One of the things you've always feared

[cactidan]

All my plants have now moved to their winter accomodation, be that windowsills or my garage. Yesterday i went to check on the garage ones and on opening the door a neighbours cat darted out I feared the worst and was (partly) right, one of my trays of plants had been knocked over, about 20, including some of my largest ones were in a heap of soil mix and pots on the floor

So I sighed, rolled up my sleeves and started the task of inspecting the damage, but the cacti gods were on my side. Barring a few broken spines there was not much damage, many had good enough rootballs that they didn't even come out of the pots, i was especially impressed that my gymnocalycium monvillei has filled a 7" pot in one season. The only plant to have any real damage was a Echinocereus viereckii morricalli, a half snapped branch.

So it also provided me with an excuse to do a limited inspection of roots and see exactly how my soil mix is working, ie drying and not clumping etc. which was all good, no pests and my mix still seemed nice and porous yet dry so i suppose every cloud and all that

I did go and check the cat was okay, which he was, but I shall making sure he doesn't sneak into my garage again!

[KittieKAT]

Well glad it was minimal damage and the cat was okay

[iann]

That must have been stressful but at least not much damage. I once had my entire collection of Conophytums blow over into a huge pile containing maybe a hundred adult plants and thousands of seedlings. To this day many of them still don't have the right labels. That was summer though, so grubbing about on the lawn for tiny green succulents was more than it would have been in November

[cactidan]

That must have been stressful but at least not much damage. I once had my entire collection of Conophytums blow over into a huge pile containing maybe a hundred adult plants and thousands of seedlings. To this day many of them still don't have the right labels. That was summer though, so grubbing about on the lawn for tiny green succulents was more than it would have been in November

that sounds horrendous!!!

Its that horrible sick feeling you get and you almost don't want to start looking when you first see something like that. To cheer myself up, I started planning a seed order from succseed

[iann]

That must have been stressful but at least not much damage. I once had my entire collection of Conophytums blow over into a huge pile containing maybe a hundred adult plants and thousands of seedlings. To this day many of them still don't have the right labels. That was summer though, so grubbing about on the lawn for tiny green succulents was more than it would have been in November

that sounds horrendous!!!

Its that horrible sick feeling you get and you almost don't want to start looking when you first see something like that. To cheer myself up, I started planning a seed order from succseed

That's what I call a plan

[Aiko]

That must have been stressful but at least not much damage. I once had my entire collection of Conophytums blow over into a huge pile containing maybe a hundred adult plants and thousands of seedlings. To this day many of them still don't have the right labels. That was summer though, so grubbing about on the lawn for tiny green succulents was more than it would have been in November

That puts the three Conophytum seedlings I found lying scattered on the tablet in perspective. Some darn bird got to my seedlings and poked holes in some and took out these three. I think I could spot three little holes in the soil of a pot of Conophytum obcordellum 'ursprungianum', so I just have to guess that's where they came from. An easier puzzle to solve than entire spilled tray...

[Thord Hakansson]

I have tried to grow Astrophytum caput-medusae from seed and it has worked fine until Young robins have found their way into the greenhouse.Seedlings were scattered around and there were fewer to find after each visit. That happened Three years in a row-I don´t try to grow from seed any more.....

[KittieKAT]

Other then the nightmare i had to deal with of recent.. (posted under: Thank You....Not!)
I once found a huge lime green cricket (upon plant inspection) sitting on one ofmy jades, i hate bugs so i literally almost dropped the pot, luckily i didn't (point for me!) Then i looked towards the cacti table and the cricket had attempted to land on the huge growing flowering buds on some of my gymnos...ect,.etc and knocked the buds right off right before they bloomed, and they were ready to burst open any day!!... i was so mad cause i was patiently waiting for them to open, i wanted to squish him..but i couldn't i found a cup and a piece of paper and trapped him them tossed his butt to the cricketing- curb!!
Pots can be repotted, but buds can't be glued back on .....well, they could but that would be as stupid as having fake flowers on them lol