Spanishfly

Can anyone help me get an ID on this guy? About 15 years old, never flowered. Thanks in advance.

It´s not just the dochotomy that self seeds- lots do. Here is my biggest Loph with lots of sprouts

One of my L. williamsii, on its own roots, dichotomised (is that a word?) - starting about 4 years ago. Become a nice double header. All the sprouts around it have just self seeded - seeds fell off of Momma and germinated. I always have seeds of this species to give away - PM me if interested.

Exactly why I banned all Opuntiae years ago.

New year 2018 - repotted my Trichocereus pachanoi var. cristata. Bought in Sept 2016 from a Dutch outfit, Succulent Corner, good size but had very little root - I wonder if it was once grafted but had outgrown its stock. Grew hugely throughout 2017 - had to smash the pot to get it out - didn´t want to risk damaging this exceptional plant - found great root growth as well. Repotted in a nice big pot in a grittty mix.

A pic of some Long Tom pots of various sizes - deep in relation to their diameter. I use them for Lophs, Ariocarpus, Encephalocarpus - all cacti with deep taproots. I imported a good number from the UK at enormous effort. Lophophora are the most resilient of cacti - I lose a plant or two every winter, but it is NEVER a Lophophora. So I don´t over fuss about watering after repotting, just bung it to them.

DIRT is something I wash off my car - my plants don´t grow in it.

I use a material labelled granitos - I buy it at a builder´s merchant - the Spanish use it as a sort of pebble dashing. A lot coarser than 1 mm - that would be sand IMHO. I´ll take a pic.

There are as many ULTIMATE mixes as there are growers!!!

My standard mix for Mexican desert cacti is mostly coarse grit, with crushed limestone, a little topsoil and some wormcasts and kelp. I use unglazed terra cotta pots, the Long Tom type to accommodate the deep tap root.

My fave is always my biggest clump of L. williamsii.

You are dead wrong. Some years ago I noticed some little flies buzzing around some cacti I had at work. I picked up a (supposedly) healthy adult Mammilaria, and the top of the plant just fell off - showing the roots eaten away by a squirming mass of horrid white grubs. My first encounter with this nasty pest.

I do know that they appear as an offset from the joint of a graft, and have some characteristics of each ´parent´. So it could be - there is a guy in a Facebook group who has produced a couple and might be able to help more.

Not RSM damage, probably just a natural blemish of no significance - after all , is YOUR skin as smooth as a baby´s butt? But what I do find of concern - and am surprised that NOBODY else has picked up on it - is your earlier comment, stona86, that you have bugs flying about and crawling in the soil. To any experienced grower that cries out ONE thing only - SCIARID FLY - sometimes called fungus gnats. They will not harm the skin (not at first) but will eat away your roots. SORT THAT SOONEST.

T. pachanoi cristate that I bought last year.