CactiGuide.com

Great thread!

Question for Keith:
Where do you get your desert soil? I live in Southern California and actually never thought about just driving east on the 10 for a little ways and filling up some buckets!

Now for a general question:
How large do Mesembs have to be to safely transplant them from the seedling stage? I have quite a few different types of Mesembs and want to transplant them soon. I just don't want to risk killing any of them!

Great thread!

Question for Keith:
Where do you get your desert soil? I live in Southern California and actually never thought about just driving east on the 10 for a little ways and filling up some buckets!

Now for a general question:
How large do Mesembs have to be to safely transplant them from the seedling stage? I have quite a few different types of Mesembs and want to transplant them soon. I just don't want to risk killing any of them!

Temperature average around 72°F/ 22°C.

This seems to me to be quite low. Not sure about the succulents, but cacti seedlings prefer at least 25 - 30°C or even 30 - 40 daily maximums for many species. Of course proper humidity is preferred in that case. Fungi are less aggressive at high temps so the soil mix can be rather wet then dry then. Temps ~ 20°C are better used for wintering or rest periods with seedlings of this size.

I get my soil off HWY 14 by town of Mojave ca but any sandy desert soil should work. i like soil at the edge of dry washes off the many dirt roads out there plus i can also get sand in the wash helpful for starting seeds. 50% sand plus finer soil plus pumice I use for many tiny seeds like lithops.

I pass it through a 1/4" screen to get rid of larger rocks. Avoid places where CalTrans may have used weed killer. Valley fever coccidioidomycosis lives at least a foot down so just collect the top couple inches of soil so in the desert Avoid soil that's been dug up from a depth and piled up , like road construction or whatever.