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The Corroboree

bit

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Everything posted by bit

  1. Hey guys Thought I'd start this off to discuss some of the day to day care of our cacti which doesn't warrant it's own separate thread. The idea being we can learn from each other's experiences and rituals. Pictures are all good too! I'll start off (although no pics) - Today being Sunday, I had almost a whole day free. My pots out the back were very overgrown with weeds. I spent the afternoon weeding (I use needle-nose pliers for weeding) most of my pots. I also acquired 3 rooted stumps from some well established (before being cut down) plants - 1x bridgesoid and 2x taquiblensis. I potted these into suitable pots. Looking forward to seeing these take off - I can almost feel the power in the root balls I found some flexible 30litre tubs at the Warehouse for $5 each, plus square plastic buckets - 12litre - for $2.20 each. Testing these out, beats paying $25 for a similar size plastic 'pot' Then fed the entire herd with miracle-grow.
  2. Mislabelled? Looks like macrogonus to me. Variagated? One side of this plant is pretty much completely yellow... Not sure if this is unhealthy or variagated? The other side is green. There were three or four of these, and only one had a yellow side.
  3. Here are a LOT of photos collected from the web showing Trichs around South America I take credit for nothing here, just been asked to spread the links http://www.mininova.org/tor/2812684 http://www.mininova.org/tor/2815417 Description of the download: http://isohunt.com/torrent_details/1119540...ica?tab=summary
  4. Just thought I'd add this in, being one of the most frequenly plants mistaken for Pachanoi. I will get out and take some pics of mine shortly - it has TEN buds on it at the moment :D
  5. bit

    Flower photo heavy 2014 season

    turbinicarpus polaskii
  6. bit

    Cactus Gloves

    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!
  7. bit

    bit's garden

    Over 100 square meters of prime cactus haven. Currently in development, but here's what it looks like at the moment: This was the state of the garden before this weekend: Over the weekend I've added about 20-30 wheelbarrowloads of topsoil and broken clay. Also built a retaining wall behind the garden so it doesn't sit up against and rot the fence. Measured the garden area and it's approximately 110 square meters Anyway, this is the biggest news. Had 6 cubic meters of 50/50 pumice and compost delivered yesterday! This is sitting on the driveway so it's gotta go asap. As soon as this goes down, it will be planting time!! Stay tuned over the next few weeks
  8. bit

    bit's garden

    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.
  9. bit

    New Garden - In Ground Cacti

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

    bit's garden

    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
  11. bit

    bit's garden

    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.
  12. bit

    Repotting Trichocereus Bridgesii

    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?
  13. bit

    bit's garden

    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.
  14. bit

    bit's garden

    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.
  15. bit

    bit's garden

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

    bit's garden

    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.
  17. bit

    bit's garden

    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!
  18. bit

    bit's garden

    Another 15 odd plants into the ground Stenocereus marginatus grove:
  19. 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.
  20. bit

    bit's garden

    Should be ok, the dark mix that I'm putting around the plants is 50/50 compost and pumice. The light stuff that forms the base of the garden is mostly just regular topsoil and some broken clay mixed in. Too many to list... wait and see :D
  21. bit

    bit's garden

    7 more in the ground tonight. This is going to take a couple of weeks by the looks of things
  22. bit

    bit's garden

    Starting to take shape!! First cacti in the ground tonight :D
  23. bit

    New Greenhouse

    The plastic one I bought less than 6 months ago had literally blowin itself to pieces and was at the point of being more duct tape than plastic! So I found this on Trademe for the cost of 2x new plastic ones. It looks to be a few years old, but plenty of life left in it yet! I've used rust converter on the galvanised base where it was starting to wear/rust. Had to extend the boxing I had put down for the other greenhouse which was a bit of a mission, but here it is! I've used the shelving from the plastic one inside until ai have time to build some better shelving. Oh and the ugly brown fence is on the list of things to replace - should be replaced with a nice black fence like the rest of it.
  24. bit

    bit's garden

    I'll grab another photo tonight so you can see the little retaining wall. I've also finished the fence (with a tiny bit of staining to go). The fence in the background has been stained too so that looks heaps neater. I'll try and get the landscaping rocks moved around a bit so you will get an idea of the layout I will end up with. The rocks are pretty massive though, so I'll see how far I get rolling em round on my own hehe.
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