Big Box store cactus rant :(

[Big Box store cactus rant :(]

Seen the rocks glued in the pot as well, usually with assorted planters of succulents or those grafted E. lactea variegated crests. I blame Altman since they are the ones who do this to sell to their distributors.

[Big Box store cactus rant :(]

I went to Home Depot earlier this week to check what they had received, because if I don't get them right away they end up looking terrible. Nobody there knows how to take care of a cactus apparently and the cacti just slowly die once they are put out to be sold.

I always see little fake flowers hot glued to cacti and I cringe but usually they can be removed pretty easily. Sometimes it's not even worth it to buy it...

This poor grandiflorus hybrid was beginning to etiolate

Then I almost cried, saw this strange looking shelf and sure enough these succulents were all painted with who knows what.

Not sure if you can read the pictures.. but it says:

KOSMIK KAKTUS

Boldly going where no plant has gone before...

A new lineup of cacti with out-of-this-world color. Easy to care for with just a sunny window and a light drink every few weeks. New spines emerge as glistening white or golden yellow.

I feel bad for anyone who buys these, and expressed concern to the cashier who obviously had no care since he gets paid to scan items

Not sure what company these are from but I think they usually purchase cacti from Altman

[Columnar Cactus ID]

Ah yes, that's definitely it. I didn't look that one up

I thought the pictures for Stetsonia looked a bit off, but attributed it to being a seedling.

Thanks!

[What did you do to your cacti today?]

Received a crested stapelia in the mail today, excited to see what type of flower it produces

Also got in some seedlings and potted them up along with some seedlings that were needing something other than sand to grow in.

Psycho0 x TPM

TPM X SS02

T. Pachanoi mystery

baby buttons

And finally I picked this up at work, will either put it in the ground or use it as grafting stock haven't decided. [edit] It's a Stenocereus griseus, thanks Myeloblast for the ID

[Columnar Cactus ID]

I just grabbed this little beauty, starting to put on some nice growth but didn't have a tag. Was thinking a Stetsonia? I figured you guys would be able to tell me

Thanks!

[New Garden - In Ground Cacti]

Not sure what benefits it provides yet, but I think it helps reflect some sunlight back upwards so might help with growth. They are really sharp so it's regularly checked to make sure nothing is growing into them and potentially slicing itself open.

[New Garden - In Ground Cacti]

Just come south, no need to trade!

Figured I would put up some more pictures.

While I was taking pictures I noticed a little critter scampering around and at first thought it was a pest but then noticed a tiny, photogenic mantis.

The other T. Peruvianus X SS02 top cut, this one was planted a little after the other larger one and is in a shadier location.

T. Peruvianus monstrose

Another shot of the TBM clone-A

The pups on this melted wax bridgesii started out a bit funky but are growing pretty regular at the moment..

[New Garden - In Ground Cacti]

This got buried but figured I would just bump it with an update of all the cacti Been having issues connecting my phone to PC but finally got things transferred.

Here's a group shot of the patch on the side of the house.

Here's a close up of the biggest one (Peruvianus X SS02), super fat and awesome spines.

The pups

Got this TBM planted next to a bridgesii and a Peruvianus X SS02, If I learned anything from putting all these cacti in the ground it's that bigger cuttings grow faster and smaller ones take forever to get going... which should be common sense I guess.

The top of the pachanoi crest has started growing, previously it was only growing from the right side.

I brought down my Terrence mother plant and the TBM clone-A to put in the ground, the Terrence will go in full sun once my pops get the area ready for it. I did manage to get the TBM planted in a nice sunny spot though.

And a couple shots of some monstrose growth

[Nitrogen´s Connoisseur hybrids - pics and seed giveaway]

I have some Psycho0 X N1 sowed but they are still tiny, will be doing some grafting of a few once I get some more stock so I can see the lovely spines

[Grafts -Photos & Updates]

This is a chunk of T. Pachanoi cv Dave Turner that was removed because of rot but then I saved a piece and decided to chuck it on a pereskiopsis with an impale graft.

It didn't do much for quite a while then finally became hydrated again, I then applied some BAP to some aeroles (too many I realize now, was wreckless with this stuff at first) and caused it to stall a bit... So it finally decided to do something and shot out these gnarly pups, interested to see what they end up looking like.

[What did you do to your cacti today?]

I put all my unrooted cuttings in some Turface to root, much better than that woody stuff from before

EG, now you don't have to worry

[Nitrogen´s Connoisseur hybrids - pics and seed giveaway]

I feel that monstrose and cristate traits are mostly genetic but can be caused by environmental factors and pest damage as well. The cacti who go cristate after such damage are probably genetically predisposed to doing so which goes back to mostly genetic reasons

There's a great book, Teratopia, that is all about variegated and cristate cacti/succulents. I'd suggest reading it. It's quite expensive so here's a link with a PDF version

[Flower photo heavy 2014 season]

Not sure, it was labeled as that from Home Depot...

[What did you do to your cacti today?]

It's a soil they sell at my place of work that is 'Texas Friendly' and It is very woody indeed. I actually removed a bunch of larger wood pieces, so this is less woody lol.

Surprisingly I have not seen any issues using it yet and we usually put uncalloused succulent cuttings directly into it when doing propagation. I just am using it temporarily though until I have a day off to run errands and purchase more soil ingredients

I don't plan on watering them either, was just something to set them in besides empty pots

[Flower photo heavy 2014 season]

My Echinopsis Dominos finally flowered, it was such a massive flower! Excited because there are many more fuzz balls

Here it is the day before it opened:

And opened, it smelled fantastic

My Astrophytum Asterias also put out a bloom, going to have to try and time them better so I can cross pollinate with others at work.

An Astrophytum Myriostigma bloom at work

[What did you do to your cacti today?]

Got my first variegated tricho, and it's a crest!

I also got a variegated TBM but the new growth fell off in transit so going to have to do some grafting tomorrow

I also tossed a couple cuttings in with my new crested pedro to help facilitate rooting

Going to visit my other garden at home this weekend, bringing lots of goodies to plant and will be sure to snap lots of pictures

[Planthelper F2 seeds giveaway]

I <3 seeds

[The colored San Pedro Flower Project]

Wish I had some flowering size trichos besides mutants that rarely flower. Have any links to the colors of flowers you have created so far?

[What did you do to your cacti today?]

Had one of those awesome days where you get to unwrap a package full of cacti

This is what I got from SS, can't wait for things to root so I can plant em in the ground. Not shown is several thousand seeds of 30+ tricho hybrids

Got the ones with roots planted into temporary containers

Put the unrooted cuttings into empty pots to get some indirect light under a table while rooting, I'll probably put them into something better to root this is just a temporary solution.

[Looking for trichocereus pollen]

Oh, I was talking about for mine. I would definitely prefer to cross with a tricho as well, but mine is about to flower so not sure if the stars will align for this one. If I come across any open tricho flowers at work, I'll send some your way

Here's my domino as of 5 minutes ago.

[Looking for trichocereus pollen]

If I get a hold of anything I will send some your way, I have a E. dominos I got from Home Depot last year that is on the verge of flowering as well. Going to check around at work and hopefully a PC pedro will donate some pollen to see if this works

I assume if I can't get any tricho pollen another Echinopsis would suffice?

[Grafts -Photos & Updates]

Took a piece of TPM X SS02 Terrence and cut it in half vertically then grafted each slice to a large PC pedro, hoping the increased number of aeroles will help with lots of pupping

[What did you do to your cacti today?]

Managed to get some cacti in the ground where I work. So I now have two different environments I can put cacti in and let their roots free! The soil at this location seems to be a bit better quality than the sand at my parent's house so I am excited to see how they like it. It also gets more direct sunlight than on the coast where it's mostly overcast diffuse light.

Here's what I have in there so far.

Also managed to get a hold of some to-go containers that I have found are great for starting seedlings.

[cloning crests?]

Probably not as sterile as I am now, but I did use alcohol and a razor blade back then. They had been fine for a week + and then they all died off overnight it seemed. I think it got a bit humid in my apartment, I had them inside because it was way toohumid outside.

[I have questions about trichocereus bridgesii crested cristata monstrose.]

Here are the 3 different crested bridgesii I have, not sure if they are regular or TBM type or if they are even different types at all yet. I need to take grafts of each and see how they grow.