Torturing cacti!

Good day to all of ya!

Here you are, on my blog and thinking: 'What the hell?! Torturing cacti?!'.

Yeah... Nothing will be always 100% like you would like it to be and this unfortunately also applies for cacti. This was hard year for me as cacti-breeder! Besides the damaged plants and a little boredom at work, life's very nice to me.

Now what do we have here...

Armored Scale-insects

Armored scale insects. Their name is cool, but they really suck, literally. These little, parasitic monsters also go by the name Diaspididae. They feed themselves on the sap that they suck out of plants and can do serious damage to their host.

Where the hell did they come from and why are they only attacking one plant? No idea, but they were spread all over my Weberbauerocereus johnsonii. I've tried to cut them out, but there were more than just a few. I could not even separate a decent cutting, so I've had to give up and trow the plant away.

Sun-burned cacti

Normally you can recognize it quite easy when your cactus (or other succulent) is getting burned. The plant will slowly start coloring red (keep in mind that some species are supposed to have that color!) and if you notice it on time, you should put it in the shade immediately. Mostly the plant will recover quickly without any damage, but sometimes you're too late.

As you can see, this Echinopsis subdenudata has some permanent damage. The plant won't die, but it ain't pretty either...

And then there is also another scenario...

I should have paid more attention to my balcony-greenhouse. During the summer it was opened day and night and when it got colder and the UV-index was below 4, I've kept it closed. I thought the summer had ended and autumn was on its way, but I was wrong... Two very pretty and sunny days melted a couple of my plants! Holy crap! Not entirely, but they do have some serious damage. Earlier this year I've had the same problem with a couple of my Saguaro seedlings:

Sun-burned Saguaro seedling

And here is the solution to this problem. As some of you know, I'm kind of addicted to IFTTT (pronounced like gift without the G) and I have already made a lot of recipes. Some (in my wife's opinion all!) of them are completely useless and others are quite handy. Check out this one:

The idea is to receive a warning when there is a possibility that my plants get burned. During the beginning of spring, for example, cacti are much more sensitive. After a long winter without much light, they suddenly get struck by stronger sun beams. Now I'll now it on time and will be able to provide some shade. Or it will warn me to open up the greenhouse again when I think summer is over and it's actually not...

I have another IFTT that warns me whenever the wind speed rises above what my green-house can handle, so that I'm on time to save my plants before some sort of storm starts raging on my balcony.

Beating up cacti

What?! No, it wasn't in purpose! Sometimes you accidentally hit or step on a cactus or let a pot fall on the floor and sometimes the guy that is supposed to replace the windows in your house brutally mutilates a Selenicereus hondurensis by closing a window! Arg! Okay, breath in, breath out. Shit happens and it's a plague anyway, but it still sucks monkey-balls when a plant gets damaged!

Smashed Selenicereus hondurensis

The End

That's about it for this blog. Let's wait and see if I can still turn them back into beautiful plants. The'll probably be alright and maybe even flower next year. In their natural habitat they're used to hard and brutal circumstances and are kind of famous for being tough bastards! Well... Next blog I'll blend in some pipes, whisky and bullshit stories again, because this blog is a little bit too serious. Of course this isn't a funny subject! Haven't you seen all the damage?! Pfffff.....

Another thing! I'm back playing Go again and I am slowly getting better and better (I can almost defeat the CPU on level 2... Damn bastard!). Of course this is the place where I'll try to convince you all to play Go and I'll probably bother some persons about my new hobby!

Check out these sites:

• App: Go Free
• Website: Fly or Die

And I wouldn't be Stan if I didn't add a real Go Board to my present-wishlist:

• Wishlist

Now go practice Go and till next Blog!

Balcony-greenhouse and more...

Hello readers of my random blog! How are you all doing?! I'm doing just fine. Actually I'm doing great and I hope you do too (depending on who you are and if I like you or not). Today was just one of those Saturdays that I've had nothing scheduled. Nothing wrong with that! I actually like it when there is finally a day in the week that I don't have to do anything. Well... That's not completely true, because these days I'm a family-man, as you might know, and there is always something I have to do. But I like it when I'm not obligated to do other things than being a family-man. I won't type down everything I have done today, because it's all quite simple and regular. It started with a cup of coffee and ended with a beer and a Country Gentleman filled with Black Vanilla.

Why writing another article for your blog when there is nothing really different to mention? Well... I have no idea! Here is a video of my Balcony-greenhouse:

Why should we always do something "special" and "different" and why do we always want others to know about it? Probably we human beings do that because it's in our nature to be accepted by the rest of the herd. Everyone wants to be different and that is what makes us all the same. Kind of ironic, ah? Why not just be happy and satisfied with the regular things we do and appreciate the simplicity? Don't get me wrong! I believe that it's useful and enriching to think outside the box and do stuff we normally don't, but what is it worth and where is our identity when we're only focusing on being different and forget to stand still and appreciate the little things? I'm dreaming away here on a philosophical wave again... You don't have to agree with me and we can still be friends! I'm just writing down  my thoughts...

Ah! Back to cacti! Here are my 2014 seedlings that I've sown in April this year:

Seedlings 2014

If you want to know what these green blobs will become, you should check THIS article. This year I'm keeping them in an aquarium, so that our dear friend Wonnebald can't pulverize my plants while stepping and jumping on them. I'll take some better photos when they're bigger and really look like cacti.

Here is a photo taken in my living room:

Cacti-bowl

This bowl looks interesting, right?! It's kind of growing out of hand! Now what do we have here? The thin, columnar cactus is a Cylindropuntia imbricata (the famous Cholla), the spineless one is my first Lophophora williamsii (Peyote), the one on the right is the famous Carnegiea gigantea (Saguaro) and the one that grows everywhere where it shouldn't grow is a Selenicereus grandiflora (Queen of the night). Now that is a handsome bowl, right?~!

And now we're going back to the balcony-greenhouse, a couple of weeks earlier:

A flowering Gymnocalycium saglionis

And that's about it for today. Take care and for the metal heads: I'm going to see Obituary tomorrow! HAH! \m/

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!

Saguaro seedlings (Carnegiea gigantea)

Yo! Back again with another Blog. This time about the most famous cactus in the world, the one that looks like a candle and appears in many western movies, THE cactus that people see in their imagination when they hear the word cactus; the Saguaro, which is actually the Native American name. Carnegiea gigantea is what botanists call this plant. Gigantea should ring your bell and tell you that this friend can get huge! Right... But it will take at least 100 years till it reaches its giant-like height.

Seriously, if you see those giants in their natural habitat, it's kind of impressive. The oldest plants are probably about 250 years old, but we can't be 100% sure. They can reach up to 18 metres in height and many people assume that this is the largest cactus in the world. And that's something I'm not quite sure about. Pachycereus pringlei also gets kind of big and many botanists can probably name you a couple of other giants that might win this match (Brasiliopuntia brasiliensis for example).

Anyway, C. gigantea flowers at the age of 30. Their white flowers open at night and it are mainly insects and bats that take care of the pollination part. You can find them in Arizona (the Saguaro blossom is the state's Wildflower) and California, but you'll also see a couple of them in Mexico. Their first branch may appear when they're around 75 years old.

I won't copy-paste images that I've found on Google, so I'll just post a link to Cactiguide.com where you can find enough cool pics. CLICK HERE

Ow... Another thing... Of course I'm growing this plant! It wasn't my meaning to just write something about this species. This Blog is actually about the progress from the seed till they've reached the age of 1 year and 3 months.

Saguaro seedling

From the start

The photo above is taken earlier this week, but I'll show you the progress from the start. On the right side-bar of this Blog already was an album showing all these photos, but this plant is Blog-worthy. So... Tadaaaa! Here they are:

6 days after they've been sown.

They didn't show any problem with germination at all. If I remember well, 17 popped up within 2 weeks. Nothing to complain about when you've sown 20!

I always use any type of plastic container or bucket I can find that has a lid, mostly ice-cream-buckets. Then I just make some holes in the bottom, so that the water can easily escape (we don't want a swimming pool).

The soil I use consists of 50% Cocopeat, 30% Perlite and 20% fine gravel. I'm planning to change my mixture in the future; instead of 30% perlite, I'll use 20% Turface and 10% Perlite. I've had some good experience with a random seed-mixture which I've sown at the same time and it went surprisingly well.

1,5 month old.

Between the age of 2 and 3 weeks their spines appeared and they started to look like cacti.

2 months old.

After 2 months it's time to give them some fresh air. I do this by opening the lids a bit and then after each week I open them a bit more. This way they can slowly get used to a dryer air. 3 weeks later I remove the lids completely.

2 months and 1 week old.

Just a close-up... Check out the 'leafs' on the sides that are slowly disappearing.

3 months old.

4 months old.

5 months old.

6 months old.

7 months old.

1 year old.

 1 year and 3 months old

And here are the photo's that I've taken this week, 1 year and 3 months after I've sown them:

1 year and 3 months.

Now this is what they look like right now. Of course I've chosen the biggest and prettiest one when I took the photos. =P What can I tell about them? I've re-potted them for the first time when they've reached the age of 1 year. Something that I won't do again, because they turned a little greyish within a week and it took them a couple of months to look healthy again. Right now they do look happy and they're all growing again. Check out these close-ups:

1 year and 3 months.

1 year and 3 months (the same plant, but taken from above)

Double-headed Saguaro

Saguaro double-headed, 1 year and 3 months old.

My double-headed Carnegiea gigantea. I guess this is something rare, because I can't find another one like this on the web. It's some sort of rare, mutant growing form that happens once in a while. And... It's growing healthy! I wonder what it'll look like in the future.

Saguaro double-headed, photo taken from above.

The cool thing about this double-headed cactus is that Saguaros, like I've written above, only get their first branches at the age of 75. This little fellow already has his 'branch'. I mean... Okay, it's a second head, but I don't complain. It'll be probably great to see this one grow up healthy.

Last year in the Rotterdam Zoo

Yup, that's me next to a 'small' cactus comparing it to what it will become one day. Can you imagine that there are giants around that are almost 10 times bigger than this one?

Well... You're at the end of this article now. I hope to write more about Carnegiea gigantea later, but it will probably take a while, because they're slow growers... Till next Blog!

A short photo-blog about the seedlings of last year

Good day to you! Just another blog... This time without all the bullshit talk. (don't worry! Next time I'll write crap again. ;-) )

April the 1st, 2012

 The photo's below are made on 11-3-2012. All the seedlings that you see here were sown at 1-4-2011, so they're almost 1 year old. Here they all have just been re-potted. (all, accept Aztekium ritteri, because they're soooo small!)

INDEX

1. The plan
2. 2 months after sowing
3. 1 year after sowing

Aztekium ritteri - Almost 2mm!

Browningia microsperma

Astrophytum asterias

Lophophora williamsii ( Peyote )

Lophophora williamsii - La Popa, Nuevo Leon ( Peyote )

Lophophora williamsii - Nuevo Yucatan ( Peyote )

Carnegiea gigantea ( Saguaro )

Echinopsis terscheckii ( Cardon grande )

Trichocereus bridgesii

At April the 1st this year, I've sown a loooot more! I guess I'll write a blog about that project during the upcoming week. Cya! CHEERS!