Lophophora grow report

[BBGONE]

There are a lot of reports on growing lophophora from seeds.

It is reported that it is growing very slow, but under certain conditions it can be grown to fully matured plant in 4-5 years.

The pictures were taken from russian forum.

The seeds were planted in moist vermiculite on 11 september 2007 in CD case lid as a container.

They were grown under sodium lamp and fertilized with Ettisso Hydro Vital solution.

This grow report covers 18 months period of growing seedlings, and plants reach 5-5,5 cm size in these conditions.

I also added some comments to the pictures.

There are also pictures of 4 years old plants, and the same plants after passing 2 years.

They were grown in similar conditions to the plants in this grow report.

 

 

[myco]

wow thats amazing i will definately be trying this

beautiful shots to

[BBGONE]

There are also some shots of plants grown in hydroponic condition.

But growth rate is the same and so it has no advantage over simple growin under lamps and watering with fertilizer solution.

Just for comparison, that is also can be done and working

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lptscsi/6982605174/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lptscsi/7128689985/in/photostream/

[BBGONE]

And also it was reported that LED grow lights was much inferior to sodium lamps for growing lophs.

Growth rates are lower.

I think, that there is no need in grow box, just lighting from the top, because lophs are plump cacties.

In contrast, Trichs., becase they are tall, need side reflectors for good lighting.

Pachanoi grown on hydroponics (for comparison)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lptscsi/7128789515/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lptscsi/7128808357/in/photostream/

Edited April 30, 2012 by BBGONE

[Sallubrious]

You say they were planted on vermiculite, to me the first few pics look like perlite. Then after pic 5 it looks like they were mulched with vermiculite.

Did they give any details of the type of LEDS used that were unsuccessful ?

[BBGONE]

You say they were planted on vermiculite, to me the first few pics look like perlite. Then after pic 5 it looks like they were mulched with vermiculite.

Did they give any details of the type of LEDS used that were unsuccessful ?

 

Vermiculite - it is a 100% fact.

It is well described by the author - how he used it.

I also has some plants growing in vermiculite, and it looks exactly the same.

When wet it is not glistening.

About LEDs i'm not 100% sure, because it was reported not by the author of that report, and there was not any pictures.

So it can be anything that caused slower growing, maybe not using fertilizers, distance from lights, LED power and etc.

P.S. - about perlite:

it is not suitable to grow anything in wet 100% perlite.

When wet it turns like cement, clogs all drainage.

Maybe only to root cuttings (without watering) or adding some to soil mixtures.

And one more reason to use vermiculite for Lophs growing - it is soft and carrot like roots have room for growing, it can be compressed and expelled from the pot.

I have grown my Loph in pummice, lava, ceolite mixture, and when roots were grown larger there was no room for them.

Yesterday i reported my Loph in vermiculite. So i can report on its growing in some time.

I'm using two 55 W Osram high intensity fluorecent lights.

Edited May 1, 2012 by BBGONE

[myco]

How often do they need to be fertilized ?

[GoOnThen]

Interesting information and photos thanks for posting

P.S. - about perlite:

it is not suitable to grow anything in wet 100% perlite.

When wet it turns like cement, clogs all drainage.

Maybe only to root cuttings (without watering) or adding some to soil mixtures.

Maybe the quality of perlite is different in Russia but the perlite that I have certainly does not go like cement and clog up drainage. You could have some issues if there was a lot of dust in it but that is solved by rinsing it first.

I would have thought the problem with vermiculite would be not only the amount of water it holds but also that it stays wet unlike coir which seems to hold water but doesn't stay as wet if that makes sense.

Cheers

Got

[slice]

BB,

thanks for sharing.I am interested in growing some lophos next season and I will follow the vermiculite formula.I looked for that Etisso fert. and could not find it, do you know the nutrient ratio? and also how many fluoros, distance from plants and square meters covered?

thx

s

POST EDITED. NO DISCUSSION ABOUT POTENCY

Edited May 1, 2012 by Evil Genius

[BBGONE]

How often do they need to be fertilized ?

 

I depends on the size of the container.

In report, the author fertilized them two times a week with hydroponic solution.

An d watered only when it was hot, and substrate dried more quickly as usual.

But they were grown in small cups.

I think when the amount of substrate is larger, then watering them with hydroponic solution could be more rare.

In any case vermiculite has good drainage ability, and could be washed with clear water to remove excessive salts.

Under lamps, they did not rot, although vermiculite holds a lot of water.

And when he tried hydroponic method for them he used 2-3 cm layer of grit on top of vermiculite.

Here in local store i have found several types of vermiculite.

1) Flaky type, with uneven sized particles. Low quality. Maybe good to add to the soil in gardening.

2) Even particles, yellow white types. As was used in that grow report. Good for growing adult seedlings and plants.

3) Brownish, small sized particles. Good for seed germination.

And it has different particle size from small (1 mm) to large (5-6 mm).

For germination use smaller size, for growing adults larger.

One more good characteristc of vermiculite, is that when it is dry, it is very easy to take cacties from substrate

and repot them.

In the authors grow report, he gives distance from sodium lamp:

He started seedling with 150 Watts sodium lamp, at half meter distance.

Then, after they are 3 months old, he brought 150 W lamp to 30 cm distance.

When they are 14 months old, he used 250 W sodium lamp at 37 cm distance.

He used timer set for lighting 14 hours a day. (there are also comments with the posted pictures)

Edited May 1, 2012 by BBGONE

[BBGONE]

BB,

thanks for sharing.I am interested in growing some lophos next season and I will follow the vermiculite formula.I looked for that Etisso fert. and could not find it, do you know the nutrient ratio? and also how many fluoros, distance from plants and square meters covered?

thx

s

POST EDITED. NO DISCUSSION ABOUT POTENCY

 

I'm using fluoros, U- shaped osram 55 W tubes with reflector.

With fluoros they can be closer to lamps, about 7-10 cm distance.

I think that any ferilizer can be used (hydroponics fertilizers are much better to use on nonsoil substrate, so use hydroponic fertilizer).

It is not just the matter of NPK, they hold stable PH of substrate.

I use my own hydroponic solution.

Etisso hydro vital has

N:P:K 5,2 : 5.0 : 4,2

Microelements, Vitamin B1

He also used Kemira Lux ferilizer, and it also worked well.

So any fertilizer that keeps stable PH, has balanced nutrients (not cactus ferilizers, the have low nitrogen)

and better to contain also microelements.

[BBGONE]

More pictures with cacties on passive hydroponics

(lophs can sustain high water and fertilizer content when grown under lamps)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lptscsi/sets/72157629576215954/

[BBGONE]

Harvesting seeds

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lptscsi/sets/72157629940682223/

[BBGONE]

GrownUp cacties (4 and 6 years old)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lptscsi/sets/72157629576331734/

[mutant]

Very interesting. And I was wondering what should I do with all that verm I got, but hadn't found many uses in horticulture.