Seed planning 2014

Almost April the 1st. And as you might know, this is sowing day for me. Only this year it's a little bit different, because I'll become a dad in the same period! (within a couple of weeks!)

The plan is to sow at the same date our son is born. I think it'll be kind of cool that - if he ever gets interested in cacti - he'll have some Aztekium ritteri, sown at the day he was born. Or maybe he'll just don't give a fuck! Hah! Well... Then I'll have some A. ritteri sown at the day my first child was born. =P

I've ordered everything at ADBLPS from France again. You have to know that the photo's below are from their site. I've used their photo's because the seeds that I'll sow are coming from these plants!

Astrophytum

Astrophytum asterias, Gonzales/TAMPS/Mexique [GK 85/96] - 100 seeds

Astrophytum asterias, a species which I've tried to grow back in 2011. Germination went alright (13 out of 20), but within the first six months ten of them died. The rest died in the following 6 months... My bad, because I've re-potted them in a substrate consisting of 100% Seramis(fired clay) and probably over watered them. My conclusion: species that like mineral substrate won't do well in 100% fired clay. It just keeps them to humid.

Astrophytum coahuilense SB 1474, Lerdo/DUR/Mexique [MG 56.3/97] - 20 seeds

I was first thinking about ordering some A. myriostigma seeds, but then I saw this fellow. First I had them both on my list, but later on I´ve decided to choose the one I like the most; Astrophytum coahuilense! Although it's looking quite similar to A. myriostigma, it's a different species for sure. A coahuilense has more grey flecks on its body, different flowers, fruit, seed and Embryo (according to what I've read here and there online!).

Escobaria

Escobaria missouriensis 'wissmannii' [GK 1198/90] - 100 seeds

Escobaria missouriensis, one of the most frost resistant cactus species in the world, so I've read. Some northern populations are resistant to -35 -45°C (-31 -49°F) and although they prefer good drainage and a little drought before being watered again, they should be able to survive cold and wet conditions at the same time. Don't believe me on my word here! This will be my little experiment and I'll be glad to tell you if it worked out or not. I've ordered 100 seeds of this species, so there is enough testing material for the following years. I'll even have some experiments with seedlings outside in the cold.

Aztekium

Aztekium ritteri [U/94] - 100 seeds

Aztekium ritteri. I've grown (and am still growing!) this plant before. In 2011 I've sown 40 seeds. 8 germinated and 4 of them have survived. These 4 seem to be extremely strong and indestructible right now.

Aztekium ritteri, 4 years old

Aztekium ritteri, 4 years old

They're not bigger than 2 mm and have just survived 5 months without water (winter rest)! Anyway, in 2012 I've sown 20 and none of them have germinated. This time I'll sow 100 of them and use the Fleischer method described on this page of Succseed. I'll also sow in two different pots with two different substrate mixtures.

Aztekium hintonii [GK 4994/13] - 20 seeds

And last but not least: Aztekium hintonii, a littl less ancient looking than A. ritteri, but still a cool looking plant! There is one other species of the Aztekium family that was discovered last year by Mario Valdez Maroquin. It's named after him; Aztekium valdezii. Sadly it's natural habitat is getting plundered right now by idiots that only care about money and don't give a fuck about the fact that they're causing this species to become extinct in no time. By the way: it's also illegal to possess plants or seeds... My advise; don't buy plants or seeds online for extreme prices. Wait till the true cacti breeders are able to sell seeds from cultivated plants for normal prices, because you'll support the extinction of a great plant if you don't have the patience to wait a few years.

Wish me good luck!

The only thing left to do now is wait... When will my son be born? Will my seeds arrive on time? Will I have the time to sow on his birthday?! Ah! What does it all matter! Right now it's being the most exiting time of my life and I'm looking forward to everything. I know it's no piece of cake, but I don't mind. Cake is too boring and I'm ready for something more, something real, something with a meaning. It all feels very natural and of course life won't always be sunny, but that only gives a contrast which makes you appreciate more what you got when things do go right. Wise words here! Keep them in mind. ;-)

Adios!

 

A short photo-shoot of 2012's seedlings

Hello again! Here's a short photo-shoot of last year's seedlings, taken with our new camera; a Nikon D5100. This is the first time that I'm working with such an advanced (yeah I know, there are much more complicated ones around) camera, so I'm still learning. One day I'll buy myself a macro lens to make even better close-ups!

Back to cacti! So... What have I sown last year? Well, I'm about to show that to you right now! First I'll add an index about last year's sowing:

INDEX

1.  The beginning, sown at 1-4-2012 and one week later.
2. 15-4-2012, 2 weeks old.
3. 22-4-2012, 3 weeks old.
4. 29-4-2012, quite the same.
5. 20-5-2012, 7 weeks old.
6. 17-6-2012, 11 weeks old.
7. 20-5-2013, more than 1 year old.

And here are the pics:

Lophophora williamsii caespitosa

Epithelantha bokei

Frailea asterioides 'castanea'

Browningia candelaris

Pachycereus pringlei

Pilosocereus gounellei

Echinopsis candicans

Selenicereus grandiflorus

Selenicereus hondurensis

I´m planning to keep at least two of each, so I've already started to give away some of them. Especially the two Selenicereus species... I need to get rid of them! Check them out, each branch can reach a couple of meters in length. Wish me good luck (as I´ll wish you when I give you one!)!

Wonnebald (Wonnie!)

And how can I not post a photo of our latest family member, Wonnebald?! He's doing fine and he's liking it over here. Much better than on the street, where they've found him all alone while it was almost freezing...

See ya next time and hopefully with some more (and better taken!) photos!

2011's seedlings and other stuff...

Whoo-ah! Welcome back on my blog. 

I'm having a little party over here... Everyone is sleeping except for me and the birds, which actually means that my wife went to bed early and I'm smoking Samuel Gawith Balkan flake (Latakia), drinking some beers and listening to the 'Bird' together with the birds! I guess this might look a little bit confusing to you, so I'll try to explain it a bit; I'm listening to Charlie 'Bird' Parker, one of my favorite Jazz musicians. Maybe I'm going crazy, but I really believe that the birds are liking it! Normally they hate it when I'm keeping them awake with music...

Hmm... Forget about it. Let's see what we have here... Last week I've taken some photos of the ones that I've sown April last year. I'm not going to write long explanations about each species this time. Most of you just scroll and only check out the pictures anyway. Don't worry! I'm alright with that... I mostly do the same. :-)

Echinopsis terschecki

Carnegiea gigantea

Carnegiea gigantea - Double-headed

Trichocereus Bridgesii

Browningia microsperma

 

Peyote 'news' !

Lophophora williamsii

Lophophora williamsii v Nuevo Yucatan

Lophophora williamsii v La Popa, Nuevo Leon

Next year I'll sow some more Peyote. I'm planning to order Lophophora williamsii v Cedral. I've been trying to find THE variety used by the Huichol Indians and I guess I can't get any closer to Wirikuta. Wirikuta is the place where they used to harvest their sacred plant. Cedral in San Luis Potosí might be that place and if not... At least it's very close!

End of Peyote news...

Astrophytum asterias

Aztekium ritteri

Ferocactus ???

Ferocactus ???

Echinocactus grusonii (?)

Cereus ???

Pilosocereus glaucochrous

 This last one is an off-set from a crest-cactus that I've given to my friend Bob a couple of years ago. It's doing well I guess...

 

Time for another beer, some metal and World of Warcraft. Have nice weekend!

11 weeks old

Hello again! Another cacti-article over here. I'm getting kind of bored, writing about seedlings. Yeah, yeah... They're having more spines... Blablabla....

INDEX

1.  The beginning, sown at 1-4-2012 and one week later.
2. 15-4-2012, 2 weeks old.
3. 22-4-2012, 3 weeks old.
4. 29-4-2012, quite the same.
5. 20-5-2012, 7 weeks old.
6. 17-6-2012, 11 weeks old.
7. 20-6-2013, more than 1 year old.

Don't get me wrong. I'm still crazy about cacti, but it's just that there is not much to write about them anymore. Sure... They're doing all fine and if you look well, you can see that they're becoming bigger, having more spines and stuff like that, but besides posting some photos to show their progress, there's not much to talk about.

 

Of course I'll keep you guys updated if something 'amazing' happens! (like T. articulatus making some moves) Don't you worry! =P It's just that my blog was starting to look a bit too serious and that's just not my thing. Life should be fun for most of the time and so should my blog be. Now what the hell should I write about now?! Well, I'll just show you a photo of some wildlife I've created on my balcony:

Wild-life! Well...

 It was my meaning to create something that doesn't look 'organized'. Just some nice colours together and see what happens. Because of all the plants (there's a lot more), a lot of bumblebees and other insects are invading our balcony at the moment.

Time to wake up my very pretty wife and have some breakfast with her. =) Yeah, I can say that I'm a very happy man. I have everything I want right now and we'll see what the future brings.

7 weeks old

Whatup! It's 3 weeks later now, so let's check out if we can see any difference this time!

INDEX

1.  The beginning, sown at 1-4-2012 and one week later.
2. 15-4-2012, 2 weeks old.
3. 22-4-2012, 3 weeks old.
4. 29-4-2012, quite the same.
5. 20-5-2012, 7 weeks old.
6. 17-6-2012, 11 weeks old.
7. 20-5-2013, more than 1 year old.

But first of all, I would like to share a drawing, that I've made when I was a little kid with you. I've seen it after many years when I was visiting my parents and thought it cool enough to post over here.

Drawing

Now I don't know what that big blue thing in the air is, but check out those Saguaros! Ok... I wasn't an artist over there, but even then it's cool to see that I was already interested in cacti. All the other drawings in that book are kind of Satanic and have scared out some people, but don't worry! I guess I turned up to be a nice guy after all. =}

Let's check out the seedlings!

Blossfeldia liliputana and Aztekium ritteri

Frailea asterioides 'castanea' and Epithelantha bokei

Echinopsis candicans

Pachycereus pringlei

Lophophora williamsii - v caespitosa, La Perdida

Selenicereus hondurensis

Selenicereus grandiflorus

Pilosocereus gounellei

Browningia candelaris

 As you can see they're all doing well. Nothing has died out yet and they're getting more spines. The Tephrocactus articulatus still aren't germinating yet. Next week I'll take them out and dry them... Again... It's a little frustrating, but I have patience, DAMMIT!

Ah! I would like to show you another cactus that's acting kind of weird. Let me first introduce it how it looked like when I've s.... Uhhmm... How it was when it first came in my possession:

Selenicereus pteranthus

  Yeah... It looks weird, I know. Anyway... Right now it looks like this:

Selenicereus pteranthus

And this is only the beginning... It will get huge and difficult to control. The only thing that I CAN do is break off parts and give them away to friends! You're welcome. ;-)

And yes (for if you've paid attention), this one is of the same family as S. hondurensis and S. grandiflorus, which means that I have about 45 annoying plants waiting to grow up. Hmfff... Wait! That means a lot of presents for my friends and family!

See ya soon!

Quite the same

Aloha! Back again... One week later, but this time I won't post any photos, because they didn't increase much in size. That's normal... Cacti pop out of the ground, grow a little, get some spines and then take years to grow to their full size.

INDEX

1.  The beginning, sown at 1-4-2012 and one week later.
2. 15-4-2012, 2 weeks old.
3. 22-4-2012, 3 weeks old.
4. 29-4-2012, quite the same.
5. 20-5-2012, 7 weeks old.
6. 17-6-2012, 11 weeks old.
7. 20-5-2013, more than 1 year old.

Great... So there is not much to write about I guess! Actually, I would like to comment about my tephrocactus articulatus. As I've wrote last week, I've picked them out of the ground, left them to dry a bit, and Friday I've already given it a shot. Nothing up yet, but I have good hope! I'm planning to wait a bit before adding photos to my articles, because seeing every week more or less the same photos is kind of boring. This Blog is about progress, so I'll only post photos when I see some difference. For example, when the T. articulatus are born.

That's it for this week! Time to relax a bit... I've just helped my brother (yeah the one with the needles and the ink) out in his garden. What a hell of a job! Holy crap! I'll probably dream about hundreds of stones stuck between roots and me having to get them out... Pfff... But his place is finally starting to look like something. (and that was about time!) The only thing that has to be done is to add some nice soil to the sides of the garden and search for plants. I'm asked to check out what to put where and I'll do some research about that soon! In the end I'll also add a photo of that garden, because I think that it'll be a pretty one.

As you know, I'm kind of interested in green stuff and I really like the beauty of a nice peace of nature. All this garden work/planning/decorating-stuff is starting to inspire me and maybe I should do something more serious with that one day. I'm already having some plans, but it will take a while and I'll only talk about it when they're a little bit more concrete, because when it's 100% decided, I'll really go for it. Well... In the meantime, I'll just let this kind of stuff inspire me and become a bit wiser by absorbing more knowledge.

Time to sit back and have some beer... A couple of days in a garden has tired my 'lazy office-ass', so I think  I've earned it!

Till next time! Hopefully with some photos! Hmmm... Let me think...

Wolfgang and Korstaentje, our English budgerigars!

Just to add some more colour to this article!

3 weeks old

Hello fellow followers(s?) of my blog! How's life?! Here everything is al right!

This week I'll write down very few. I'm posting to show you the progress of this year's seedlings and I know that the first four to eight weeks are the most interesting. After that, they'll grow, but only very slow, so I'm planning to post an article every week during the first six weeks and after that, only once a month or even once in the three months, if there is really something to show.

INDEX

1.  The beginning, sown at 1-4-2012 and one week later.
2. 15-4-2012, 2 weeks old.
3. 22-4-2012, 3 weeks old.
4. 29-4-2012, quite the same.
5. 20-5-2012, 7 weeks old.
6. 17-6-2012, 11 weeks old.
7. 20-5-2013, more than 1 year old.

Blossfeldia liliputana and Aztekium ritteri

I really should mark them, for you to spot them easier, but if you look well, you can see one A. ritteri and about four B. liliputana. Probably there are more, but they're just too hard to spot.

Frailea asterioides 'castanea' and Epithelantha bokei

Both are getting spines already. Slowly they start looking more like cacti!

Tephrocactus articulatus

Last week I've already mentioned it and yesterday I've brought it in practice: I've picked the seeds out of the soil and will let them dry for a week. Next week I'll sow them again and hope for some results this time...

Echinopsis candicans

Twenty-three! Way too much if you ask me, but no big deal... yet.

Pachycereus pringlei

Not much to say... Only that they have more spines than last week...

LOPHOPHORA williamsii - v caespitosa, La Perdida

Quite similar compared to last week.

Selenicereus hondurensis

They're becomming a problem already! They're too high for the bucket and I almost can't close it anymore without harming them. I have no idea what to do. I just hope that they can survive like this till I take of the lid.

Selenicereus grandiflorus

They're still a little less tall than the S. hondurensis, so I don't have to worry too much about them.

Pilosocereus gounellei

They're slowly becoming a little bit fatter and spines are also appearing.

Browningia candelaris

Spines are also appearing on them. I'm a little bit disappointed about the quantity of this specie... On the other hand, if they'll end up as full-grown plants, this is already too much!

And that's about it for this week! Well... I also changed the lay-out of my Blog and added a guestbook. I mean... I just wanted to give the possibility to give opinions or ask questions. It seems to work, but don't feel obligated to use it!

What can I tell more? Well... I hope you guys don't think that I spend all my free time here with my little green friends! It's just that when I have a hobby, I'm fanatic. Nothing wrong with that, but... Then you start writing Blogs about stuff that most people don't want to know and... Hmmm.. It's kind of funny. I've convinced my brother to also start a Blog about his Tattoo Art (on the left side of my page you can find the link to it) some time ago and once in a while he posts something, but mostly of the time I have to kick his ass to get him at it. And this Blog I'm talking about, already has twice as much views as mine! I guess I just have to accept that I'm a bit weird (or maybe different is a better word), having this kind of hobbies. =P But no problemo! I'm enjoying myself and for me this is just a way to relax my spirit a little.

Next to my many cacti, the rest of my life is also going great. My beautiful wife that is always at my side just keeps on making me happy everyday and we're living in a (for us right now) perfect place! Nothing to complain! Next year we'll visit our family in Brazil and we're really looking forward to it! It probably won't be a vacation to relax, because we'll have to visit all our family and friends and... well... A LOT of people! But that's alright! We've been missing all of them!

Till next time and have a nice week!