Windowsillcactusblog

outdoor cactus seedlings

2009-06-23T20:34:00.002-05:00

This week there are lots of cactus seeds starting to grow in flower pots and under shade cloth outdoors. The weather conditions have been great with lots of rain and temps. from the high 60s at night to above or close to 90 in the day. Humidity is high too so the growing mediums are staying wet enough for the seeds to grow.

There are mainly two kinds of set ups for the seedlings to grow in. Glazed flower pots with rocky growing medium, and these are sitting out in the open with no shade cloth. The seedlings begin to grow under the rocks and as they begin to mature they start to grow out of the cracks between the rocks. The second method is a sandy growing medium in black plastic seed starting trays and these are under 50% shade cloth.

Growing cactus seeds outdoors in Wisconsin is turning out to be much better than using artificial lights. I hope to write about these methods in more detail on this website when I've a better understanding of how well this is working. So far these seedlings are growing faster and healthier than anything I've ever grown under lights.

Astrophytum myriostigma

2009-06-05T17:29:00.002-05:00

The Astrophytum myriostigma are starting to bloom and they've been outdoors for over a month now. These cacti will take very low temps. and can be set outdoors in the sun even when there is still a risk for frost. They were starting flower buds a when they went outdoors and I was afraid that the cold nights would make them abort these buds. They held on to the flower buds and are now starting to bloom

Echinocereus viridiflorus flowering

2009-05-20T20:02:00.002-05:00

The Echinocereus viridiflorus plants are starting to flower and they are bright beautiful and green. Hopefully, they will make plenty of seeds and we will have a lot of new seedlings later this summer. We plan to plant the seeds we still have from 2008 and keep the 2009 seeds to sell.

Disocactus ackermannii flowers

2009-05-14T19:08:00.002-05:00

The Disocactus ackermannii plants are blooming and these flowers are big and beautiful. For the first time every I have two plants with flowers at the same time, and I hope to have them make seeds. It may be at least a few months before seed pods would be ripe enough to harvest, but for now there are lots of red flowers to enjoy.

waiting for more flowers

2009-05-07T18:53:00.002-05:00

The Pediocactus simpsonii var minor have stopped blooming and hopefully they will soon have seed pods. Now, I'm waiting for some of the Echinocereus plants to bloom and they are showing lots of buds. I wish I could have cactus flowers all year, but at least in the spring and summer there is usually some variety of cacti making flowers.

Pedio cactus flowers

2009-05-01T18:35:00.002-05:00

The Pediocactus simpsonii var minor have been blooming this week and the flowers are beautiful. I tried to pollinate them today, but it was cloudy and the flowers were barely open. I think some of them may have already been worked on by bees which means I've lost control of keeping pink flowers from crossing with white ones. I'll have to wait till next spring if I want to try and keep my flower colors pure and know what the seeds will grow into.

Most of the bees around here are native to Wisconsin and live solitary lives in the ground. Hopefully, the Pedios will make lots of seeds and they will be planted as soon as they mature with the adult plants. If the bees didn't get them pollinated I will continue to use a sable brush on the flowers over the next few days.

Pedio flower buds

2009-04-02T17:59:00.002-05:00

It is very exciting to see the Pediocactus simpsonii var minor plants getting flower buds this spring. This seems early for setting on buds because the weather here is still at freezing at night, but if they are ready they must like these conditions. I'm hoping to have more seeds from these plants and plant them to get more plants.

almost spring snow

2009-03-28T11:14:00.002-05:00

More snow is coming this weekend an maybe more in the coming week too. All of the cacti that take cold down to freezing have been brought back indoors, and they will probably have to wait a few weeks before night time temps are high enough to go back outside. All of the cacti that take cold down to and below zero are back in the cold frames and the lids are closed as they wait for snow. I still have some Opuntia in flower pots sitting out in the open that I'm covering with shade cloth. It's like going back to winter conditions for a while but still it will be much warmer than it was a few months ago. Most of these plants would be just fine with the snow cover, but some of them are starting to form flower buds and they will be more likely to keep the flower buds if they have protection.

Pedio seedling 2009

2009-03-22T20:35:00.002-05:00

Last summer I began testing Pediocactus simpsonii var minor seeds in outdoor flower pots and some of them germinated. Most of these seeds still need to grow and I'm expecting to see more of them germinate this summer. The ones that did start last summer were kept outdoors in cold frames and all but a few are alive. I transplanted them today into individual pots, because seedlings in this generic seem to do better when they are grown as individuals rather than in groups. They are in their pots under some shade cloth and hopefully will start to grow this spring and into the summer. I'm very happy that they survived the winter very well.

seedlings to transplant

2009-03-08T12:43:00.002-05:00

This weekend has been another great weather to stay inside and transplant cactus seedlings. Wet winter weather outdoors though is probably fine for the outdoor cacti. They haven't started to show any signs of spring growth, but they are dry. Now they will be wet and cold for another week, and as far as they're concerned it is still winter.

There are still more seedlings to transplant, but I've ran out of pennies. I started with over 500 pennies and now I need more. I'm using pennies to plug the holes at the bottom of the small plastic pots. Pennies are great because the copper is a good at stopping slugs and insects from getting into the bottoms of pots. These seedlings will go outdoors this spring under under some shade cloth and hopefully most of them will grow into adult plants.

winter still here

2009-03-02T18:29:00.002-06:00

Winter has been staying down in the single digits at night a lot. It seems to be staying cold longer than past years, but it is suppose to warm up soon. The cold frames had to be closed again and they had more snow for a while. It looks like a few days of warmer weather will allow me to open the cold frames again and the outdoor cacti will be getting much more sun. They are unlikely to show any signs of growth at least until the end of March.

The Cactus Family

2009-02-12T18:19:00.002-06:00

My wife, Ann bought me the book The Cactus Family bey Edward F Anderson for our 20th anniversary. This is great and it may take a while to read this book. I understand this is one of the best books out there and it costs some money, so I'm very fortunate to have it as a gift. Spent the last few days transplanting more cactus seedlings.

spring for opuntia

2009-02-07T15:39:00.002-06:00

Today we are having a fast warming in the weather and it is here to stay for a while. I took about 2 dozen Opuntia outdoors to get some real sun. These plants may not want to be outdoors when it gets close to zero, but they will be happy now. Hopefully I won't have to move them all back indoors if a few weeks, but that it a risk I'm taking. If I'm able to leave them outdoors from now until next December that will be great.

transplanting seedlings

2009-02-04T18:12:00.003-06:00

The past few days have been great for transplanting cactus seedlings. They are growing close together in small plastic pots. I want to put these plants outdoors this spring and I think they will do well with individual plants in individual pots. These seedlings are almost two years old and they need much more light than they have had so far. Still have hundreds more to transplant, but tonight I will have to take a break to watch Lost.

back to plant care

2009-02-01T20:08:00.002-06:00

It seems like I've been spending all of my free time working on taxes for the last three weeks, and now the forms are at least filled out. This is a wonderful feeling to be able to have time to water plants again. I've been neglecting to water all of my non-cacti succulents (cacti get no winter water) and they all look like they are still doing well. Many of them have started to go through a winter growth cycle and I imagine they were happy to have more water after being ignored for the time it took me to read tax instructions. I also was able to spend some time cutting up plastic growing trays to get ready to transplant more cactus seedlings. I really need to get these seedlings transplanted this month before the weather begins to warm up, because they survive better when transplanted between 55 and 60 F deg. (more would fail to survive the transplant when the basement gets warmer). I used vinegar and C-GRO in the water today.

Mealy Bugs Gone

2009-01-18T11:51:00.002-06:00

The mealy bugs are gone now at least for another year. Fortunately, this year I only had about a dozen plants that showed mealy bugs this winter - not counting the seedlings. A few of them I gave up on and threw them out and the rest have been treated with BotaniGard ES and these plants are now mealy bug free. It is still possible that I may see these insects again, because I will likely buy some new plants. I try to treat all new plants even if they are symptom free. I have to say the hardest mealy bugs to kill are almost always from plants that originate in Arizona greenhouses. I suppose these mealy bugs are the progeny of generation after generation of mealy bugs that have become resistant to insecticides.

I had the most trouble getting rid of the insects of my Obregonia denegrii. The insects are able to hide in the structures of these cacti and avoid the BotaniGard. Keeping the plants wet helped because the stems swell up and open up the mealy bug hiding places. After about 3 weeks of wet growing medium the insects are all exposed and are finally easy to kill. The Obregonia denegrii seem to absorb water much more slowly than most other species. They will tolerate wet conditions for longer periods of time that cacti like Astrophytum, but it's much easier to kill mealy bugs on Astros without keeping them wet for a month.

Over the years I'm having fewer problems with mealy bugs now than five to ten years ago when I was using insecticides. I'm happy that there are organic alternatives.

C-GRO

2009-01-11T18:00:00.002-06:00

I watered my succulents today and was able to use C-GRO for the first time. I heard about this product a few weeks ago and it sounds like a great alternative to chemically manufactured products. I'm only watering succulents like Haworthia and Gasteria in the winter and adult cacti will stay dry until May. In the spring there will be many more plants to try C-GRO on, but until then I will be able to see some growth with the non-cacti succulents.

gasteria with mealy bugs

2009-01-08T16:49:00.002-06:00

I found a few gasteria plants with mealy bugs and these plants have had these for a few years. They've been treated several times but every January they begin to show up again. This time I'm keeping them in plastic bags for a week while they are being treated with BotaniGard ES and hopefully this will put an end to the insects for good. I probably won't be able to tell if the bag method works until next January, but this method has worked on several cactus plants that had reoccurring mealy bugs. I soak the soil and coat the leaves with the solution and then put the potted or unpotted plant in a plastic bag for a week in an area with low light.

another application

2009-01-06T18:35:00.002-06:00

The first application of BotaniGard ES was only a few days ago and today a second application was made. I will try to make at least one application for every weed and as much as I can 2 applications through the month of January. I thought I had all of these mealy bugs killed last July, but it is impressive how well they can hide. It seems like plants can have no symptoms for a very long time before these insects show up. I think in the dry air of the winter months they are more likely to be seen because it becomes easier for them climb up higher on the stems of the plants.

root mealy bugs

2009-01-01T20:53:00.002-06:00

...lots of transplanting of cactus seedlings today and found some mealy bugs on the roots of some plants. I've been trying to kill them in this area for over a year, but I noticed something interesting too. The plants that were on the heating pad had insects and the ones that were in cooler locations were clean. I'm turning off the heating pad for a few months and using BotaniGard ES on these plants once a week. Hopefully this will put an end to the infestation...we'll see.

New Direction?

2008-12-31T15:51:00.001-06:00

I thought I would blog with lots of interesting photos of cacti, and now I think I would like to try a new direction. I want to use my blog as a journal and this would be more writing than photos. The photos will be eliminated from the blog as time passes and hopefully the blog will increase in written information on growing cacti. I think writing more about growing these plants will be more helpful than a gallery of photos and will serve as a information source more than it is now. Tomorrow the first of January I will begin this sort of... new way... and I hope it will help people more with ideas for growing cacti in the long run.

Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis

2008-08-31T13:00:00.003-05:00

For the past four years it has been very difficult to grow Glandulicactus here in Wisconsin because they end up being eaten by fly maggots. Now this summer for the first time all of these plants have survived and grown very well. The change is that I've been applying a product called Mosquito Beater by Bonide to the soil with Glandulicactus plants. The Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensis is a microbe that lives on Mosquito larva and appears to do in soil fly larva too. I will have to change my Rock Garden Cold Hardy Cactus page to say that it is possible to grow Glandulicactus and Sclerocactus plants in places like Wisconsin if it is done with the help of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. israelensi, and many thanks to the scientist who refined this microbe.

Glandulicactus young plant

2008-08-14T21:15:00.002-05:00

This Glandulicactus was started from seed a few years ago and this is its first growing season outdoors. I use to have an identity on the plant, but spilled the seedlings last year and lost track of which plants were what species. I replanted the jumbled seedlings and kept them under lights indoors because they were easier to protect from soil fly maggots than if they were put outdoors. Now this year there are about half a dozen plants grown from that batch of seeds and they have all survived so far as outdoor plants, which makes me very happy.

Glandulicactus wrightii

2008-08-01T19:04:00.002-05:00

I finally found an identity for this plant and its seedlings. I asked Steven Brack at Mesa Garden and this plant is a Glandulicactus wrightii. I'm very happy that this plant and its seedlings are doing well and all of them are growing this summer.

Sclerocactus forth year

2008-07-18T19:04:00.002-05:00

This Sclerocactus seedling came with its parent plant growing at the base of the stem. It was probably a year old at the time and has been growing a few inches away from it's mother plant and should now be in its fourth growing season.