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caudexappreciator

@caudexappreciator

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I like plants, mostly Caudiciforms & cacti. I also like birds (doves get a little annoying but are chill). 10b on a SW facing porch. Plant tinkerer.

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I’ve been slowly regaining control after a wave of ants that farmed mealybugs across some of my cactus. I’ve tried everything. Soaps strip farina permanently. Oils can burn plants in strong light and my balcony gets blasted in the afternoon, on top of destroying farina and wool. Isopropyl works on contact but zero residual, so you’re at it every couple days for weeks, and I’ve already split some farina being sloppy with it. Systemics work but between the toxicity and handling it in a small space, I’d rather not.

Chris from @orange_county_cactus recommended PureCrop and told me it was pretty safe compared to other options as far as toxicity in mammals/invertebrates since it’s corn and soy based.

My main worries: pollinators, farina damage, light burn, and it not actually killing pests.

I sprayed some Copiapoa, geometrizans, and a few other cactus, some with farina, some without. The Myrtillo was the real canary since that blue bloom rubs off if you look at it wrong, and the haseltoniana barely has farina but enough to show damage. Zero damage on either, even the areole wool came through untouched. One Copiapoa already had farina splitting in the valleys from isopropyl spot treatments and it hasn’t gotten worse.

I marked all 4 sides with red dots and shot every side before and after so I could actually compare. Unchanged on all sides. More testing to come with a few other cacti.

Light burn test: heavy top spray, 20 min air dry, then under a high wattage grow light cranked all the way up. Nothing after 14 hours, and that was closer to the light than I’d normally run my plants.

Also did a drench. Gallon of water buffered to ~pH 6 with pH Down, 0.75 oz PureCrop (25% over label rate, don’t do this), bottom watered a handful of Copiapoa, Agave, and a few caudiciforms a week ago. No signs of failure and most pots have dried out.

I’m in pure inorganic so it drains insanely fast. 4 pumice, 2 fine lava, 1 hort sand, limestone for some since a few are native to limestone shelves, no idea if it does anything but it feels like they like it. As far as bugs are concerned I am retreating a few times over the next few weeks/months but so far I am happy with the results. by @caudexappreciator

When @stripey_seed pulls over in the desert for 10 seconds to look at something and turns around to find I also saw something cool… A quarter mile away. by @caudexappreciator

I was tinkering around with some polymer clay. I need to get the correct colors of clay and a dark clay without glitter in it. I also need to figure out how to make more of a cactus shape instead of a pumpkin. The spines took me an hour of rolling clay snakes. 😂 by @caudexappreciator

Blooming by @caudexappreciator

mammillaria schumannii monstrose. I have been waiting for these flowers for so long. by @caudexappreciator

A beautiful Ortego potted in a dope @revolutionaryclay pot. by @caudexappreciator

Copiapoa mollicula FR525 sown in 1993 by Mesa Garden in a pot from @tomaworks.studio. I had other plans for this pot until I set this cactus in it to see what it looked like. I didn’t use my typical red topper because I didn’t want to take away from the pot or the plant. by @caudexappreciator

Copiapoa coquimbana KK1 sown in 1990 at Mesa Garden in a beautiful colibri pot. by @caudexappreciator

_Logo_Showcase_: @caudexappreciator

Recently completed this piece for Caudex Appreciator. His attention to detail and methodology when approaching plant care is precise and very accurate. We could all learn a thing or 2 from his ideas and techniques.

Our plants are telling us exactly what they need at any time. We just need to learn how to listen to them_

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#cactus #plants #illustration #art #graphicdesign by @caudexappreciator

You can never have too much seed. My spouse’s little staging and my nursery pot plant. Whenever I get a plant unless it’s freshly watered I unpot it, toss the soil it came with and then pot it into super fast draining medium right back into a clean nursery pot and then quarantine it for a while. by @caudexappreciator

Collecting some seeds. Slightly warm water to help break down the sugar in the fruit and seperate the seeds.
- The brush is an acid/flush brush super cheap, works great for staging as well
- Mesh screen is a tea strainer from Diaso (I get a lot of plants odds and ends here like pollination brushes, containers, nursery pots etc) I got some seed from a couple of Gymnos I pollinated and some seed from a Cochemiea fraileana. The spines on the fraileana absolutely suck because they are hooked and when they get you they are hard to remove. by @caudexappreciator

A few copiapoa from @sfcactus_rooftop collection. rupestris rubiflora, cinerea, tigrillensis, and a decent sized echinoides. Not in order. by @caudexappreciator