Thankfully we're all different with different tastes, or the world would have been a boring place! For me the beauty of the plants very often lie in achieving growth that mimics habitat plants as closely as possible. It's not easy to achieve, but it's a joy when you get it right. Of course, it's an ...

I'm just thinking how it would do on the showbench. It's well-grown, fresh looking and healthy and I've nothing against grafting for helping a plant to grow better and look better. Some judges would downpoint it because it doesn't have the same growth form of a habitat plant which seems a shame if ...

Watered twice already! Never started in February before, but too many of the plants were becoming too wrinkled to wait much longer.

It feels good to get going!

Very interesting article, Phil. Will take some getting used to, thinking of all the Escobarias as Pelecyphora. I doubt I will get around to rewriting all my labels anytime soon, but more studies and more knowledge is always good. I I think it deserves a thread on its own though, instead of hiding it...

Always nice when new species are discovered. Acanthocereus and similar genera are not very familiar to me but this species looks pretty at least.

But commercial cactus production under lights aims to maximize growth. They are concerned with producing large specimens as quickly as possible as that will maximize revenue. That is not necessarily the goal for other people using artificial light. And finally, it is also a very valid point to cons...

Sorry - nonsense - if you care to actually read Philips data, not at all surprisingly given the vast scale of Dutch horticulture over so very many genera, they cover cati and succulent production. You cannot buck science just because it does not fit with what any person "thinks" or "...

Without wanting to set off a long debate, in my opinion cacti and succulents that grow naturally in very intense light conditions will do better under more blue than red light. Unless you're going for commercial nursery style "bloated" plants. See up-thread and refer to Philips lighting d...

Sounds like there will be enough blue from ambient light, if I read the post correctly. The cheapest and most effective option by far would be either a LOW (very definitely not high as in the link, so around 3500K, not 6400K) CCT LED or fluorescent, or HPS lamp. The lowest power HPS (lucalox in the...

This made me think of a bit if grafting I did some years ago. I was a bit surprised to find these Sclerocactus cloveriae ssp. brackii purple on the inside!