I have used four 4-ft T8 tubes over 4 sq.ft area last winter. That gave me about 10 000 lux light level. This year in addition to those four T8 tubes I added four T5 tubes (over 5.5 sq.ft area), and light lever increased significantly, to 50 000 lux, which is pretty darn good. I was skeptical about ...

Clay pots are way more expensive nowadays, and the whole point of using them is to achieve quicker drying time. Painting them defeats the purpose.

That's interesting. I though these lime deposits come from calcium carbonate dissolved in water. Has anyone tried keeping clay pots in water for a few days to leach these salts out before planting?

It is fascinating to learn that mesembs are considered second-class citizens. Really, my perception has been that mesembs are the elite, and everyone else is ... well, nobody's perfect I was into cacti before, but converted precisely because mesembs are much more fun, cute, varied, royal, whatever.

These are great conos. Everyone is just trying to catch their breath.

I have switched to distilled water for watering in a attempt to avoid deposition of salts on the walls of clay pots. Alas. Exactly the same amount of salt forms on the walls.

By no means do I have a core collection, just because my collection is only 1 year old. Hasn't had enough time to build the core yet. But I will pitch in anyways. 1."the core" takes too much time to mature, I have to put my energy somewhere (where it is not productive, like looking for a b...

Fantastic! How old is it?

Steven Hammer in his "Dumpling" writes: "Old cultivated plants can reach the size of a lemon." Really? That's huge. What is the largest C.burgeri you have seen/posses?

Sorry, I cannot imagine "too much lithops". Sounds like "there is too much air" . Unfortunately, I do not receive it, otherwise I would be ecstatic to have too much lithops.