Cactus Soils Growing Conditions

[weedRampage]

Thank you for confirming that plant purity extremists do exist and are not just

a product of my warped imagination.

I am sorry to hear that your attachment to your ideals is greater than the value

you place on your own life. In an ideal world the two things would exist as the

one same thing.

Anyways..... back to kaktoooos

These are photos of a pot trial of different growing media growing icaro seedlings.

P+C has 20% peat and 80% crusher dust in it. This plant has a deep green colour but has

grown slower than the other two

P+C+C has 10% peat, 40% crusher dust and 50% local acidic clay. This one has done the best

after and initial slow start. It is growing fast and has a good colour.

CLAY has the local acidic clay and a handful of dolomite. This one looked the best initially

growing fast with a good colour. It now has a slightly paler colour than P+C+C.

I have just done some repotting of bridgies into a mix of acidic clay, scoria that I ground up

in a mortar and pestle and river sand. These look really nice already even though they haven't been

in their new pots for long. I will post pictures in a couple of months when they have put on some

new growth.

These are the same pot trial icaros some months later.

The acidic clay + dolomite pot has recovered a good colour and is fatter than the two others

Peat + crusher dust + clay is growing well.

The crusher dust and peat pots have a good dark green colour still but are a lot thinner

than the clay pot.

From this it is possible to see that a reverse weathering process can occur on a soil when

the pH is adjusted with dolomite/aglime and the soil water regime is kept at one water per week.

Crusher dust is a bit too alkaline to build a rich soil rapidly.

A lot of the mixes that I have emptied out of pots that had a high percentage of crusher dust

seemed a bit lacking in structure and tend to dry out and waterlog.

There is no substitute for healthy soil organisms to stabilise the root environment water

and nutrients. Using an existing soil gives the advantage of the established fungi and

bacteria populations.

I wouldn't use more than 10% crusher dust in the future.

A small amount of silica rich material either crusher dust or river sand is advisable

to top up the silica levels of any soil from a high rainfall area.

^ ^

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THIS IS THE MOST RECENT POST (I SHOULD HAVE POSTED A REPLY BUT I JUST EDITED AN OLD POST)

Edited June 8, 2010 by weedRampage

[tripsis]

Thanks for confirming cop-outs do exist in this world and that they'll always seek an easy way out.

[weedRampage]

Thanks for confirming cop-outs do exist in this world and that they'll always seek an easy way out.

 

This debate has degenerated into hair pulling and name calling but somewhere

in there we did alright, discussed some important issues. So I feel like we

are all winners by engaging in this process.

The drama has helped to increase the interest factor in a largely scientific

brain boggle of a thread.

Sigh

A rabbit hops into a bar and says "What food do you have?"

The barman says "I've got asparagus and cheese toasties or tomato and cheese

toasties."

The rabbit says "I'll have a tomato and cheese toasty thanks."

He eats it up and says "Mmmm that was delicious I'll have one more thanks."

He eats that one too and says "Can I have one more please?"

The barman says "I'm sorry we're all out of tomato and cheese do you want

asparagus and cheese?"

The rabbit says "No sorry I don't like to mix-my-toasties."

Edited December 22, 2009 by weedRampage

[weedRampage]

Writing in this thread has definitely helped me to go over all the issues of cactus soils

in my own head and has prompted some experimentation in soil mixes.

From the results I am seeing the only ingredients I am using now are

Local (acidic) clay 50%

Coarse river sand |40 - 50%

Fine river sand |

Crusher dust 0 - 10%

and Dolomite if no crusher dust used in the mix

Fed with dilute (1:20) urine

The reason I am using the local acidic clay is not because it is good for the cactus but because

it is what is available in the coastal area to supply the clay fraction of a mix,

the fine organic humus, and bugs (arthropods, nematodes, bacteria and fungi).

If I was living on the tablelands or on the western slopes of the great divide the soil would be a

better starting material alkaline medium clay.

Coarse river sand is a better long term soil ingredient than fine river sand because it has a greater

diversity of minerals in it. Coarse is a bit too dry and chunky for seedling raising though.

Best for seedlings is sifted (the fine fraction) coarse river sand with a bit of crusher dust in the lower

soil level for extra minerals and water retention. River sand adds silica to an acidic clay that has had a lot of

its silica leached out by rainfall. The extra silica changes the clay matrix to give it better water and nutrient

retention capabilities, makes it more like the desert soils.

Crusher dust supplies alkaline minerals and some nutrients too. On the down side it is quite gravelly which is

a waste of space in a pot. A small amount enough to address the pH of the mix is best.

Dolomite can be used to correct the pH and supply the soil with Magnesium and Calcium. An easy solution

but does not have as diverse a mix of minerals as crusher dust.

Urine also supplies many minerals but cannot address the pH imbalance. It will make the soil alkaline for

a couple of months and then acidic as the ammonia is oxidised to nitric acid.

Desert soils are very low in organic material and have almost no visible organic residues.

I think a lot of the problems with disease that people are having are a combination of the wrong pH,

moisture stress from low clay soils, and rotting organic material.

I have about 1000 cacti with no(!) rot even when they get insect damage in a location that gets

about 2000mm of rain a year.

I don't use any fungicides or insecticides.

If you don't attempt to duplicate the natural system then you will waste a lot of effort and money

compensating.

[weedRampage]

I was shifting the cacti under cover because they were getting way too much rain and

I found this.

This rainforest spider looks a bit like cactus spines.

Edited March 13, 2010 by weedRampage

[weedRampage]

Thank you for confirming that plant purity extremists do exist and are not just

a product of my warped imagination.

I am sorry to hear that your attachment to your ideals is greater than the value

you place on your own life. In an ideal world the two things would exist as the

one same thing.

Anyways..... back to kaktoooos

These are photos of a pot trial of different growing media growing icaro seedlings.

P+C has 20% peat and 80% crusher dust in it. This plant has a deep green colour but has

grown slower than the other two

P+C+C has 10% peat, 40% crusher dust and 50% local acidic clay. This one has done the best

after and initial slow start. It is growing fast and has a good colour.

CLAY has the local acidic clay and a handful of dolomite. This one looked the best initially

growing fast with a good colour. It now has a slightly paler colour than P+C+C.

I have just done some repotting of bridgies into a mix of acidic clay, scoria that I ground up

in a mortar and pestle and river sand. These look really nice already even though they haven't been

in their new pots for long. I will post pictures in a couple of months when they have put on some

new growth.

These are the same pot trial icaros some months later.

The acidic clay + dolomite pot has recovered a good colour and is fatter than the two others

Peat + crusher dust + clay is growing well.

The crusher dust and peat pots have a good dark green colour still but are a lot thinner

than the clay pot.

From this it is possible to see that a reverse weathering process can occur on a soil when

the pH is adjusted with dolomite/aglime and the soil water regime is kept at one water per week.

Crusher dust is a bit too alkaline to build a rich soil rapidly.

A lot of the mixes that I have emptied out of pots that had a high percentage of crusher dust

seemed a bit lacking in structure and tend to dry out and waterlog.

There is no substitute for healthy soil organisms to stabilise the root environment water

and nutrients. Using an existing soil gives the advantage of the established fungi and

bacteria populations.

I wouldn't use more than 10% crusher dust in the future.

A small amount of silica rich material either crusher dust or river sand is advisable

to top up the silica levels of any soil from a high rainfall area.

^ ^

| |

THIS IS THE MOST RECENT POST (I SHOULD HAVE POSTED A REPLY BUT I JUST EDITED AN OLD POST)

 

I'm just bumping this to the end of the thread after I realised that my edit could be lost in the drama.