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andros88

Help with LW var Huizache

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Hi everyone,

 

I'd love some help with my LW var Huizache (see attached photo) - it's all red, stressed and shriveled up and I'm not sure what the right growing conditions for it are.

 

I've got a few other varieties (standard LW, LW var Texana and a few other types) and these all grow perfectly well outdoors in the Sydney area with the same soil type (perlite, sand, cactus soil in 1:1:1 ratio).

 

What am I doing wrong? Does var Huizache need a different environment? Higher humidity? Any advice is appreciated! :lol:

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hey mate, lophs go red like that from sunburn. That one is still quite small, did you recently transfer it from the seedling tray to direct sun? They require hardening off from the humid seedling stage and gradually being introduced to harsher conditions. 

 

I'd generally go for a higher mineral content in the substrate, but that mix should work. When you say 1 part cactus soil, do you mean the stuff you buy at bunnings? I would advise against buying any soil from bunnings in general, there is better value elsewhere and bunnings ones are heavy on the composted pine cause it's cheap but you end up with poor quality acidic soil, they're usually infested with fungus gnats too.

 

Lophs would like a substrate that's slightly on the alkaline side. If it was me I would sprinkle some gypsum around the loph to slowly be watered in over time. Or I'd put some in the container that you bottom water with.

 

Most likely more experienced growers will offer better advice, but if it was me, I would give it more shade until it's bigger and hardened off to the sun. In nature they are commonly shaded under trees or in crevices. I personally wouldn't transplant it to new substrate because I think it damages the root, affecting growth rate and exposing it to diseases.

 

I reckon it will be fine though :)

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They still look very small to be in adult sizes pots and full sun. Some individuals will tolerate and adapt to it. Some will show stress reaction and growth will stall, possibly followed by dieback if no action is taken. 

This plant is telling you it's not happy, so as a first step I'd put into a more humid environment and under shadecloth (30-50%). I'd give it some nitrogen feeding, half strength and a few applications of seasol.

They bounce back and it's coming into the growing season so there's no reason it won't recover and become healthy relatively fast.

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Thank you @saguaro and @Glaukus!

 

Following your advice I’ve just popped them in a more shaded area and sprinkled some gypsum + seasol. Hopefully they will recover under kinder conditions!

 

The huizache variety has been particularly difficult - I bought a batch of seeds last summer and most of them died before the summer was over. Three powered through winter but kept reddening/shrivelling until they finally weakened to the sorry state that you see in the photo. I kept them in a dry shaded area throughout winter which did well for the other lophs. Any thoughts as to whether the huizache is a particularly sensitive variety? 
 

Thinking of buying another batch of seeds and testing out different environments year round (very humid, slightly, no humidity and so forth)!

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None of my huizache seeds germinated when I bought them. I have a couple of grafted ones and degrafted ones that a mate gave me, I can't say I've noticed they're any more difficult than any others. But that's not much of a sample size.

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