Jox

Well happy spring everyone , As I walked around today looking at my cacti I noticed my Polaskia chichipe is developing little buds, I am stoked as I have never seen this flower before. There are already a few cacti flowering for me so I figured as it is the first day of spring we should start showing of our wonderful cactus with there developing buds & flowers for all to see. PLEASE add your photos. Not sure what this is but the flower finally opened today Polaskia chichipe buds Grafted Blossfeldia liliputana with buds Rhipsalis cereuslula with buds & flowers Mammillaria abbilanata flowering A couple of unknown Mammillarias getting ready to flower #1 #2 Old Notocactus magnificus starting to get a bud Big Notocactus leninghausii budding I look forward to seeing your photos. Cheers Jox

When I first saw the ground starting to lift a little under an avo tree a couple of days ago I was sure I would see some shrooms there soon but to my surprise something I can't ID popped up. These weird little flower stalks were found under an avo tree in the mountains in s/e QLD, they stand about 15cm tall, I assume they are flowers & figure they have sprouted from a bulb but I have never spotted them anywhere before. If anyone knows what this plant is I would love to here about it, here are some photos A closer look at one of the flowers . Thanks for looking. Cheers Jox

Love your garden BB, Nice score with your cactus cuttings mate . I bit of advice I would give is if you just took those cuttings today you should let wound callus over before planting them, this takes a couple of weeks & helps prevent the chance of the cut rotting. There are some good posts here about the best way to take & care for cuttings. Good luck with them & keep the photos coming . Cheers Jox

No worries Got, I will put a pack aside for you, I am sure you will find me some nice seeds . I you send you a PM tomorrow. Cheers Jox

Hey all, just harvested some seed from my B. liliputana on the 6/11/13, I have two packs of 25 seeds & am looking to trade them for other interesting cacti seed. I would be keen for seed from Aztekium, Discocactus, Pelecyphora, Turbinicarpus, Strombocactus, Polaskia, Ariocarpus, Copiapoa, any different Astrophytum crosses. If anyone is keen to trade let me know. Cheers Jox

Here is an update on my seedlings . They were sowed 10 months & 3 days ago, I am stoked with the growth rate of all of my seedlings this year & think the advantages of growing them under a 600watt MH light through winter are obvious. They are now back out in the greenhouse enjoying the very hot start to spring. Stillman's A.Super Kabuto X A. asterias ( which I have been calling the opposite through out this thread, sorry) are going very nice & have all got different spots & characteristics making each one an individual, I have put a group together showing how different each one is. They are still growing quickly even out doors, still no weirdness showing in any of them & I would say it is the peres graft messing with them. One of the ACM has started to get much thicker in the last few weeks also. @ Ceres, I noticed you saying that you throw out the arms of your ACM if they come off. If they are still plump enough & have an areole or glochid you can graft it, this is apparently quite easy & how many people propagate them. I have just tried doing this today with an arm that got knocked off, I will let you know how it goes . Cheers Jox

Hey guys, that is not too strange & can happen with young seedlings when there has been some damage to the growing point even damage like a bump or damage that can not be seen by the naked eye can cause this to happen. Another possibility is your willie is showing traits of caespitosa as some of my caespitosa seedlings do this but normally after a few months. I will not ramble on with things in this great Freaky thread but I only keep my loph seedlings covered for humidity/moist for a couple of months at the most. Cheers Jox

Thank fellas, Hey Got, From the photos I put up it is hard to see the tables properly, they are made for hydroponics & are plastic molded trays that are 900mm x 900mm by 100mm deep, they are sitting in/on aluminum stands that are 500mm high. They are made with two holes in the center, one to pump water in & the other to drain the water back out, to do this you need to have a container under the table that holds the nutrient filled water & a pump on a timer the idea is the pump fills the table with water flooding the root system of your plants for a period of time & then it drains back into your container leaving the plants roots exposed to get air, this set up lets you recycle your water to a point & you just need to keep the container topped up with water & nutrients. These tables are normally filled with the clay balls you get from hydro shops & the plants are planted strait into the clay balls. Anyway I am not using them like that, I am just plugging the holes & fill the table up with a bucket then when the pants have absorbed there fill I pull the plug. It has made watering all these little pots a lot easier . I will add a bette photos of the tables this arvo. Cheers Jox

been slow as for me this arvo, wont let me load photos ether keeps saying waiting for shaman aust.

They certainly are self fertile, I helped spread the love a little with the brush but that was just moving the pollen around. I had two flowers this spring already, I got around 50 seeds from each. The trick is to leave the fruit on the plant until it has dried but you must keep a close eye on them as you don't want them to split out side as you would lose a the tiny seeds. Cheers Jox

Hey all, Thanks again for the nice comments , I have just moved most of my seedlings onto to flood & drain tables in my green house, this makes watering them a lot easier as I just fill the table with water & wait until the pots absorb it & the sand on top is wet & then let the water out. Here are a few photos of the tables, to give you an idea of the size the seedlings are in 63mm pots I will add some more close up photos of the cactus in the next few days. 1st table Ariocarpus, Turbinicarpus, Lophophora, Pelecyphora, Melocactus, Astrophytum, Epithelanta, Stenocactus, Setiechinopsis, Leuchtenbergia, Cintia, Escorbaria, Echinocereus. 2nd table Tricho crosses, Astrophytum Astro's Lopho's Leuchtenbergia, Stenocactus, Echinocereus, Turbinicarpus Thanks for looking. Cheers Jox

Hey myco, I was just wondering how you are going with your seedlings? I watched mine slowly shrivel away . The good news is I just harvested around 100 fresh seeds from one of my grafted B. liliputana yesterday, so I can try my luck again. If you have had dramas with yours let me know & I will put some fresh seed aside for you . Cheers Jox

Just thought I would share with you all what I saw one of my little A.myriostigma do whilst flowering this week. This is the first time this cactus has flowered & none of my A.myrios have done this when flowering. The first morning it flowered they opened yellow (like my other A.myrios), & I hand pollinated them with pollen from a A.myrios quad. The next day on inspecting the flowers, I saw they had opened being a lovely shade of pink, the third day they did not open but the buds had turn bright pink. Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Plant the pollen came from I am not sure if this colour change is normal & would of happened if I had not pollinated it, as my other A.myrios have had yellow flowers from start to finish, or has the colour change has happened due to successful pollination & done to attract less insects as there service is no longer required. Any thoughts, ideas or answers please. Cheers jox

That is a very nice looking plant Ceres , did you collect any pollen from it? It would be a nice plant to cross with any of your other Astro's, I find Astro pollen pretty easy to dry & store, it seems to say viable for quite a while if done properly. Cheers Jox

Hey hostilis, Just wondering were you live? If your in Oz I may be able to help with a small plant. If not I can't help sorry as I have no seeds left. Good luck Cheers Jox

It was interesting to read that this orchid spends its entire life feeding on fungus. The fungus breaks down plant martial & the orchid feeds of the fungus. Very interesting. Cheers Jox

Hey planthelper, that last picture is a flower fully open. They don't turn green & sometimes don't stand fully erect, hence they common names "noddy orchid or ghost orchid". You should read the link tarenna added as it has all the relevant info. Cheers Jox

Well this year I thought I would make it my mission to pollinate my Pachypodium's, I have never tried this before & it turns out to be a bit more of a process than pollinating other flowers. I will tell you the way I went about it, to start I used two different types of Pachies, P. densiflorum & P. rosulatum v gracilis. I would of liked to try & get pure strain seeds but as Pachies aren't self fertile & I only have one of each plant a cross was my only option, both of these plants have great features & a cross of them should produce some very nice looking plants. Before I go on I will show you the plants. P. densiflorum P. densiflorum flower P. rosulatum var gracilis P. rosulatum var gracilis flower The process of pollinating these flowers involves dissecting it to get to the pollen & stigma which is under a hard cap in the center of the flower, to do this I carefully cut the flower in half length ways & then wiped away the nectar which is produced when the flower is damaged. Now the flower is cut & the nectar is wiped away & stopped flowing I carefully peel one side of the cap down & use a tooth pick to scrap out some pollen setting it aside to use on the second flower (other plant), once I open the second flower I use a new tooth pick to collect pollen before adding the pollen from the first flower, I then take the second tooth pick & use it on the first flower. Here are a couple of photos of the flowers after they have been cut & pollinated. P. densiflorum P. rosulatum var gracilis I hope this information might be useful to someone else. I am pretty certain it has worked on most of the flowers I have done as it has been ten days & I can just start to see tiny little horns starting to form, I will take some photos & update in a few days. Also if any one has had experience with pollinating Pachies I would love to hear about it. Cheers Jox

Thanks for all the help & useful information tarenna, I have done a bit of reading on them this arvo & I would have to agree that it would be a very big change to transplant them & I am also very lucky to see such a beautiful & rear natural phenomenon. These were growing at the property were I work as the gardener, just down the road from my house. If I was not renting I would consider trying to transplant one as the soil & conditions would be very similar but the idea of looking at a pot of soil for a year just to find out I had failed & killed a little gem would be disappointing to say the least. I will just have to keep my job & hope to see them next year. I will be keeping my eyes open in hope of spotting some more growing in other locations up here in the mountains. Cheers Jox

Thanks mate, I had heard that as well but was told to use a thick bristle from a brush. I did try it on my first attempt but found it very fiddly & even when I managed to get the bristle down to the pollen I found it would get knocked off when pulling it back out. I did not like the idea of cutting up the flowers but it made a very fiddly job a bit easier & is looking like it may have worked. Thanks shortly, only time will tell . Cheers Jox

Thank mate, I was just thinking it might be some kind of orchid. Can they be dug up & put into a pot? they look very delicate so I did not disturb the soil to investigate. Cheers Jox

Well it looks like my efforts may pay off . I tried to pollinate six more flowers today, so I hope I will have more success. Here are some photos of the P. rosulatum var gracilis flowers 11 days after pollination, you can see the start of what must be the horns (seedpods). you can see the tiny green heads of the horns just starting to form This one has developed a bit more & is easier to spot Hopefully I will have some nice seeds soon, if anyone else loves Pachies as much as me let me know so I can sort out were the seeds can go . Also I have tried to find photos of an adult of this cross but can't seem to find any, surly someone has made this cross before. I would love to see how it looks, so if you know were I can find a photo please tell me. Cheers Jox

^^LOL! The truth is, he will be in bed fast asleep while his misses is tending to his plants . Cheers Jox

Hey mate, the first one on the left in the orange pot is a crows/birds nest fern, Asplenium australasicum, the orchids next to it in the Styrofoam box look like some kind of soft cane orchid, Dendrobium sp, & the plant Ceres was talking about is called a staghorn, Platycerium superbum / grande, maybe they call them elkhorns in NZ but what we call elkhorns in Australia have quite different fronds & are named Platycerium bifurcatum. Cheers Jox