Hi, so I recently decided to try growing lithops from seed. I have not grown anything from seed before so I tried to do some research before hand, but nevertheless the tiny little seedlings have sprouted white filament-like mould. My question is this: How bad is it? Is it mild but harmless white mou...

Oh yeah, when I was reading about it a few sites mentioned they can grow slowly at first but will speed up. Its got space its pot for more growth at the moment - the cactus is about ~10cm diameter and the pots about ~15cm (6"). It looks like it has a little less room in the pictures I sent beca...

I doubt the sun in Perth is hotter than it is in the Sonoran Desert, where this comes from. That was my first thought when I bought cacti... before I saw pictures of sunburnt ones. I have a couple of poorly placed crispy succulents in my garden too! Still, it might use a little more sun. Anyway I'd...

Its grown outside in a part sun position. It gets a fair amount of sun during the day, but as my profile says I live in Perth, Australia and I fear direct sun all day in the Perth summer might be too much even for a cactus. It was inside in the hardware store where I bought it though (no visible gro...

Hi, I have a little aloe plant that simply came with the helpful label "succulent". I believe it might be Aloe Aculeata due to the slightly red spines but I'm really going out on a limb guessing. Although still very small it has doubled in size over the past year (not surprisingly - it was...

Though small, the spine shape is correct for Ferocactus. Thanks, I'll know to pay more attention to spine shapes next time I'm looking to ID something. Young very nice F pottsii. Needs much space and sun. Beautiful species. Ah yes, I see that it can get quite large. It'll be nice to see it flower a...

Huh, a google search of Ferocactus pottsii has turned up a cactus that looks exactly like mine, so thank you I believe you're right! Is there any particular characteristic that made you say Ferocactus? I ask because I actually dismissed ferocactus because it doesn't have the spines for it, clearly I...

Hi, I've had a cactus for about 2 years that I'm struggling to identify. Since I got it from my local hardware store I figure it'd be a common species, only it doesn't match the common species found in your average google search. Recently I stumbled on some Echinopsis cactus pictures that look very ...

Yeah it was unreal. I took it out the pot, set about removing the old soil and found... this.

Anyway, I ended up getting most of it out. I did leave a few sections in because of the number of roots it had through it, but I'm not so bothered by little pieces since they won't be as restrictive.

Thanks! That makes sense, even if I think its a terrible idea. The roots are growing through it, so I'm intending to make ~4 cuts so that I can spread it out rather than remove it entirely.

Hi guys, This week I bought an echeveria monroe and was rinsing the roots to repot in better soil when I found that the shop has put something over the roots. Its like a little sheath with holes in it and it looks like its got to be strangling root growth. It this somehow supposed to be there? Will ...

Hi, I'm not an expert, but I know someone with a notocactus magnificus with brown spines and I'm afraid from my friend's experience I wouldn't expect them to regrow. My friends cactus spines went brown because she used a pesticide on the cactus and it damaged the spines. It doesn't seem to have done...

I thought I'd provide an update, since this was such an unusual problem. This cactus has survived! There's been no sign of the bugs in the months since I repotted and now its warmed up here the cactus has started growing lots of new roots. It looks like whatever they were they did live in the soil a...

I wish it was a more standard case! I'm just hoping that because its unusual it might be a once off event. There's definitely bark pieces in my soil mix, although I've got both perlite and gravel in there too. I'll remove as much bark as possible when I make up the fresh mix. As an interesting note ...

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. It's definitely not a standard silverfish; these things really are tiny and not quite the right shape. You're right, the photo is pretty awful but they move fast and I don't have a better camera then that anyway so I'm afraid that's as good as its going to get. Unfor...