while I'm at it - another picture

[tryptonaut]

I didn't want to post this in the other thread to avoid total confusion about which cactus is which.

Now this is the one that last summer I thought would maybe not grow at all because the cutting was too small. Then some insect wanted to build a nest below the cactus.

Somehow it lived through all of that and it's doing fine now. I re-potted it a few days ago and found out it had already grown quite some roots. Now it has got a pot full of super-duper very specialized cactus soil from -as they claim- Europe's oldest cactus breeder/reseller. Let's see how that works out

btw. the brown spot towards the bottom is a bruise from the transport (it had been a 60cm piece last year that was yummi ... well not really yummi, but you know what I mean ) At the height of the brown bruise you can still see that this was actually the top of the larger cactus piece.

The only thing that bugs me is that it has grown a little in winter, that's why it's relatively thin at the top now (I think I can live with it though)
I guess next winter I have to move the cacti from my living room to my bedroom, because when it's 20°C or warmer these dudes just keep on growing, even when they have no water and hardly any sunlight.

 

[skoeip]

Nice cactus! never had any problems with cacti that won't go dormant during winter.

does this Europe's oldest cactus breeder/reseller have any Internet based sales point?

 

[tryptonaut]

I think they are so European that they only have a German site http://www.kakteen-haage.de/shop/

I actually found them because I wanted to order Perlite for another purpose
So I additionally got some of the special cactus soil and their cactus fertilizer which seems to be 6-12-6 NPK. Pretty odd because most cactus fertilizers I have seen in garden centers are more like 3-5-8 NPK or something like that, high on the potassium, not on the phospor. However the Haage people say they are using this as a standard fertilizer for all their plants, so I think I trust them on the NPK.

 

[Mr.Smith]

nice. it looks happy

winter dormancy is only important if you want your cacti to flower in the summer (IMO)


BTW, if you see this at the base of your cacti, treat them with insecticide. ive recently lost a peruvian torch to vine weevil

 

[skoeip]

jup I've seen that bastard once, a drop of tobacco did it for him