Hi All. Its time to make time and bring this blog up to date.
The collection as all who have followed has grown. I'm running out of space. Its time to build more shelving. A few pictures on the side yard. This is just the plants I moved under the shade sail that is 20ft x 30 ft.
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I have followed you since your first post about building your greenhouse. I would say that you have had great luck with your HOA! Everything looks great.
Hi Bill.. a lot more updates to follow.
The HOA has no control of what plants I have behind my gates and walls. The Greenhouse got through the HOA because I went straight to the city of Indio building Dept.
Hi All.. I'm going to do this again. Get caught up since It's been so long. The collection has expanded and is still expanding. . Currently its summer here in Indio Ca. Average temps have been above 105°f daily with 119°f the highest so far. Hurricane Hillary gave me a break for 3 days with 85°f temps. The plant selection has morphed.. When I started the Greenhouse in October 2020 I was buying your standard Big Box selection. Then I caught on to the hidden gems and as you will see over the next couple of days I have filled in with better and harder to find plants. I've learned a lot about growing here in the extreme heat. My first year I lost over 36 plants. Mostly the smaller succulents. Last year I lost around 24 plants Again mostly succulents. This year I'm down to 12 plants with the season almost over. I moved 30smaller plants into my office under grow lights. I lost a few of those to heat stress before I could move then inside. And then I have learned the more often I water the better. The heck with this idea that cactus shut down during the intense heat. A 7pm watering with cool water is what they thrive with. The roots get cooled down and the epidermis gets cooled down. Every other watering is with the fertilizer brand Cactus Juice. If I find a highly stressed plant it gets moved to extra shade and then it gets watered with a diluted Palm Tree fertilizer. The higher nitrogen content helps with the recover. So here I'll start with 12 pictures and I will continue to update a few times a day.
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Last edited by mikethecactusguy on Fri Sep 01, 2023 8:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I have many sources to choose for acquiring plants. A large portion of the plants have come from both Lowes and Home Depot. Patience and timing. The majority of the Trichocereus Pachanoi, the Ghost Euphorbia, the Cereus Repandus , the Grey Ghost and most of the other smaller plants all came from the big Box stores. Then of course are the deals I find on Etsy and E-bay. I have made friends with the manager at a whole sale cactus nursery in Desert hot Springs and he and I trade plants. Then there are the occasional scores at Mollers in Palm Desert. The Trich hybrids and other very special plants have been acquired through Facebook groups and meeting with a whole bunch of cool growers located in the Joshua Tree Area. I have gotten lucky with finding some plants at Stater Brothers and at a few of the flower shops here in the valley.
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If you go back through all the blog you will see how much growth I have gotten from a lot of the original plants. Again, water, nutrients, heat and mostly the sun under 60% shade cloth.
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Lets talk pots. Plastic or terra cotta. Plastic.. light weight, cheap, takes less space and but not as forgiving in this heat and with my watering schedule. Terra cotta.. expensive, heavy, needs more space but much more forgiving with my watering schedule. Even though they are mid fire pots, they still breath and the soil dries out in 1 to 2 days with pots 4" and smaller. The larger pots 3 to 4 days. With the Trich's I have learned to water them right now every 3 days, even if the pot has not fully dried out. They love the water. Aside from heat and sun stress killing plants, if I have an issue with a plant showing stress, not growing well or dying, usually its in a plastic pot. So clay is my choice in my growing conditions. I go through a lot of pots and even more cactus mix. My favorite has gotten way too expensive. After trying a few other brands I found one that is reasonably priced and just needs to be augmented with pumice. pots come from 2 places. Walmart for the 3" and 4" and then a quarterly run to Los Angeles to the wholesaler in Gardena. Pays to have a sellers account. 50% less.
last set for today.. and thank you to all for your comments. K.W. you know that this is all your fault. You and you magnificent collect are the inspiration for all this.
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You can see a lot of heat stress with many plants in these pictures. I have also notice that even though I'm watering a lot the soil itself is not getting wet. It was suggested today by another grower that I water everything with a diluted solution of dish soap. The issue is the heat and that when soil gets too hot it stops absorbing water. I'm going to give it a try on Monday when I water everything again.
Mike, here are some professional surfactants that might work a lot better than soap. They reduce the surface tension of water to allow it to wet your dry potting mix.
Jerry Smith
Bloomingdale, NJ
45 inches (114 cm) rain equivalent per year, approx. evenly spread per month
2012 USDA Hardiness Zone 6b: -5F to OF (-20C to -18C) min.
