Ups and downs in cacti land.
It is not all pretty in the cacti land. Of course I show all the pretty blooming plants, because this is always the best time that every grower is waiting for. Without the flowers they are just balls of spines (most of them anyway).
But I do not show the failures (I think I did once only). Why brag about fuckups, right?
Today I picked two of those fuckups. This was some no ID cactus that I got from a seed mix, probably some echinopsis or lobivia, in the pot on the left, and Gymnocalycium baldianum on the right. The very last baldianum I had. The story of this cactus goes back to 2018 when I got one mature plant with seed pod, plus some extra seeds to sow. The mother plant bloomed for me beautifully! I also sowed the seeds and they sprouted very well and grew all nicely. I had over 100 little seedlings. But since I was just starting with cactus seeds, with time I managed to kill them all. Except one! The one that you see here.
It was growing happily in much harsher conditions than the others and yet it was the biggest. Cool - it likes abuse :p I can live with that!
Then earlier this year when spring was approaching I lost the mother plant. It was a combination of mealybugs attack that just hid in the roots and I didn't see them on time, and some heavier rains it got.
I thought that it's ok. I still have this one and it is growing just fine.
Well no more. Now I am left with zero.
And I do manage to kill some cacti here and there, but this one hurt.
Dammit!
I was fine until about a week or two ago. I saw it got a bit more yellow than normally. It should be nice, dark green when healthy. I thought it is the heat or sun he will be fine.
Today I picked it up and it was all brown and mushy. On top of that when I took it our from the pot I saw the damn mealybugs again!
The inside is just completely rotted. Mush like a rotten apple.
Healthy cactus looks like a cucumber.
Well. that went to the bin :(
It is so easy to say what they like or not, but in practice it all goes down the drain sometimes. I know some cacti go dormant for the hottest months of the summer. They don't need water then, since they do not grow. I am just not sure if this one was dormant and I watered it with the rest. Then during the hot day it just cooked, or rotted since the pot was wet and he didn't drink that water.
Who knows...
On the slightly brighter note - few weeks ago I sowed some seeds I picked from my own plants that bloomed this year. They did sprout nicely. And that means I will have more plants to kill in the years to come. eh..
Aren't those cute? Just a few weeks old. They will stay for a few months more, or until they get really tight. They will transplant them to new pots. The box they are in acts like a greenhouse. For 2-3 weeks from sowing they are closed completely with no humidity loss. After that I ventilate them during the day and close for the night again. They just get gently misted once in a while to maintain the high humidity.
Sometimes I wonder why I bother sowing.
My other blooming and more alive cacti:
Shot with Sony a7
All photos and text are my own.
Stinger post :) good luck with your new breed hope you have less fuckups :D
Fuckups are inevitable :p
It is sad when the cacti that you plant with so much love die.
Do you know what name this cactus has? please. I want to find information about her but I don't know her name.
Hola @gertu. That's not a cactus, nor an aloe but a bromeliad. It looks like a Dyckia species and they prefer to grow in shade and they enjoy regular water. It could be Dyckia brevifolia, they come from Brazil
Thank you very much friend @nivk. Miss you!
I have been looking for the image of this plant for some time and could not find information.
They gave me this plant in exchange for one cactus for another. and in the aloes I did not find it ... hehehehe
Thank you very much @ewkaw.
Don't thank me :) I didn't do nothing :D
Sure you did! If I don't comment on your post I can't find @nikv.
The idea was to find the name of my plant and I got it.
Thanks.
You're very welcome then :)
Glad we could help!
Hmm, the resident plant-nerd. Ok!
You, not me :p
You still know plenty more cacti than I do 😜
I google fast :D
Hello, sorry for replying just now.
I see Nikv already answered :) She knows very well how to ID succulents :)
Lose care!
I thank you, because I know that @nikv is special with plants.
Thanks for your help.
This post has been manually curated by @steemflow from Indiaunited community. Join us on our Discord Server.
Do you know that you can earn a passive income by delegating to @indiaunited. We share 80 % of the curation rewards with the delegators.
Here are some handy links for delegations: 100HP, 250HP, 500HP, 1000HP.
Read our latest announcement post to get more information.
Please contribute to the community by upvoting this comment and posts made by @indiaunited.
I've never seen the teeny babies before. Those are so cute !
They are like little green poops :p
No spines yet, just some soft hair.
That rotten cacti looks like the monster/parasitic alien in The Thing (1982)...I never knew they could rot like that!
On the plus side, that list of all the cacti blooming is a godsend and gives me a nice idea of which cacti to buy regarding its flowers 🙂👍
Great article! Thanks for sharing!
Oh they can rot! One day they looks all nice and the next they a pile of
shitmush.The blooming ones are still ok. For now.
It's a like a natural selection. The ones that can handle me - stay, the rest will extinct :P
Nice post garoto!
Obrigada miudo :p
These are the joys of cacti....
Yeaaa... less of a joy this one :/
Sorry for the cactus ...
And I have cacti sometimes die, I think it happens to all lovers of cacti.
Congratulations on the baby cacti!!!
Unfortunately it happens. Such a shame it was my last one though :(
I bought an astrophytum, and during the transplant, it turned out that it was rotten :-(((
I'll show this in a post.
Oh boy :( That's the worst!
I know I kill them sometimes, but buying rotten one is nothing nice.
It makes me angry, as it is difficult to buy a healthy plant both in the store and in the plant nursery :-(((