Edwin Dwianto

[DaveW]

Baked clay in one form or another has been used in our hobby from the early days. The earliest mention of it I can remember was by Endean. Apparently he recommended it in his book Cactus Culture in 1929 and I gather used to dig up his garden, bake the brick type red clay on a sheet of iron over a bonfire and sell it to other cactophiles. Apparently his garden was a lot lower when he left than when he moved in! The next reference to it was in Buxbaums Cactus Culture based on Biology published in 1958 in which he used pulverized bricks, which of course are simply baked clay. Since then we have had Seramis and now red clay Cat Litter.

These were the quotes from Buxbaum's book on using crushed brick for seed raising:-

"The best and only remedy, as I discovered 25 years ago, is to use brick dust. This is easy to obtain (not these days DW!) it is best to take the debris from a brickyard, or one can, with much patience, crush up bricks, but they should not be old ones, covered with moss and lichen. The material obtained is then put through a coarse sieve to remove the larger pieces, which can be used to mix with cactus soil and then through a fine sieve (a so called coffee strainer) to remove the dust. The latter is particularly important. One thus obtains a "sand" whose particles are 1/2 to 1mm in diameter, which, as distinct from ordinary sand, will absorb water and retain it and, moreover, shows when it is drying out by the lighter colour. This substratum is purely mineral and therefore cannot itself breed fungi. A fungus attack remains localized and can easily be removed. Further, this retains moisture without allowing water to stand and, since porous, lets the young roots penetrate easily. Finally, it does not tend to cake."

However Buxbaum found that many bricks do contain lime so had to treat it with dilute nitric acid before use to remove the alkalinity. Nowadays we can surely substitute the baked red clay type cat litter for Buxbaum's broken brick dust for seed raising?

Buxbaum did have some ideas that many would find strange now. For instance:-

"In the earlier cactus literature bottom heat was generally recommended for seed raising. As a rule we find the same recipes for raising seeds over and over again, and yet they are wrong and, though doubtless often successful, more often result in failures, so that finally the amateur gives up seed raising in disgust.

The source of error in these recipes is always the same; heat. Certainly for germination cactus seeds need a certain amount of heat, and from below is best. But it is wrong to try and force the germination in a hot, damp atmosphere such as is found in a heated seed box; thereby seed of low vitality is forced up only to die off and facilitate the entry of destructive fungi; for the dreaded damping-off fungus also likes moist heat. Besides, it appears that the alteration of temperature between day and night has a good effect on germination."

Later on a British nurseryman Roy Mottram used to grow his plants in something he called "Whitestone One-Eleven". He gave me the formula he used:-

"One-Eleven is a completely inert medium consisting of just three ingredients, namely 7/64" grit, lime free sand. and refractory aggregate up to 1/2" particles (the latter is commonly known as grog). Mixed in equal parts."

"In a recent analysis of soil conditions in a 'caatinga' type of region, it was shown that the air content of the surface layer was as high as 50%, reducing steadily with depth. One-Eleven probably comes very close to this, because in addition to the voids between the particles, the ingredients themselves also have high porosity, especially the grog."

As to what "Grog" is see:-

https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/grog-2746004

I gather Roy gave up selling it years ago when some of the materials got hard to get hold of for him locally. I guess this proves that cacti are pretty tolerant and will grow in most soils if you get the PH and watering right?

[keith]

Wow....you have like 9 ingredients there
Could you please tell us, what are they?"

Most look like they would make a nice top dressing straight up.

[Edwindwianto]

Hi everyone
Good weekend

This is my cacti's shaded place at roof-top where I often sit infront of them just to read or enjoy the afternoon

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EDWIN

[Dodi Russell]

Edwin how often do you water your ortegocactus. I am watering mine every 2 weeks going to increase it to 3 weeks now because mine are showing signs of putting offsets and they are growing quite fast than the usual.

[Edwindwianto]

(1) Edwin how often do you water your ortegocactus.

(2) I am watering mine every 2 weeks going to increase it to 3 weeks now because mine are showing signs of putting offsets and they are growing quite fast than the usual.

Hi Dodi
Thanks for stopping by my blog

1) I water it once a week, every Saturday morning

2) Why do you cut the watering frequency from once every 2 weeks to once every 3 weeks when it shows a sign of growing?
Thanks

EDWIN

[Dodi Russell]

(1) Edwin how often do you water your ortegocactus.

(2) I am watering mine every 2 weeks going to increase it to 3 weeks now because mine are showing signs of putting offsets and they are growing quite fast than the usual.

Hi Dodi
Thanks for stopping by my blog

1) I water it once a week, every Saturday morning

2) Why do you cut the watering frequency from once every 2 weeks to once every 3 weeks when it shows a sign of growing?
Thanks

EDWIN

I know that ortegocactus is a slow grower, and I don't want it to grow so fast and look unnatural(throwing offsets from the very top new areols,)or turn rot, I moved it last week to a place where it gets direct sunlight from 11am to 4:30 pm. The growth rate at which it grew was unnatural.

[mmcavall]

Wow....you have like 9 ingredients there
Could you please tell us, what are they?"

Most look like they would make a nice top dressing straight up.

Hi Edwin, unfortunately I'm kind of busy now but I'll be back soon to answer to your question.

[Edwindwianto]

I know that ortegocactus is a slow grower, and I don't want it to grow so fast and look unnatural(throwing offsets from the very top new areols,)or turn rot, I moved it last week to a place where it gets direct sunlight from 11am to 4:30 pm. The growth rate at which it grew was unnatural.

Hi Dodi
Thanks for your answer

You might want to check your fertilizer...is it too rich in Nitrogen?
If you wanted to make it grow "naturally"...you have to cut not only your water, but also your N...

This is a scientific study from the book STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF A CHIHUAHUAN DESERT ECOSYSTEM, chapter 6. Nutrient Cycling within an Arid Ecosystem

I quote page 133

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Mine also grows "unnaturally" fast, but i'am OK with that as long as the plant is healthy...
Because i use 0% organic mix, so i must use osmocote to feed my ortego...it has 19-6-12 rating (high N) - i bought it in small repacked plastic bag (the seller devided a pack of osmocote into several small plastic bag at cheaper price and sadly, it has no label to read)
Maybe i should changei it to osmocote plus which has 14-14-14 rating...
I bought my osmocote w/o research at the very early months i had started this hobby...

EDWIN

Hi Edwin, unfortunately I'm kind of busy now but I'll be back soon to answer to your question.

Hi Cavall

NP...work comes first
Good luck

EDWIN

[Edwindwianto]

Hi everyone,

These has just come into my collections, 2 small Strombocactus disciformis
Has just finished cleaning the root from the seller's soil...
I did it as good as i could....

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The sellers used cocopeat (coir) and even cocochip x_x
And many of the roots stucked in those cocochip...

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EDWIN

[Edwindwianto]

Good morning

I have already potted my new Strombocactus disciformis this morning
Morning gardening is relaxing...hahaha

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EDWIN

[Dodi Russell]

[
Because i use 0% organic mix, so i must use osmocote to feed my ortego...it has 19-6-12 rating (high N) - i bought it in small repacked plastic bag (the seller devided a pack of osmocote into several small plastic bag at cheaper price and sadly, it has no label to read)
Maybe i should changei it to osmocote plus which has 14-14-14 rating...
I bought my osmocote w/o research at the very early months i had started this hobby...

EDWIN

I use osmocote 14-14-14 on my plants which are potted up in inorganic media. Maybe I should shift to osmocote high k.

[mmcavall]

Wow....you have like 9 ingredients there
Could you please tell us, what are they?"

Most look like they would make a nice top dressing straight up.

Hi Edwin, unfortunately I'm kind of busy now but I'll be back soon to answer to your question.

Hi Edwin, Please see here:
http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtop ... 20#p370520

[Edwindwianto]

I use osmocote 14-14-14 on my plants which are potted up in inorganic media. Maybe I should shift to osmocote high k.

Good morning Dodi

Wow...we have same experience
Inorganic mix + osmocote = speedy growth of ortegocactus

Thanks Dodi for sharing that point
I now know thst mine isn't "special" case

BTW, could you please tell me what are in your inorganic muxture?
Thanks

EDWIN

Hi Edwin, Please see here:
http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtop ... 20#p370520

Good morning Cavall

Thanks for taking the time to write the answer and show me your blog

EDWIN

[Edwindwianto]

Hi Guys
This is my small collections of mexican desert cacti on the roof-top

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Aztekium hintonii

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Ariocarpus agavoides

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Ariocarpus bravoanus subs. hintonii

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Ariocarpus fissuratus

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Ariocarpus kotchoubeyanus

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Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus subs. albiflorus

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Ariocarpus retusus

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Ariocarpus retusus subs. trigonus

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Ariocarpus scaphirostris

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Leuchtenbergia principis

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Lophophora diffusa

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Lophophora williamsii

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Mammillaria herrerae 

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Obregonia denegrii

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Ortegocactus macdougallii

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Pelecyphora aselliformis and P. strobiliformis 

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Strombocactus disciformis

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Turbinicarpus alonsoi

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Turbinicarpus gielsdorfianus

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Turbinicarpus schmiedickeanus var. polaskii

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And some Lithops

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2020 l Jan l Feb l Mar l Apr l May l Jun l Jul l Agt l Sep l Oct l Nov l Dec

EDWIN

[Edwindwianto]

Hi everyone,
This afternoon, i have found that my ortego is scared
I didn't know what might cause this

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Compared to the pict from this morning, when it was still in good shaped

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I put it in my appartement until the callus is formed
I hope the callus isn't too bad...that it will be unsightly...

Is there anything i should be worried about?
Some first aid maybe?

Thanks

EDWIN