bit

RIP good sir

turbinicarpus polaskii

I'm going to let you guys into a trade secret. The BEST, and I mean BEST BEST BEST way to handle almost ANY cactus without damaging the cactus or yourself is: A plastic shopping bag, stuffed with other shopping bags. Seriously. I can handle plants with spines 3-4 inches long with a couple of "bags". It protects you, and you don't break all the spines off the plant. Not only do they not break spines off, but they also don't damage the delicate blue colour on the cacti. All the big cactus nurseries use them. If you're not using them, you're doing yourself and your plants a disfavour. See my garden thread, all these plants have been handled with "bags" and not a single spine has invaded skin!

Getting there! Seems never ending but the pile of pots is growing and the legions of potted plants are diminishing! You should be able to click on the image, and when it takes you to photobucket, keep clicking on the + at the bottom right hand corner to get it to full size.

Looking good! It's amazing how much fatter they grow when in the ground

I've never tried cereus fruit! I have tried dragonfruit however, and do approve. Tried to grow some once and failed. Maybe I'll give it another shot

I originally thought I'd like to make some sort of sculptured design with them, however after a while I realised that wouldn't really work as it would only look good for a couple of years, and then it would outgrow itself. Plus I don't have lots of the same type and size of cactus to be able to achieve it. So, I ended up just working with what I had, which was a decent sized area, and some rocks. I only have a vague idea of how they will grow over the next 5-10 years, as there are hardly any in the ground in this city, and certainly I'm not aware of any in the quantity I have planted them! I've allowed a meter or so between them, and anticipate that it should be a good few years before I have to do any decent pruning. Other than that, I've planted them together as well as I can judge they look good together. Fatty trichs in one spot, margniatus together where they look striking together, that sort of thing. I've got some grusonii I am looking forward to getting into the ground this coming week, and some other decent sized succulents. On the lookout for a heap more grusonii too, as I really like them.

Nice looking bridgesii! Bridgesii are notorious for throwing out roots from the stem above the soil, so I would definitely try potting them deeper. Keep an eye on them and if they do go soft/rot, then you can always just cut them near the base and re-root?

Most shade cloth is green for a very proven scientific reason. The theory you read is incorrect. The colours you see are a result of reflected light, not adsorbed light. So if you see something green, it's reflecting green (blue+yellow) light back at you but absorbing other parts of the spectrum (red). That's why a black hole is black - it's absorbing all light, and not reflecting any. Either way, when you think about it, it's the job of the cloth to absorb damaging light and not let it through. That's what it's there for. Being green means it absorbs some of the spectrum of light (mostly red) which would otherwise get to the plant and possibly burn/damage it. If you put a red shade cloth over the plant, it's possible that it would even harm the plant more than having no cloth at all, because it wouldn't block any red light, and instead reflect it onto the plant.

It's a light shade cloth. Some plants have been under a south facing wall for a year or so, don't want them to burn.

Here's a quick walkthrough of the garden so far - as you can see there's still a lot in pots!

Heh, yeah it was hard work.. the garden is not 'clean' soil. It's had a number of trees cut down in the last 18 months, so plenty of roots around. Also, I've a really annoying weed that has thick spaghetti like fragile roots, broad green leaves, and grows from bulbs. It's been hard work trying to eradicate it while de-potting.

Thanks all Another half a dozen decent sized plants into the ground now. That's almost the last of the big/hard to handle pots, but there's still so many to go!

Another 15 odd plants into the ground Stenocereus marginatus grove:

For what it's worth, if any NZ'ers are reading this - teracotta is the DEVIL over here. Both thin 5mm pots and thick 20-40mm teracotta is awful. They dry out far too fast, meaning you water more often, and all your nutrients leach out through the pots, leaving them in need of repotting on a yearly basis. Plastic pots are where it's at. Particularly with an inch or so of small pebbles/riverstones in the bottom for drainage. Black or terracotta colour doesn't make too much difference to their longevity. I've had both last 5+ years without needing to repot the plant. This is based on my experience with over 100 columnar cacti, both in a greenhouse, and outside in sunny positions in Auckland, over the past 10 years.