Re: Turbinicarpus tips
Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 12:06 am
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Turbinicarpus tips
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Re: Turbinicarpus tips
Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2023 4:36 pm
Turbs are doing well. Rooted nicely and no more losses.
I did get new pots I thought were smaller but the new pots ended up holding the same amount of soil as previous. I doubled up pairs of same species and left over singles have a chunk of limestone rock buried in the pot. I added a coco fiber based organic soil to my pumice mixture. My plants seemed okay with pumice and akadama but I tried to replace akadama with turface and most my plants across genera do not like it, I’ve been switching everyone to a pumice and coco fiber mix. It might be pH issue but I never ran tests. I learned some plants were chronically deprived in my straight gritty mix. After many years, yesterday I finally found a nursery that sells the infamous “sandy loam” and I will try incorporating it into the cactus more than the coco fiber. I have a bunch of ario seedlings in the pumice/turface and pumice/coco fiber and the ones with coco fiber are doing much better but I have read with time ario hate organics.
I think my swobodae have fruit
I did get new pots I thought were smaller but the new pots ended up holding the same amount of soil as previous. I doubled up pairs of same species and left over singles have a chunk of limestone rock buried in the pot. I added a coco fiber based organic soil to my pumice mixture. My plants seemed okay with pumice and akadama but I tried to replace akadama with turface and most my plants across genera do not like it, I’ve been switching everyone to a pumice and coco fiber mix. It might be pH issue but I never ran tests. I learned some plants were chronically deprived in my straight gritty mix. After many years, yesterday I finally found a nursery that sells the infamous “sandy loam” and I will try incorporating it into the cactus more than the coco fiber. I have a bunch of ario seedlings in the pumice/turface and pumice/coco fiber and the ones with coco fiber are doing much better but I have read with time ario hate organics.
I think my swobodae have fruit
Re: Turbinicarpus tips
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2023 4:14 pm
How often did you water them and what was the weather like during your growing season?
If you buy loam, it's always interesting to do a sediment test to determine the amount of silt, sand, clay and organic particles. The test is quite easy and then you know what you're working with. The loam I have has a significant amount of clay for example.
If you previously grew in a straight mineral mix, it makes sense they did not get enough nutrients. I grow most of my plants in a mix of pumice, quartz grit and loam and have to supplement each watering with fertilizer. I have a friend who has been growing his plants (Turbinicarpi from seed) in a mineral mix with 10% organic matter (worm castings) for 3 years now. He did not fertilize once and his plants look good. His mixture is more varied than mine though. It contains pumice, akadama, scoria and limestone. In their Knowing, understanding, growing Turbinicarpus-Rapicactus Donati and Zanovello recommend 1 part coarse siliceous sand, 1 part of field soil with clayish-calcareous composition, 1 part of crushed lavic material (lapillus), 1 part of pumice, 1 part of limestone rock gravel, a small quantity of humus, about 1/2 kilo of granular, slow-release, complex fertilizer for 100 kilos of potting mix, gypsum for the species that live on soils with high gypsum content. They also recommend adding 10% water to the mix before repotting. They elaborate on each component in the book and this is not their full description.
Re: Turbinicarpus tips
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2023 12:08 am
Your description of the components of the soil you use is very thorough. The use of loam for globular cacti is seldom employed in the USA. The only person I ever knew who used a high percentage of it for hundreds of species was Jürgen Menzel. (Cactus Jordi). Having admired many of the pictures of cacti grown at ADBLPS (by Aymeric de Barmon and his staff) has led me to assume that this soil type is more frequently used in Europe. BTW, Jürgen was a good friend of mine, who always amazed me (RIP), and who told me of 2 countries in Europe where he grew cacti, before moving to California.ohugal wrote: ↑Mon Sep 18, 2023 4:14 pm
How often did you water them and what was the weather like during your growing season?
If you buy loam, it's always interesting to do a sediment test to determine the amount of silt, sand, clay and organic particles. The test is quite easy and then you know what you're working with. The loam I have has a significant amount of clay for example.
If you previously grew in a straight mineral mix, it makes sense they did not get enough nutrients. I grow most of my plants in a mix of pumice, quartz grit and loam and have to supplement each watering with fertilizer. I have a friend who has been growing his plants (Turbinicarpi from seed) in a mineral mix with 10% organic matter (worm castings) for 3 years now. He did not fertilize once and his plants look good. His mixture is more varied than mine though. It contains pumice, akadama, scoria and limestone. In their Knowing, understanding, growing Turbinicarpus-Rapicactus Donati and Zanovello recommend 1 part coarse siliceous sand, 1 part of field soil with clayish-calcareous composition, 1 part of crushed lavic material (lapillus), 1 part of pumice, 1 part of limestone rock gravel, a small quantity of humus, about 1/2 kilo of granular, slow-release, complex fertilizer for 100 kilos of potting mix, gypsum for the species that live on soils with high gypsum content. They also recommend adding 10% water to the mix before repotting. They elaborate on each component in the book and this is not their full description.
Re: Turbinicarpus tips
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2023 1:43 am
They look good . When they get bigger I water them less often about the same as Ariocarpus which is not more than 1x a month
Re: Turbinicarpus tips
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2023 6:41 am
I have a few older ones which I got through the local botanical garden and they indeed stay 'inflated' for quite a while. I should probably water them less. Definitely given the location I am at. With T. pseudomacrochele I find it hard to tell when to water, because it's so densely spinded.
Re: Turbinicarpus tips
Posted: Wed Sep 20, 2023 2:58 am
I was in a hot and humid climate but I recently moved to more semi-arid. The turbs were getting watered every two weeks, but since I made changes I can see the turbs plump up and I wait till they shrink a bit. Probably more like once every 3 weeks. I appreciate the soil components information. I need that bookohugal wrote: ↑Mon Sep 18, 2023 4:14 pm
How often did you water them and what was the weather like during your growing season?
If you buy loam, it's always interesting to do a sediment test to determine the amount of silt, sand, clay and organic particles. The test is quite easy and then you know what you're working with. The loam I have has a significant amount of clay for example.
If you previously grew in a straight mineral mix, it makes sense they did not get enough nutrients. I grow most of my plants in a mix of pumice, quartz grit and loam and have to supplement each watering with fertilizer. I have a friend who has been growing his plants (Turbinicarpi from seed) in a mineral mix with 10% organic matter (worm castings) for 3 years now. He did not fertilize once and his plants look good. His mixture is more varied than mine though. It contains pumice, akadama, scoria and limestone. In their Knowing, understanding, growing Turbinicarpus-Rapicactus Donati and Zanovello recommend 1 part coarse siliceous sand, 1 part of field soil with clayish-calcareous composition, 1 part of crushed lavic material (lapillus), 1 part of pumice, 1 part of limestone rock gravel, a small quantity of humus, about 1/2 kilo of granular, slow-release, complex fertilizer for 100 kilos of potting mix, gypsum for the species that live on soils with high gypsum content. They also recommend adding 10% water to the mix before repotting. They elaborate on each component in the book and this is not their full description.
Thank you