Considering Coryphanthas -- advice ASAP, please!

[Steve Johnson]

I gave my Coryphanthas their first deep drench of the year on 3/8 as they came out of winter dormancy in quite a shriveled state. They did plump a little, so I know their roots are working. The issue at hand is not a matter for worry on my part, and I'm just looking for some advice on whether or not I should water these cacti on Saturday after the rain I got over Monday and Tuesday nights. I direct this query to you SoCal members since you'll know what the weather has been like over March, although I'm open to feedback from anyone.

2 of the plants in question are Coryphantha hesteri...



...and C. retusa:



The cacti above didn't plump enough to rate before-and-after photos yet, but I can tell you that at least the hesteri could take up more water before it gets to what it looked like when I received it in July. The 3rd cactus did rate a before-and-after, my Cumarinia odorata. Here it is right before first watering, then a week later:



Just as a reference benchmark, here's the state of the odorata's plumpness when it arrived in December:



The precipitation that came out of the storm early this week was a grand total of .29" -- way less than I was hoping for. According to the local 7-day NWS forecast, I'm due for a big warm-up starting on Sunday. The daytime high should be 78, then I go straight into the 80s Monday through Wednesday, followed by 79 a week from today. And clear, sunny weather which I'll certainly enjoy! Anyway, I'm thinking that the pumice-DG mix in my pots will probably be bone-dry (or at least really close to it) by the weekend. These cacti are obviously still thirsty, so based on the above details, what do y'all think? Should I give them a good soak over the weekend? They'll survive just fine if I wait another week, but I'd hate to deprive these thirsty guys of the water they could use as the weather is about to heat up in just a few days.

Thanks!

[keith]

Hi Steve, C. hestri looks plumped up to me, the Coryphantha ( I have both these plants ) retusa might plump up later I don't think mine have yet, have to check, and I did leave them out in the rain.

I'm not going to water mine for awhile except my seedlings , But I think have a denser soil than you ? Mine is about 1/2 desert soil mixed with 1/2 small lava rocks and pumice.

I think retusa is a summer grower from way down in old mexico and hestri is a earlier Spring grower from Texas like its buddies leei and minima.

[Steve Johnson]

Hi Steve, C. hestri looks plumped up to me, the Coryphantha ( I have both these plants ) retusa might plump up later I don't think mine have yet, have to check, and I did leave them out in the rain.

I'm not going to water mine for awhile except my seedlings , But I think have a denser soil than you ? Mine is about 1/2 desert soil mixed with 1/2 small lava rocks and pumice.

I think retusa is a summer grower from way down in old mexico and hestri is a earlier Spring grower from Texas like its buddies leei and minima.

I'm glad you were first to chime in, and thanks for the fast response! Since I'm still new to Coryphanthas, I really appreciate getting the benefit of your experience -- especially since we're fellow SoCal growers.

Now, after I looked at the before-and-after pics of the Cumarinia, maybe I underestimated how much the hesteri and retusa plumped up after their first watering of the year. I'll get all 3 cacti on camera over the weekend, so it should be interesting to see the results after the rain they got. For those of you who may not be familiar with my photographic technique, I match frame dimensions precisely when I create before-and-after photo sets so the comparisons are as accurate and honest as possible. Recollections from even short-term memory can be deceiving, but properly framed pics don't lie. That's why it's worth every moment of the time and effort I take as these before-and-after shots have become a staple of my cactus photography.

Thanks so much, Keith!

[hoteidoc]

Those are some substantial spines on your C. retusa, Steve! -- right up there with G. spegazzini & a few others. Have of few Cory's started (this past Fall) d/t their cold-hardiness. They were pretty small & treated them cold & dry on the glass porch. Started lightly H20ing them a few weeks ago & boy, did they perk up! Don't know where this one falls in that category, but do like the spines! -- so got added to "To Grow" List

[Steve Johnson]

Those are some substantial spines on your C. retusa, Steve! -- right up there with G. spegazzini & a few others. Have of few Cory's started (this past Fall) d/t their cold-hardiness. They were pretty small & treated them cold & dry on the glass porch. Started lightly H20ing them a few weeks ago & boy, did they perk up! Don't know where this one falls in that category, but do like the spines! -- so got added to "To Grow" List

When I went cactus-shopping at the M2G website last summer, I was looking for 2 Coryphantha species that would interest me the most. C. retusa certainly stood out -- lovely plant form with thick, colorful spines. I haven't seen any flowers out of it yet, but this year could be the time for my first retusa flower.

By the way, I can't say enough about the wonderful Cumarinia find I selected from M2G in December. It's already starting to push up vibrant dark red central spines, so I think it'll grow really well for me this year. After further consideration about this cactus and my 2 Corys in light of Keith's response, I now realize that I shouldn't try to hurry their plumpness along too much. My gut instinct is that if they stay overly plump, they could end up with splits in the tubercles -- and not the kind nature intended either. (Yeah, I know we're talking about the grooves, but you know what I mean!) The photos I took when I first got the plants will come in handy as a reference, so hopefully that'll help me avoid overdoing it with the water.

Thanks for your kind feedback, my friends!

[CactusFanDan]

I'd say that hesteri is almost filled to capacity. I think they look nicer when you let them shrink to a ball and all the spines interlock, but they need a lot of dryness for that to happen. Not sure about the other Cory. I only have one Cory. myself and it never looks thirsty, so I guess they're very good at taking up water and keeping a hold of that water. I wouldn't worry about it. Maybe you should stop pampering your plants so much.

[DaveW]

Cacti are cacti and most terrestrial cacti just require similar cultivation unless they come from more tropical environments like Melocactus etc. As Dan says just treat Coryphantha's as you would the rest of your cacti. Nobody pampers them in nature and they survive and grow perfectly well. More cacti are probably killed with kindness through over watering and fertilization than under watering.

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[Steve Johnson]

Maybe you should stop pampering your plants so much.

Okay, Dan -- I get your point, although you could've been a little more tactful about it. While I try not to pamper any of my cacti, I may do so inadvertently when I bring in species I don't have any experience with yet. Miles Anderson is an excellent grower, but my experience is too limited to know if he grows his plants hard or not. All I have to go by are the "template" photos I took right after the Corys and the Cumarinia came in. From there, I guess I'll have to come to my own conclusions as I observe what these cacti do over the course of this year's growing season. Don't mean to be snarky with you -- I'll take your comment simply as a bit of constructive criticism.

Cacti are cacti and most terrestrial cacti just require similar cultivation unless they come from more tropical environments like Melocactus etc. As Dan says just treat Coryphantha's as you would the rest of your cacti. Nobody pampers them in nature and they survive and grow perfectly well. More cacti are probably killed with kindness through over watering and fertilization than under watering.

You're so right about that -- killing with kindness = ignorance! That's how I lost an Astrophytum asterias, an Echinocereus rigidissimus rubispinus, and a lovely old Turbinicarpus polaskii in 2011. Then another rubispinus I lost to rot in July 2012, and finally a big, beautiful Copiapoa hypogaea once again to rot from over-watering last summer. Although I had to learn from experience the hard way, I now have asterias and rubispinus that are finally growing for me (and well, by the way), 3 polaskii seedlings that survived the 2011 disaster and are doing well in their 3rd year, and the 2 hypogaea pups I saved that are already coming along nicely. Once again, I'll take what you and Dan are saying as constructive criticism. Certainly helps as a corrective to my occasional tendency toward impatience.

Thanks, guys!

[keith]

here is Coryphantha retusa after a spring rainfall kinda plump but I think they always look this way ? Not dramatic swelling like some other cactus species.

[keith]

Another one and it does look fat from water.

[keith]

Coryphantha compacta these will swell up and shrink down quite a bit.

[keith]

And this is just a crappy picture of coryphantha hesteri or escobaria hesteri. At this angle you can't tell if its swelled up from the recent rainfall or not.

I know the seedlings of this species I have do look very much taller than a month ago.

[Steve Johnson]

Thanks for the update with pics, Keith! I have a little update of my own, but I'll include it in part 2 of the shriveling/plumping presentation on the General forum. I looked back at my photo of the retusa right as it came from M2G in July:



Without giving away the latest before-and-after results from our recent rain, I can already tell that the retusa won't need watering as often as I thought. My Guess is it'll start looking thirsty enough for another drink in about a month.