Hi from Belfast, N.I

[marmilade92]

Hi guys. I've upped my interest in cacti and succulents the past few months so I thought I better join the forum to get some advice if needs be. I haven't made myself known at the local branch yet.

Brief history if anyone is interested. It all started about 8 years ago when I sowed some cacti seeds. I grew them and repotted them twice. The last time a few months ago. After repotting them they took up a lot of space inside so I moved the majority of them out to the greenhouse. The greenhouse had previously been used for cacti before with great success by the previous owner. Unfortunately they all died so I'm left with 3 out of the 22 I had. I think it was too high humidity and too hot. I'm left with three unknown cacti. One is a propagation when I broke the very bottom of the stem when replanting and it's doing really well now. I can see a few roots at the bottom of the pot after a few months. I have another one that has been suggested that is fasciated/crested but not confirmed by an expert. And another one which isn't very interesting.
I started Lithops from seed nearly 3 months ago and it's my first time. One of them has split to it's adult leaves a few days ago so that's exciting.
I have 10 Gasteria and one tiger aloe that have all been recently repotted. One of the Gasteria's had flowered but not completely; the top part failed and dried up. Not sure what happened there. And I rescued a Gasteria a few days ago which had its leaves broken off (I think it might have been on purpose rather than accident). No one else would buy him because he wasn't aesthetically pleasing so I gave him a good home. I think it's quite old as it's got a bit of whorl to it. I have a few Christmas cacti and two Crassula ovata propagations that have roots but no new growth yet.

So my main interests at the moment are Gasteria's and Lithops. I'm running out of room fast and I really don't want to move to the greenhouse after the little accident a few months ago.

I'm currently studying with the end goal of plant science research so this hobby naturally compliments my career. Every plant scientist needs an office full of plants so I'm collecting well in advance!

Thanks for reading!

[rodsmith]

Welcome to the forum. It looks as though you're learning by trial and error and it's good that you have successfully raised plants from seed. I find this one of the most rewarding aspects of the hobby. You seem to have had an unfortunate experience with your greenhouse. In the heat of summer, all plants need plenty of ventilation and I always have open windows (and door on sunny days) with a fan on cool setting blowing air continuously at ambient temperature, day and night. Some of the plants you have grown, eg Gasterias, prefer light shade rather than full sun and are best kept under the bench rather than on top. Good luck with your continuing succulent cultivation. Have you got any photos we could see?

[marmilade92]

Thanks, I have a 'few' pictures. The majority of them are on Imgur and I'll post a link to them but I'll give a taster of some of them here. Feel free to browse any other album that has more detail. I've documented the lithops growing.

Most of the succulents - http://imgur.com/a/Ow1ZI
Lithops - http://imgur.com/a/UB4v5
Cacti (before the massacre) - http://imgur.com/a/ocOxY

[marmilade92]

Tried uploading pictures in previous post. I'll try again here