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Quixote

"Pure mineral soil" for Scopulicolas?

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I just read on trichocereus.net that EG recommends a purely mineral soil for Scops. Does that mean a mix only consisting of coarse sand, gravel and pebbles? Not any organic soil at all, not even something like coir?

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You can use organic compments, but I like to have a soil that is similar to the one they originally grow in. Pumice is a great additive that I use a lot. If I add organic ingredients it´s mostly to improve the soil´s ability to store nutrients and water. But I prefer having a soil that dries out lightning fast.

Edited by Evil Genius
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You can use organic compments, but I like to have a soil that is similar the the one they originally grow in.

I like that idea too. Do they have pumice in their native soil or is that just something you can't resist adding? Not sure if I can find any around here.

Going to re-pot my little Scop soon, and want to make its new home as comfy as possible...

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As always, remember that growing them to look natural means them growing slowly.

It wasnt until I planted my scops in soil intended for tomatoes and began watering and fertilizing them as if they were tomatoes that the plants started growing like tomatoes!

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What is a long spined scop? The only i know is cordobensis/Super Pedro.

I got 3 different scops here in europe and not only one got longe spines. I think 2mm. And the predominant in europe is the fr991 i think.

Regards

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FR991 has long spines when younger. Most scops can be very spiny as seedlings. On old plants the spines tend to be absent.

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I will not speak again. But he dont speak about seedlings. And i have never seen a long spined scop in europe.

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i love to use pure kitty litter for all my trichos scops included , i bung the pot holes with ericaceous first to stop it falling out f the holes...(sometimes will cut a mesh screen bespoke to the pot, sometimes use fabric)

they love it (diatomaceous earth - [silica])

-pummice may or may not be equal or superior , just this was readily available as non-clumping kitty litter-

Edited by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ

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As always, remember that growing them to look natural means them growing slowly.

It wasnt until I planted my scops in soil intended for tomatoes and began watering and fertilizing them as if they were tomatoes that the plants started growing like tomatoes!

yo Auxin, would you mind sharing a pic of your long-spined america/europe predominant scop?

Most scops can be very spiny as seedlings

I would absolutely love for someone to post up pics of any trich seedling that was spineless.

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^^^^^ are those tricho's or green bowling pins?

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I'll look around for pics or take some in the morning.

Basically, by long spined scop I mean the one with 1-2 mm long spines which, if you grab the stem with your hand, you can feel but not get wounded by.

To carry them I just let the stem slap down on my shoulder and try not to let my cheek rub on it too much while I'm walking, lol.

Long spined relative to spineless or the indented areole variant you guys have lots of.

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Here we go, sexy long spines... for a scop :wink:

post-146-0-28999900-1457220403_thumb.jpg

100_7631.JPG

100_7631.JPG

Edited by Auxin
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would also totally depend on your environment. growing in tomato kind of soil in wet climates will lead to a long path of fungi and bacteria....about as colorful as the trips some of these cacti can produce...Not sure about Aus, but i think its dry enough in most of NA humidity wise to get away with some soil soil. perhaps certain microclimates in the SE would be bad...but even the PNW is dry enough to allow soils so long as rains and frost are guarded against.

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i was kinda hoping to see a long spined scop but so far looks like they dont exist ... (excluding seedlings of course but who wants to see them?)

- im pretty sure i saw one once but mightve been dreaming ...

Auxin your scop looks like any other regular scop ...

do you mean t0o say there are some scops with absolute zero spines? - and that those ones are the "short spined ones"?

making it all relative ... and less exciting than a scop with actual "longer than a regular scop"; spines?

*snore*

*exits thread seeing as OP question is answered long ago*

Edited by ☽Ţ ҉ĥϋηϠ₡яღ☯ॐ€ðяئॐ♡Pϟiℓℴϟℴ
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Well, I've seen three distinct scop types. Mine looks identical to the Ritter scop and is spot on in regards to spine length according to literature. The next most common, apparently mostly confined to OZ, is what I call the belly button scop- the one with a distinctly recessed areole so, while the spines are still 1-2 mm long you cant feel them at all.

On occasion I've seen pics of what otherwise looks like mine [or an intermediate between the two] but doesnt seem to have spines at all. This may just be a climatic variation of one or both of the previous types.

I've tried growing mine in more mineraly, drier soil and it didnt appear to effect spine length or presentation. But I didnt keep that up for too many years.

Kada is right, beware of heavy feeding combined with humidity. Hot and dry is when I can get away with dumping water and ferts on them almost daily. My summers are 40° and so dry that breathing can get difficult [especially if someone turns on the AC... damn pansy asses... :P ].

Edited by Auxin
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do you mean t0o say there are some scops with absolute zero spines?

yup.

my main scop has the indented belly button look & is totally spineless, as well as three recent arrivals sourced from Oz

post-3765-0-25271600-1457497039_thumb.jp

post-3765-0-25271600-1457497039_thumb.jpg

post-3765-0-25271600-1457497039_thumb.jpg

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I was not thinking about growing it in "tomato" soil, just wanted to know if "pure mineral soil" meant 100% sand and gravel or maybe around 80%. I started out aiming for the 80%, but through intuition I finally ended up mixing a soil of 60% coarse sand and pebbles and 40 % coir (and a bit of crushed leca).

Edited by Quixote

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I don't think you'll go far wrong with that mix ..

*reawakens* thanks for the info Auxi

and .. dang that's a nice scop Z , thanks again fella .. i guess the more i learn the less i know :3

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I don't think you'll go far wrong with that mix ..

Thanks, I'm looking forward to see how they grow in it. I feel it should be the best soil I have mixed until now.

This time I made sure to flush the coir and also the sand/gravel too, last time I just mixed it. But I think flushing helps.

It's IKEA coir so I don't think it has salt in it, but never hurts to flush it anyway. The sand/gravel is from a builder's market, I don't think it has salt either, but who knows, and flushing the worst of the dust and fine grained sand out of it should probably help with keeping it airy, I hope.

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