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My experience is confined to knowledge of desert cacti, and that's where I see nitrogen bloat as a problem among growers who pump up their desert cacti with too much N. For jungle cacti, higher-N feedings should be fine, although I'll leave the specifics to the people who grow them.
The Phosphorus in bone meal is only very slowly available. No problems with it even for P sensitive things. I am old too..keith wrote: ↑Mon Feb 05, 2024 4:10 pm Your book says to use bone meal high in Phosphorus I thought this forum said that was BAD. I don't know and have stopped talking about soil mixes especially on this forum. I read them , disagree with almost all of it and all I can say is whatever you choose to use it should drain well.
BTW I agree with most of what your book says buts its old and so am I
Steve Johnson wrote: ↑Thu Nov 30, 2023 5:22 am Correct -- for jungle cacti like Christmas cacti, Thanksgiving cacti, etc., I think Jerry is on the right track. While a straight pumice-granite gravel mix is great for most desert cacti, I'll point out a few exceptions:
- Opuntioids (Tephrocactus for example)
- Echinopsis
These cacti do need soil in the mix, in which case I'll recommend a 50% soil-50% mineral gravel mix. The only succulent I grow is a Haworthia attenuata, and it's also in a 50% soil-50% mineral gravel mix. My experience with succulents in general is close to zero, so I don't know if their roots would support a soilless mix without organic material.
- Eriosyce senilis
From "The Cal-Mag of my dreams?" thread I started way back in July 2022, our horticulturalist-in-residence MikeInOz had a few things to say about coir:ossy96 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 7:28 pmI want to repot my echinopsis oxygona and some other cacti, in a few days, because of this i made some cactus soil with 20 % soil, 20% coconut coir, 30 % crushed red brick and tiles, 10 % river sand, 10 % perlite and 10 % seramis. Until now it was ok with soil from the garden, will it tolerate that much mineral percentage(60%)? My other cacti i will repot are astrophytum myriostigma and Mammillaria plumosa!
But wait, there's more!MikeInOz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:38 pmI wouldn't use coir unless I absolutely had nothing else to use. And probably still wouldn't. It has many problems. 1, It is often high in chloride, this can be mitigated by rinsing several times. 2, It has very low S and Ca and very high K. So much so that it can cause Mg deficiencies unless it is amended. Soaking in CaSo4 or MgSo4 and CaNo3 after rinsing can help. 3, Orchid growers were initially told that Coconut was the medium to end the use of all other mediums and went ahead and used it at full throttle. What did they find? Most had great results for a start and then found all kinds of deficiencies showing up later, severe chlorosis, death of roots and death of the entire plant in many cases. 3, Fungal mycelium LOVES coir unless it is completely consumed by composting. It thrives in it and if it gets a foot hold, the entire root ball can become choked with white mold and dead roots. Fungus tends to proliferate in dry, acidic conditions rather than moist alkaline ones where bacteria usually dominates. 4, It should have Fe and Cu added to it. 5, It is sometimes prepared from green husks and can contain unwanted plant hormones. Having said all that some people say they have used it with success but I think we should be aware of it's possible problems. It is interesting to note that some commercial Dutch nurseries said they never want to have to see or deal with coir products again. If you want to use an organic component in your mix, a far superior product can be easily - if somewhat slowly - made a year in advance by using readily available products such and leaves, cow manure and sawdust or shredded garden clippings composted well and matured moist over a long time then dried, screened and stored for later use. Or if you have access to genuine cow manure (luckily I have from a farmer next door) you can age that and use it. Another option is to use a high quality composted pine bark as the organic fraction of your mix. All these are far superior in every way to coir.
Moral of the story: Stay away from coconut coir.MikeInOz wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 7:16 amCoir dust is used successfully in mixes for bedding plants and general mixes where it is fed heavily (EC is high) and it is kept moist, but for mixes which dry completely you can have the troubles I mentioned. As long as the Ca, Mg, and S is balanced with it's high K, and the chloride is leached out it works ok. It actually has very good properties like high AFP and wettability. But because it is made from raw un-composted material, and some batches are exceptionally bad, when something goes wrong it goes wrong spectacularly. Another problem is that it holds water for such a long time, you might think your mix is dry and needs water when it doesn't. I cannot understand why cacti growers would use it.
I know the feeling, and sadly a lot of confusion comes from gardening websites. Given Mike's many years of specialized knowledge growing cacti, it's a genuine blessing to have him on the forum.
Well pumice is not really available here and i dont really like perlite cause it floats... thats why i use the crushed red brick it is almost the same like clay granules just a bit sharper..Steve Johnson wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 11:01 pmFrom "The Cal-Mag of my dreams?" thread I started way back in July 2022, our horticulturalist-in-residence MikeInOz had a few things to say about coir:ossy96 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 21, 2024 7:28 pmI want to repot my echinopsis oxygona and some other cacti, in a few days, because of this i made some cactus soil with 20 % soil, 20% coconut coir, 30 % crushed red brick and tiles, 10 % river sand, 10 % perlite and 10 % seramis. Until now it was ok with soil from the garden, will it tolerate that much mineral percentage(60%)? My other cacti i will repot are astrophytum myriostigma and Mammillaria plumosa!But wait, there's more!MikeInOz wrote: ↑Thu Jan 19, 2023 11:38 pmI wouldn't use coir unless I absolutely had nothing else to use. And probably still wouldn't. It has many problems. 1, It is often high in chloride, this can be mitigated by rinsing several times. 2, It has very low S and Ca and very high K. So much so that it can cause Mg deficiencies unless it is amended. Soaking in CaSo4 or MgSo4 and CaNo3 after rinsing can help. 3, Orchid growers were initially told that Coconut was the medium to end the use of all other mediums and went ahead and used it at full throttle. What did they find? Most had great results for a start and then found all kinds of deficiencies showing up later, severe chlorosis, death of roots and death of the entire plant in many cases. 3, Fungal mycelium LOVES coir unless it is completely consumed by composting. It thrives in it and if it gets a foot hold, the entire root ball can become choked with white mold and dead roots. Fungus tends to proliferate in dry, acidic conditions rather than moist alkaline ones where bacteria usually dominates. 4, It should have Fe and Cu added to it. 5, It is sometimes prepared from green husks and can contain unwanted plant hormones. Having said all that some people say they have used it with success but I think we should be aware of it's possible problems. It is interesting to note that some commercial Dutch nurseries said they never want to have to see or deal with coir products again. If you want to use an organic component in your mix, a far superior product can be easily - if somewhat slowly - made a year in advance by using readily available products such and leaves, cow manure and sawdust or shredded garden clippings composted well and matured moist over a long time then dried, screened and stored for later use. Or if you have access to genuine cow manure (luckily I have from a farmer next door) you can age that and use it. Another option is to use a high quality composted pine bark as the organic fraction of your mix. All these are far superior in every way to coir.Moral of the story: Stay away from coconut coir.MikeInOz wrote: ↑Fri Jan 20, 2023 7:16 amCoir dust is used successfully in mixes for bedding plants and general mixes where it is fed heavily (EC is high) and it is kept moist, but for mixes which dry completely you can have the troubles I mentioned. As long as the Ca, Mg, and S is balanced with it's high K, and the chloride is leached out it works ok. It actually has very good properties like high AFP and wettability. But because it is made from raw un-composted material, and some batches are exceptionally bad, when something goes wrong it goes wrong spectacularly. Another problem is that it holds water for such a long time, you might think your mix is dry and needs water when it doesn't. I cannot understand why cacti growers would use it.
Regarding cactus mixes, keep it simple -- 2 or 3 ingredients for the mix. IMO anything beyond that is "over-engineering" the mix for no useful purpose. With that in mind, I think you'll do better with a simple mix containing soil and some sort of mineral gravel (pumice, Perlite, calcined clay granules or crushed granite poultry grit -- choose 1 mineral, not 2 or 3 or 4). If you can't get pumice, calcined clay granules (AKA Leca balls) are preferable over Perlite and granite gravel. The soil component coming from your garden is fine, but it must be sterilized first. Use a 50% soil-50% mineral gravel mix for Echinopsis, tilt more in favor of the mineral component for Astrophytum and Mammillaria.
Yes, indeed -- Perlite is the least preferable mineral because it's a floaty pain in the backside. If the crushed red brick has a certain amount of porosity, it'll be almost as good as calcined clay (not sure about pumice), in which case a 50% crushed brick-50% soil mix should still be fine for your Echinopsis. As I said earlier, keep it simple.
First of all, you're most welcome!ChaoticN wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2024 5:03 pmHey Steve I wanted to thank you especially & I need to ask you another question, I have a few cactuses flowering right now and I was wondering should I still use the same fertilizer mix you taught me during flower? Using that mix u showed me has greened up my cactus plants quite a bit compared to what they looked like before, it has helped a lot with their appearance.
Use the same fert regardless of whether cacti are or aren't in flower -- the belief that cacti need high-P fertilizers when they flower is a myth.
