A beginner's English windowsill collection

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Grimm
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Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 5:57 pm
Location: Lincolnshire, England

A short post about roots and Mealy Bugs

Post by Grimm »

First, my Thelocactus conothele v. aurantiacus a couple of months after finding out almost its entire root stock had been wiped out by mealy bugs - all that was left was a single thick root. It is potted in a mix of aquarium gravel, seived John Innes, and crushed shell. The roots have recovered very well, with no signs of new mealy bugs. It was treated by immersing in isopropyl alcohol.

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Second, all that is left of my Mammillaria albilanata's roots after cleaning off dead roots, mealy bugs, and a plug of peat that I had stupidly left on way back in 2012. There is a good chance that it won't survive this harsh treatment :( It has been treated with both isopropyl alcohol and a systemic pesticide which has worked on mealy bugs before (acetamiprid). I have dusted the remains of the roots with rooting compound and will leave it a week or two before watering.

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Nic
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Nic »

I think it will survive, it will have better chances than a cutting since a cutting needs to regrow roots from the vascular ring, while this mamm already has potential live roots that can grow new roots instead of straight from the vascular rings.
There is no cactus you can't eat, but you just might regret it if you eat the wrong one.
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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

Nic wrote:I think it will survive, it will have better chances than a cutting since a cutting needs to regrow roots from the vascular ring, while this mamm already has potential live roots that can grow new roots instead of straight from the vascular rings.
I'm more concerned about damage done to the live roots, as there were a few weak fibrous roots still alive that ended up as collateral damage. Also, the peat plug took a fair amount of work to remove, especially around the base of the roots. I tried my best not to damage the cactus (and I think I achieved it) but I'm still worried :idea:

More roots, an Astrophytum asterias just arrived from Cactuscroatia on eBay. As with my last buys from him, I'm very impressed by the quality.:

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Grimm
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Some seedlings close up

Post by Grimm »

Some seedlings close up. My camera won't focus properly on the Loph, perhaps the light it wrong (it is a weak yellow-ish light) although it focuses on the gravel just fine!

Lophophora, from pods taken off a Lophophora williamsii that were pollinated with the previous owner, and I have no idea if he had other Lophs or not, so it could be a hybrid.

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Trichocereus Pachanoi or the San Pedro cactus after a spray/water, grown from seeds that sat forgotten in a drawer for four years.

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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

A couple of updates:

As posted before, my Thelocephala esmeraldana FK795 bought from Croston in February have done extremely well. So well in fact that I was getting worried about them intwining their roots, so I repotted them individually. This meant I had a chance to check on the roots, and here's the result (example pic below). What may be an interesting note to make is that the larger offsets have completely separated themselves from the mother plants, if I didn't know better I'd think they were actually seedlings!

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My Sulcorebutia rauschii violacidermis bought from Cactuscroatia in April is also doing well. It has gotten a little lighter in colour, but I expected that given the move from sunny mediterranean Croatia to cloudy Britain.

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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

Some more seedlings I have going, sown around the 12th July - Lobivia famatimensis from "Justseeds UK" on eBay. I put too much gravel on again but still got 26 seedlings out of c.100 seeds, which I think is quite good for a beginner especially considering I don't use a heat mat! There's always a chance more will germinate if the sun ever comes out again for more than five minutes (we've had gloomy weather for a while now).

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The 26th to sprout also gave me a surprise. It was white at first, then turned red, so I though it was an albino. However, when I photographed it I saw some green - a variagated cactus then?

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I also made my first visit to a cactus nursery - Southfield Nursery in Lincolnshire - and picked up five plants including this hybrid. It's "Bourne Razzle Dazzle" which is apparently one of the variable hybrids so is best bought when flowering so that you know what the flower looks like. Unfortunately the flower on mine was closing by the time I got it home, so the photo isn't great, but it gives an idea of the colours:

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And a few days later, the cactus with dried flower and seed pod:

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I'm also enjoying the third flush of flowers from my grafted Rebutia heliosa. This photo shows the second flush, and you can also see the difference in the new growth (grown with me) compared to old (grown on a dark shelf in B&Q):

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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

I've been lucky enough to recieve a few free gifts with my orders in the short time I've been collecting, one of which was a tiny Neoporteria aspillagae (or Eriosyce aspillagae or Pyrrhocactus aspillagae) from Croston.

It's done well for me so far, but is still one of my smallest cacti at 22mm :)

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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

Some new plants:

Mammillaria saboae subs. haudeana from Cactuscroatia
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Glandulicactus uncinatus also from Cactuscroatia
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Neoporteria paucicostata (green form), from B&Q of all places! Identified for me by jfabiao and DaveW, thanks again =D>
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Ortegocactus macdougallii
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Thelocephala krausii from Southfield Nursery (Cactusland)
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And an update on one bought earlier in the year, Neoporteria curvispina robusta BH01.01 from Croston
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Not much left of the growing season now, and I have a lot of plants that will be spending their first winter with me!
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Grimm
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When I grow up I want to be a Saguaro!

Post by Grimm »

One of my L.famatimensis seedlings growing branches, doing an impression of a Saguaro cactus :lol:

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I had three more germinate during a heat wave a couple of weeks ago, bringing me to a nice round total of 30 seedlings :D
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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

Astrophytum asterias in flower today :D

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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

A short post, showing my Mammillaria zeilmanniana recovering well since I ripped out a load of spines last year. It had a great flowering season this year, and put on a lot of growth including on its offsets. Not the prettiest cactus, but one of my favourites, it also has an interesting history/habitat/re-discovery.

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stefan m.
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by stefan m. »

Love your plants.
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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

stefan m. wrote:Love your plants.
Thanks :D :oops: although to be fair most of them are a reflection of the people I've bought them from as I haven't had my collection for long :) Also I tend not to show off my uglier and less successful plants :lol:
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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

Another short post.

My Schlumbergera x buckleyi has had a good Christmas, opening it's first flower on Christmas Eve and just finishing off it's last one today:

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I noticed a while back that my Snowcap has developed a small crown of flowers, but seems happy to wait until it's watered to open them up. They've been like this for a couple of months now:

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I also seem to have confused Rebutia hoffmannii with central heating, as it opened a flower on the last day of January, two months earlier than previous years! Hopefully it will still put out some flowers in Spring:

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Grimm
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Re: A beginner's English windowsill collection

Post by Grimm »

An update on my seedling, first my Trichocereus pachanoi which were sown in September 2016. These have transitioned well to small plants, even if the growth is a little slow.

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Then Lophophora which were sown last summer. I lost a few over time due to overwatering, but none since I took them out of the propagator. One is double-headed, which is nice!

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And Lobivia famatimensis which, again, were sown last summer. I moved them out of the propagator in Autumn and they have generally coped well, just a couple that are probably not going to make it.

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I also have a pot full of Titanopsis calcarea seedlings, a single Ophthalmophyllum lydiae seedling that I keep forgetting to photograph, some Rebutia/Aylostera hybrids (seed pods came on a albiflora x heliosa plant), and another pot full of Rhipsalis gaertneri seedlings. I may add these to this post later :)

This year I have some Eriosyce esmeraldana and rodentiophila seeds to try, the latter are quite old seeds though.
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