ID request

[Fatich]

Could you help me to identify this species.

[7george]

Sclerocactus uncinatus.

[Fatich]

Thanks 7george, worth to buy?:) 8 usd.

[ElieEstephane]

8 usb for a small cactus is a bit much. Do some research on the cactus and see if you like it. 3-4$ seems to be a good price everywhere. However i cannot comment on the value of his species as im not familiar with it.

[esp_imaging]

3-4$ seems to be a good price everywhere.

I'd expect that many US native species are cheaper in the US then they would be in much of the rest of the world

I've no idea about prices in Turkey, but it looks well grown, so if it's a plant you want and can afford it, why not?
In the UK I wouldn't expect to buy a choice, somewhat tricky species like this that isn't often offered for $3-4.

Ebay prices seem to be over £10 for this or related ssp, including postage to the UK, I guess it's no cheaper in Turkey.

[greenknight]

That would be a lot for common species, but this isn't one. It's slow-growing and fairly rare - I don't think that price is unreasonable.

[adetheproducer]

I would have thrown my money at them for that price. I just paid 16 US dollars including p&p via ebay for a pair each about half the size of that one.

[DaveW]

I have had them in the past Ade, but don't think I ever paid that EBAY sort of price, but then I regularly go to the Cactus Marts organised by BCSS Branches around the country where 5-6 or more dealers have stalls. Also residential weekends like The Cactus Explorers where you can often pick up the latest novelties at reasonable prices. Others go on the Continent to ELK where most hard to get plants are available.

EBAY is the dearest place to buy cacti. They only have to tag a common plant as "rare" and people will pay stupid prices for them. Always troll your countries (or also EU ones for us) online cactus dealers listed on Cactus Mall first to see if you can find them before paying EBAY prices:-

http://www.cactus-mall.com/nursery.html

I don't know how close you are to any Cactus Marts this year Ade, but all are usually open to the public, as are cactus shows and they are a good place to get cheaper plants. I have bought from some dealers at these events at a much lower price than the same dealer lists them on EBAY for since they know in a bidding frenzy the EBAY devotees will pay over the odds for them.

Here is the BCSS Calendar of Events for anybody in the UK this year.

http://society.bcss.org.uk/index.php/ca ... vents.html

There is a similar list for the USA if you scroll down to the bottom of this link:-

http://www.sgvcss.com/

[esp_imaging]

I mentioned ebay not as a great-value place to buy cacti, but merely as one that responded to a search for the species for sale - several of the obvious European cactus nurseries don't offer it

For the original poster, based in Turkey, I'd assume that BCSS marts are of limited use. Whilst ebay on a per-plant basis may be expensive, it doesn't involve travel time or cost to use it in the same way as visiting ELK. If you spread the cost of a weekend ELK visit over each plant purchased I'd expect it would may ebay look bargain basement for most hobbyist visitors.

[adetheproducer]

Yeah as much as delivery prices are poor on ebay there are very few local sources of cacti in south wales just your typical garden centres and ikea type shops. Ebay has proven a great source for me as travel to bcss cacti fairs would end up costing me more. It not just travel cost you end up paying for food, car parking and so on. There are a lot of ebay battles but the way I look at is I set a maximum bid and then leave it alone, if I get out hid then that's fine I'm not prepared to pay more so they can have it. Patients is worth it in the long run there will always be more plants added and it's kind of fun too, getting email telling you you have won a bid much more fun than a 3 hour drive to get to a fair where the good stuff has been bought by members before you even saw it. If you have self control ebay is fine but sometimes I really do wonder who is paying the prices I see things sold for. There was a recent plant I watched, a lophophora williamsii cristata about 16 cm across nothing to special. The opening bid was £250 plus about £20 delivery and whats more scary is there where lots of bids and it went up to £285 last time I looked. There are obvious draw backs too, plant identity can be problematic there seems to be a culture of deliberate miss naming of plants to attrack attention and general ignorance prevails whenever dealing with the general public lots of localised common names and so forth. I stick to a few good suppliers usually. But ebay has served me well. Only one error in 4 or so years of orders which ended up working to my advantage anyway. I recently bid and won a mammillaria coahuilensis but ended up being sent a mammillaria aureilanata. Very nice plant that I had been searching for for a while bit they don't crop up much and when they do the price rockets with high demand bidding wars so I had always missed out.

[DaveW]

With most cacti you buy somebody had to grow them from seed and seed is available of most cacti and ready made plants are not always available or few and far between. There are a few cacti that are very slow from seed, but most of the globular plants you can get a reasonable plant in five years or so and it will often take you that long to find one if you don't grow your own, even if you can find somebody who has bothered to grow one. Nurserymen only tend to grow popular species for which there is a demand, if you want ready made plants of very slow growing, or not too commercial ones, you have to pay dear for them and then they are expensive to loose. You only have to see the beautiful plants that Ian posts he has grown from seed to see it is possible.

David Quail in the UK used to raise Ariocarpus etc from seed and flower them in about 5 or so years and that is in dull old UK, it should be even easier in warmer climes.

http://www.living-rocks.com/quail.htm

http://www.living-rocks.com/quail2.htm

http://www.bcss.org.uk/pom112014.php

I grew my Aztekium hintonii from seed when it first became available and I was probably older than most of you are at the time. I never saw them available in the trade until my own was already flowering, and most available were smaller seedlings than mine even then and quite expensive. But they are a bit faster than A. ritteri which is a really slow grower. Many of these plants when mature are typically quite tiny in habitat and nothing like the size of the bloated plants often seen in shows.

hintonii.jpg (84.66 KiB) Viewed 1370 times

I have seen a few Mammillaria aureilanata's at Cactus Marts and they were usually not all that expensive. I never knew Mammillaria coahuilensis was that rare? It's seldom grown by nurserymen since they can grow and sell more attractive plants to collectors in the same time it takes to raise them since much of the plant is underground and as a nurseryman told me "you can't sell roots since the customer does not see them". Mind you rarity simply means you personally are unable to find one, so what is considered rare in one country, or even area, can be freely available in another. Even recent discoveries like Mammillaria bertholdii are now becoming commoner in the EU, albeit usually grafted.

I go to cactus shows and marts for a for a day out much as for the plants, but cheap plants helps to make them even more worthwhile since I usually come back with about 10-12 plants that I would not get cheaper elsewhere, or have a job finding at all. As for Weekends the same applies, I go to see the habitat lectures and learn from those who have visited them and see pictures of the plants in situ. The last cactus weekend I attended was from Friday afternoon until the Sunday 4pm and we had 14 habitat lecture/slide shows, certainly the best way to increase your knowledge of the plants. Mind you Nottingham has a reasonably thriving BCSS cactus branch so I suppose I have got used to interacting with other local cactophiles.

Being 74 was lucky enough to go to see the plants in habitat in 2015 for three weeks, something I never thought I would do at my age and ended up shooting 1500 pictures myself which I posted as a travelogue here:-

http://forum.bcss.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=164681

So don't get too insular, driving a few miles to enhance your hobby and meet like minded people, or even eventually a trip of a lifetime to habitat is something to aspire to. Giving up the annual foreign holiday and saving up for a few years in order to go to habitat is far less boring than a yearly trip to the Spanish Costa's to drink yourself legless and lay baking in the sun just to get a tan and risk skin cancer.