Ilovecacti

I love this thread. My Mihanovichii, which was one of the very first cacti I owned, has flowered wonderfully this year for the first time, it's put out 4 so far and there's another bud starting to form. The question i have is, are they self-fertile? I got some seeds from the latest flower, there was no other flowers open at the same time on any of my collection and I can't see anything that really looks like a stigma. I don't really know too much about pollination, I was hoping to get some answers from you guys.

Need help on ID'ing a few of my new acquisitions:

Spice, the universe obviously wants you to find a bridgesii then From Jox's other thread: Does anyone know what the one on the left is?

Wow, I don't know what the tall thing on the left is in picture #3 but I am definitely interested in a cutting, it's amazing! Also interested in one of those pachypodium pups.

I don't use self watering pots or trays anymore for that exact reason. If you only have a small number, emptying the water and giving the tray a quick scrub once a week helps, but that's very time consuming if you have more than a few. I ditched pot trays and grew my sundews in a kitty litter tray filled with sphagnum moss, haven't had a problem since and it retains water very well.

Awesome garden Bogfrog, lots of variety. I find carnivorous plants fascinating, nearly (not quite though) as much as cacti. You should be able to find some kind of sundew in the wild, provided you find the right area, in optimum conditions it grows like a weed.

Welcome, they all look very healthy, well done. Just remember that pure sand has very little in the way of nutrients and organic material, eventually they will use what's there and will need to be supplemented.

Does Usmobhere have a walk-in nursery or does he just have an Ebay page?

haha yeah you can actually see that in the first picture, all the Hamilton's cacti come with it. Is this fruit?

This is my collection of cacti and a few succulents that I've gained since they started fascinating me. Seeing as you can't buy any entheogen's ready grown here (at least none that I've found yet) I've been trying to raise them from seed unsuccessfully but I won't give up, plus these little guys give me a bit of practice when I do eventually get them going. I have labels for a few of them but most of them came with the name "cactus variety" on the label which is very unhelpful, I was wondering if some of the knowledgeable people on here could help me identify names for some of them?

Very cool thread, I think you've convinced me to try some grafting in the new year, where do you get pereskiopsis from?

They're the ones in the punnets, I had more but had to leave some behind when I moved. They've looked pretty good since I separated them a little, I think I left them in the straight CSS for too long and they weren't getting enough food New aquisition I found yesterday:

Thanks so much guys, a couple more pics from this guy who just opened today: I'm having trouble identifying these ones, can anyone help me out?

It's been a long time since I posted, but I was looking through the old pictures and my collection sure has grown and evolved. I live in another state now and some of them didn't like the move much but they've settled in and are putting on a very good growth season this year. I thought I'd put up some new pictures.

Ahhh the light intensity, I didn't take that into account. They are under my pergola and I DID move them to the edge where the panels are just plastic so more light gets through. Should I leave the lid off all the time now? I remember reading somewhere that you should leave it off when the first spines come through but I often get these things wrong. I'm fairly certain the moisture levels are fine, I actually poked one of the brownest ones today and it feels like it should, firm and not squishy. Also, those two albino's in the other tray, without chlorophyll will they be able to grow normally at all or are they doomed? I've seen those bright yellow and pink cacti but they're always on a graft and pretty sure they die if you de-graft.

Hi guys I'm a bit worried about my little guys, they've turned an unhealthy shade of brown, I thought it was probably too much water so I was leaving the lid off for a few hours at a time and they were getting slowly better but yesterday I left the lid off pretty much the whole day and night and now they look worse then ever. It has been getting really cold at night here (5 degrees last night, coldest I remember in ages) so it could possibly be caused by that I suppose, but I thought these guys almost liked the cold? Any suggestions or help would be really appreciated. And yesterday these guys were bright green and looking very good, but now a few have brown tinges on them

I'm so excited today, have a look at what I just found when I popped open the lid: The ones that have sprouted are Notocactus seeds from my collection, they flowered a few months ago. While we're on this topic, does anyone know at what point you collect the seeds from the flower head? Is it just until it has died and dried out thoroughly or maybe longer than that? Also do you have to treat the seed pods differently? Oh, and have a looksie at this: Yeah Baby! That's what I'm talking about! :) The single one that had come up the other day now has some company, lots of company. So far I'm looking at about a 1000% improvement from last years effort. Thanks to gerbil for sending me the seed few months ago, it's obviously very good

Thanks for the tips guys. I've sown a couple seeds and I'm going to try and carry them through the winter on a heat pad, I've learned a lot from my go last year (http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=25333&st=0&p=269037&fromsearch=1entry269037) and it looks like I'm already getting better results. These are Pach.(PC) V Bridge.(Psycho0), I don't know if you can see it in these photos but the one that has come up at the back has something white at it's base, it looks like little white hairs coming out in all directions. At first I thought it was the root system starting but it looked a bit odd today, they were sticking straight up, I think it might be fungus because I microwaved the sand but didn't put any anti-fungal stuff on, if so which is a good product to use at this point?

The mealy bug on the scop prompted me to check the rest properly, and I found some on my echino, along with some orange stuff I'm not happy at all about. It is wet because I just sprayed the mealy bugs off, I found one or two in between the ripples, and then when I sprayed the crown tip, about 20-30 which were hiding came out, most tiny. Is that orange stuff damage from the mealy bugs? Or is it some kind of fungus/rot starting?

Lovely collection, gymno's put out some of the best flowers and I love the variety you have, also digging the fero's, keep it up

Ok the mealy bug has been removed and destroyed, and the Kanna is Sceletium Emarcidum

Hi guys my collection has grown quite a bit (both in number and size) since the last photos I put up, so I thought I'd take some more pictures and post them. A lot of these new cacti at the front I bought just the other day from the Cactus Society Autumn Show last weekend, a lot to choose from and very nice looking. If you want any closer pictures just request which ones and I'll be happy to, I like photography too I've been debating whether or not to re-pot a lot of these because it's coming into winter, and their dormant period, so I thought there wouldn't be any need to give them transplant stress as well as fighting cold (and it is getting cold really early down here this year), what are your thoughts on this? This is a Scopulicolis I found at the show, the only Trich. I saw there. It's starting to root and there's something white and fuzzy looking above that, are either of these going to be a problem? Some Kanna I raised up: The two Trich's from my update before, these things GROW: And the cacti from my OP, they've grown quite a bit! All of the Aloe's just above started from the original two, and now they're all ready to be split multiple times as well, I'm having trouble giving them all away hope you guys enjoyed.

I found this the other day growing out of my retaining wall and I thought it looked similar to pictures I've seen of Syrian Rue but I'm not too sure (it's still young and I'm still a noob to this), can anyone either confirm my hopes or crush my dreams into a small pile?

I've recently bought some different types of cacti seed from SAB, but I have not been able to get ANY to germinate, I've tried some different soil mixes but nothing has worked yet, this is my set-up: The heated pad is set to 27 degrees all day then I turn it off at night time and it drops to about 18. Is it because there isn't enough light? Because I live in South Australia it's very difficult to buy the proper growing lights (you can buy the globes but the holders are illegal to sell), or have I missed an important step? I've been able to sprout some bamboo and a palm in the same setup.

I only just watered it before I took the picture trust me there's nowhere near the amount of moisture there was before, the dome barely fogs up at all now