do you have an opinion on amending the growing medium with some pelletized dolomitic limestone and gypsum for those species that grow on limestone in habitat? I'm not Steve, but I do have a comment on Pelletized Limestone. Those pellets are comprised of very finely ground limestone held together lo...

I agree with Jerry's thought: collect the pollen now from the first plant, and then use it when the second blooms. Thought this is how asynchronous blooming would be overcome.

--bret

I have some copiapoa margineta,and copipoa bridgesii I started from seed last October. I sewed them in 50% store bought cactus mix,and 50%perlite. I cooked the soil in an old pressure cooker. Sprayed the seeds in peroxide,and added distilled water. Marrs grow light and heat mat. Both were in bags a...

Birthday Greetings, wise one!

MrXeric--thank you for the kind words! I'm ecstatic. If you see a tiny figure on the horizon, dancing a little jig--well, it''s me. Great suggestion to hydrate the medium fully. I've been so focused on the seed on the surface that the rest of the pot has escaped attention. This might help root deve...

Remove old seed shells is a good move but can be tricky. I would start to expose to drier air if you have fungus problems. I made this video ( actually my kids did ) showing how I germinate cactus from seed. You can skip the boring parts in the beginning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iyBiZPgzOc...

I don't grow copiapos but seems you're off to a good start. Hard to find for a decent price but I did manage to rot a cinerea I had bought at Poots nursery before the big run up in prices. bummer it was small lemon sized 10 bucks. what are they now like 200 bucks !! lol...thanks, Keith. I follow a ...

Hi, Jerry, Good to hear your concerns. Actually I've been following this site frequently for educational purposes as I undertake learning about cacti. A little background: fascinated by Ariocarpus here since the 1970's; I have 130 babies from last year coming out of the nursery now at 12 - 20 mm dev...

MrXeric--thank you for the kind words! I'm ecstatic. If you see a tiny figure on the horizon, dancing a little jig--well, it''s me. Great suggestion to hydrate the medium fully. I've been so focused on the seed on the surface that the rest of the pot has escaped attention. This might help root devel...

Good Morning, So excited that I have to let someone know--Just sowed 10 C. cinerea seeds 4 days ago and had a 90% germination rate! :D This was my first effort, and getting the seed was difficult. I went through CactusKingdom in CAN, and I know I overpaid, but I really wanted the exercise. The seed ...

Great eye for the tiny, wild ones. Good to hear from you.

Bret

Yes very very slowly as well.I tried scraping it off but if it comes off it's just cactus skin. It's like those spots are not coating the skin it's just the skin that turned calloused and orange. Your description is perfect. I have exactly the same impression. I suspected that it could be mite dama...

Hi, The theory is partially true that light exposure reduces pathogens; the effectiveness of filtered sunlight becomes a question of how much ultraviolet light exposure really occurs in the environment. Ultraviolet light is used in healthcare for this purpose, although not widely due to its limitati...

Very nice. Are some of them suitable for plants? IE, do they have drainage holes? Hehehe, thought I might be the only one to wonder this! They'd be spectacular containers for some specimens. Very striking, and they remind me of a gentleman in Florida that works in containers like this with his cact...

Thank you, anttisepp! I'll look into these.

Bret