Melo rescue

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philwilliams
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Post by philwilliams »

[quote="TimN"] Most big box stores around here will refund on plants up to a year. I've never done it, but I've been in the return line a number of times behind people with stone dead plants getting their money back.

Snowfella, Bunnings take dead plants within a year, If you fried something just fry it until its really dead then no one be able to tell what it died of. I took an Astrophtum back a few weeks ago.
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SnowFella
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Post by SnowFella »

:shock:
Guess I should start saving my dockets then, although it would be hard to prove it's a Bunnings plant as one of the first things I do is crack them out of the plastic pot.

@Tim: When, or if, that happends I'll really be diggin into that cephalium for seeds. There's plenty there that I can see but would have to dig little to deep for comfort in order to get out.
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SnowFella
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Post by SnowFella »

Well, didn't expect what I found starting to peek through the cephalium this morning, might just be some life in the old girl still. :shock:

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2 healthy loking fruits that wasn't there the other day, and knowing how many viable seeds I've dug out of it already I'd hazard a guess they are full of seeds. :D
Ed
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Post by Ed »

daiv wrote:The plant that you paid the most for will be the first to go. :?
That was certainly the case for me. A few days ago I noticed the nice new Melocactus Azureus whose pic I posted a couple months ago, was rotting :(

I can't imagine what I did wrong (except perhaps re-potting it). I kept it almost dry and *still* it rotted, apparently from the bottom up. I 'salvaged' the top 4cm or so. Will this root - or just keep rotting?

In contrast the 5cm melo I purchase a year ago still seems happy. (I bought two but one gave up the ghost early on).
daiv
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Post by daiv »

Since it can take such a long time for bad conditions to take their toll on a cactus, it very well could have been doomed when you bought it.
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
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Peterthecactusguy
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Post by Peterthecactusguy »

Daiv is correct. About 6 months ago I was doing an experiment on cholla and for some reason all three of the ones that haven't rooted yet are still green and somewhat alive but they haven't produced one ROOT. BTW the only one that did produce roots died because I grew it in pure sand as part of the experiment.
Here's to you, all you insidious creatures of green..er I mean cacti.
nutarhealer
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Post by nutarhealer »

Don't give up hope.
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SnowFella
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Post by SnowFella »

Hope has almost returned here, it just gave me one pretty good sign of life...it's first flower in my care. :shock:

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*Barracuda_52*
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Post by *Barracuda_52* »

:D FANTASTIC, looky that you did a wonderful job bringing life back to this one, beautiful little bloom.. Nice save SnowFella :thumbup: never give up hope on a plant till you know for sure its dead.
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daiv
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Post by daiv »

Hey that is great - it doesn't look too bad overall. There may be a turnaround here yet - I hope so.
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
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SnowFella
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Post by SnowFella »

Got my fingers crossed here for it's survival.
2nd bit of good sign here today, a second flower coming out. :D
Tony
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Post by Tony »

Nice save! :thumbright:
Forget the dog...Beware of the plants!!!

Tony
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SnowFella
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Post by SnowFella »

Not going to say for sure that it's a save just yet but it's right now happily sprouting out flowers 4 and 5. Seems these little buggers only last a matter of hours in this heat and humidity we are having.
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anttisepp
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Post by anttisepp »

Very nice job, SnowFella! Do you work at the hospital as a doctor? :)
It seems to me maxonii or bahiensis (?).
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SnowFella
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Post by SnowFella »

Nah, just plain dumb luck I'd say on this save. Way to new in this hobby to really have a good grasp on what I'm doing.
And it could well be either of the 2, had no solid ID when I bought it.

It's now been flowering more or less constantly since that first flower appeared and the cephalium has started growing and colouring up nicely from that dull grey it once was.

Edit: here's 2 new photos of it taken just minutes ago, 3 flowers fully open right now.
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