prier

There are many cacti with very different immature spines compared to mature spines. Tricho. Pasacana comes to mind. When you root a mature cutting it nearly always reverts back to immature spine. Dunno if this adds anything to the conversation, just a couple of cents

You really don't need to do anything special, if the cactus is happy it will flower when it's ready

Cactus of the four winds. Haha.

Really looking forward to reading all this. So, what did you conclude? Backeberg is a duck? Britton and rose, a bit confused? Ritter just funked it for everyone? I love discussing this stuff. We should hang out.

Does it smell funny when you break a stem? I think it's a senecio species

They're around. Para grew a shitload of em a few years ago.

1. Dunno. 2. Parodia uebellemanianus. 3. Gymnocalycium saglionis.

Definitely a Parodia (syn notocactus) not sure what species, I'll look it up when I get home

If only this cactus was planted in the north facing spot where the pc pach is, maybe there wouldn't be so much pc pach in aus and we'd all be growing this one instead.

I'm not always right but I have worked full time in horticulture at a specialist cacti and succulent nursery for over seven years. I also have access to an extremely comprehensive library. I wrote Turbinicarpus horripilus because that's what your seedling looks like and it is the most common Gymnocactus in Aus. The Copiapoa could be something else it might be an Eriosyce but I doubt it as these are not very common.

If you're not certain it of the cactus genus, a flowering photo is vitally important. Scale! SCALE! SCALE!!!

I posted this in another thread, kinda thought it needed a repost. There are only so many nurseries, serious cacti gardens and collectors in this country. Most places will have a good idea of what their plants are. Ask the seller, this is the best advice I can give, if they didn't grow it themselves find out who did. It may well be a random hybrid from and old garden or a nursery, the grower might not know what it is but they will be able to tell you what flowering size plants they have and when they flower. which can help narrow down the possibilities. If you have to resort to the internet, mention where you got the plant, even if it's just a town or even which state it was found in can help. I know people hate giving away their "secrets" but knowing where the plant came from greatly helps to identify it. Hope that helps a little, Prier.

Hey all, As a lot of you know we recently experienced some pretty extreme weather in Vic. I'm curious how you managed the weather and what kinda of damage you had to deal with after. I lost about 5% of the plants in my hothouse which i didn't water once throughout the entire heat wave. several mesemby things, echeverias and sempervivums mostly. Also lost a few baby Trichocereus seedlings that were outdoors, My guess is they where too small to survive, 5-10 cent piece sized. I watered all my outdoor Tricho's once and my scellys numerous times, always at night. My guess is that under potted plants suffer the most. Especially anything in black plastic. I would love to hear other's thoughts. Also before and after photos would be cool if anyone bothered. Cheers

Mate, I can't tell the scale if you are just using other plants, add a coin or lighter, something we all know the size of. haha. funny effort but... again I really doubt this is a Tricho.

Turbinicarpus horripilus (one of the gymnocactus group, so it gets big) second is a Copiapoa seedling probably C. humilis (too young to tell)

It's not variagated, just needs more sun, but harden it off slowly. Not a T. spach, would be good to see it flower to get an idea as to what genus. Someone here might be familiar enough with the plant to have a go. also something for scale in the photo, if it's really thin i reckon it might be Peniocereus sp.

Andrew reckons, there's a lot of fine stuff and a lot of really big stuff. dumb description. it has a low clay content but it doesn't fall apart like sand. pasacana country. it certainly drains well, if you piss on it, it goes straight in...

done