cacti seed
figaro
nature of many cacti and relative ease of care don't bring up too many
questions. I thought I would take a few minutes to share my recent
experiences with growing cacti from seed.
First of all, I have been growing cacti from seed for only a couple of years
now and I am finally seeing the results of my first experiment. I bought
one of those all inclusive cacti seed mixes and ended up with some really
cool stuff. The first seedlings are two years old this spring and I am
still trying to figure out what they are going to look like as adults. Some
will probably bloom this year; they look like mammilarias from the books I
have referenced. There are also some fierce looking barrel cacti which I
assume are ferocactus and almost 20 percent appear to be ferocactus
diguettii which grows to 13 feet high and two feet wide. Wow! Where the
hell am I going to plant them?
There are a few, very beautiful blue colored globular cacti with long red
spines--I have not figured out what these are yet. And my favorite so far
is a columnar cacti which is now about 6 inches tall with two more new
columns starting from the base. It is the fastest growing of the bunch and
looks to be an Echinopsis huascha or Echinopsis calochlora which both
appear to have beautiful flowers in red, yellow or purple. One unusual
cacti is a squat, globlular thing-very small still, that is a deep purplish
color--I am not kidding. It has been purple from the beginning and the
color does not appear to be sun scorch. I can't wait to see some of these
bloom.
This has been a fun experiment and I hope to plant these outside in a
granite rock outcropping on my property. I live in a mediterranean climate.
I have used two books for reference;
I highly recommend " The Comlete book of Cacti & Succulents" by Hewitt. The
format is ideal for beginners and the pictures are stunning. It would be
the book I recommend if you only had the money for one book. It covers
growing from seed, cuttings, grafting, soil etc... as well as giving a nice
overview of many common genera with great pictures. A great beginners book.
The second book which I just recently purchased is "The Illustrated
Encyclopedia of Cacti" by Innes and Glass. It has helped me identify a
couple of the more unusual cacti and is more of an identification manual
than a 'how to' book. The pictures are not as complete but it is helpful.
After having such great success with the first batch of seeds, I decided I
could grow lots of my landscape material from seed--yes, it will take quite
a few years before some of these look like anything but I am in no hurry and
I am dirt poor so this is really my only option. This spring I purchased
all sorts of stuff from Mesa Gardens and boy am I impressed with their
quality of seeds. I have three, four inch pots of their Echinocereus mix
and I swear that every single seed must have germinated. I should have
about 200 cacti from that seed packet alone. I also purchased their general
cacti mix because I like surprises. And I purchased several agave species
which also germinated very well with some taking as little as TWO DAYS
before they sprouted-some of these are the really expensive types which cost
big bucks in the nurseries if you can even find them. Now I am watching
some of their aloe seeds sprout. I also have some Oreocereus trollii (the
old man cacti) coming up along with some specific Echinocereus species that
I wanted after seeing the pictures in the first book mentioned and a few
Rebutias. This is a great company to get seed from and I highly recommend
them. I think their web page is mesagarden.com but you can look them up on
a search engine under mesa gardens. They have lots of the CITIES plant
seeds for those interested in finding the rare and unusual plants which are
threatened in the wild. I bought some of these as well.
Great company, fast service, no problems. I would recommend getting the
book first so you can see what you want to end up with. Their listings
appear to be more for the cacti expert and major horticulture gardens but
they sell to anybody so check them out.
A final note, check out arizonacactus.com for some really great info on
edible cacti and how to make nopales and wine from prickly pears. I had a
wonderful encounter with "El Jefe" last year and he helped me out
tremendously. I am hoping to make a trip to Bisbee to see their setup in
the next couple of years. These guys do research into cacti as food sources
and are generous with their time and information.
I hope some of you found this interesting and if you did, please share your
own experiences. It is a shame to see this newsgroup postless.
--
Figaro Dusartre
Zone 9b/10a in mountains of So. Cal.
John Gotts
> Hey all. It is too bad that nobody posts here but I guess the slow growing
> nature of many cacti and relative ease of care don't bring up too many
> questions. I thought I would take a few minutes to share my recent
> experiences with growing cacti from seed.
Thanks for the write-up. You might want to check out the Cacti & Succulents
Forum as well as the cactus_study Yahoo! Group where growing from seed is
frequently discussed.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/cacti/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cactus_study/
--
John GOTTS <jgo...@linuxsavvy.com> http://linuxsavvy.com/staff/jgotts
Cat in the Hat
WORLD! They are beyond perfect. I have spent a ton of money with these
people.......
"John Gotts" <jgo...@linuxsavvy.com> wrote in message
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