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Here’s a peek into my outdoor plants who all have another month… | The Cactus & Succulent Circle | Planta-community

Dave_opuntiaface

Here’s a peek into my outdoor plants who all have another month before I have to bring them out of the insane heat I get coming off the courtyard. Sadly, over half of those in the cage with the screen - and those in the yellow cart - had mysterious bug and otherwise hindered growth issues. Yes, two are amazing little Copiapoa, and I just couldn’t admit defeat without giving them the summer to think about life. Note that I’m still growing Wolf Lichen (wooden box underneath the white plant stand/IKEA shoe rack). It’s quite simple.

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15 reacties

  1. Mara

    Ok, a hit all at once ☺️ Sweet copiapoas. Yellow cart terracotta pot, the wrinkly dude, is it a Tephro? Also, do your fur babies stay away from the lichen?

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    • Dave_opuntiaface

      Oops, my reply went to the wrong spot. I’m kind of excited to see if nature takes care of itself and overcomes human error. Well, human error, human attempts at correction (yo I have put in my time scrubbing roots and pondering over dry wall dust messing up my soil Ph), human despair, and human hope. This Kalenchoe is so miserable yet continues to grow. It has had every treatment, and the leaves burn in the sun. I held it in my hands over the trash can for a few minutes after seeing the last white bug crud form under new growth.

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    • Mara

      That made me laugh. I have these little opuntia and we’ve battling scale for sometime. I almost trashed it a couple times. Hopefully 3rd treatment is a charm. If not, three strikes and it has to go. This might sound harsh to some but it’s simple. After alcohol spot treatment for pest, I might take it down to bare root and soak the entire plant in very warm water with a couple drops of ARBER bio insecticide for 30 mins.(btw not its intended purpose but we should know the rules before we break them). Rinse and dry for a week or so then repot with DT mixed into the substrate. Hibernating scale and root mealies are no joke. Don’t know if this would be proper treatment for a kalanchoe but I’ve done this to many a cacti and it has helped tremendously. In the case of your kalanchoe and while we’re in the growing season, consider chopping the taller heads off to the next healthier set of leaves just above a node to encourage branching. From the pics it doesn’t look too bad at all. The whole drywall thing, is that experimental or accidental?

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    • Dave_opuntiaface

      I needed this pep talk lol. I have done quite a bit of the “take them out, scrub” but haven’t been as thorough with letting them air out. This Kalenchoe is on strike six or seven. This Astrophytum is patient 0. It has had more chances than any because I might cry if I tossed it away. Also, it’s covered in white dots, which makes dealing with it a cinch (sarcasm). What’s absolutely killing me is that mealies are showing up in my Lithops, like under the rotting body. I had to throw out two pots. The drywall thing is not intentional haha. That’s just me grasping at straws.

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    • Mara

      Omygosh my eyes went big haha, that Astro is beautiful! I should be more clear. It’s A LOT easier for me to ditch foliage plants. I cannot deal with a plant that just does not love be back for a long time. Cacti are definitely the exception to the rule. They are just so badazz! So I wondering about the drywall because I’ve heard of its use in compost for plants. I know nothing about that but was curious about your experimentations if you had one going haha.

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    • Mara

      Here are the only two that have had a scale problem, knock on wood. I think you can see they’re looking pretty rough. The opuntia looked even worse a month ago. After its last treatment, I moved it from terracotta to a ceramic pot to help retain moisture its moisture. It seems to be working. I just haven’t had the heart to get rid of it… I kinda like how gnarly it is. This poor little stenocactus has been scrubbed twice in the last 6 months I would say. I had to use a small straw cleaner to get between its ribs. Just repotted yesterday with a tiny pinch of neem seed meal in the soil. I plan to spray them down with water, Castile soap and neem oil solution in a week.

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  2. Dave_opuntiaface

    It is a tephro, and it looks so unlike a pine cone at this point. It won’t fully die or thrive and has me a little baffled, so we shall see. I generally have that lichen covered up, but I hear your concern - I had it too when someone gave me the lichen. My dogs only care about human food and have never even sniffed one of my plants throughout the years, but…as I’m typing this, I’m going to move that lichen this morning.

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    • Mara

      I’m about to get back on the road. I want to revisit this when I get back home ☺️

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    • Mara

      I totally get it. Mine are losing their pine cone appearance and have done nothing at all. I have smaller props that fell off these guys months ago that seem to be stretching/growing. They are now rooted in 1” plastic pots so I suspect these tephro may have needed a smaller but deeper pot. We’ll see… I’m planning on checking the roots this evening. About the lichen, the babes are just so precious. I would hate for them to accidentally come in contact with the spores.

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    • Dave_opuntiaface

      For something that propagates by falling on the ground, it sure is baffling. That said…I found a couple over the weekend and put them in a smallish pot.

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    • Mara

      Super duper cute!

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