that the leaves are pointing to the sky, which is not normal.


Once the plant looks like that, water imediatelly, don’t wait until the next day!!!! That’s how I lost my plants…waiting too long...

The next day they looked like that:

...and this is too late. The plant will not recover.

After watering (before it is too late), the plant will recover and look like that:


That’s how the plant should look like. However when it is like that, I prefer not to water, and I wait until it starts to be thirsty, and then I water it again.

This is working fine for my conditions, and I think I will not lose my last plant.