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Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Thu Nov 16, 2017 5:41 pm
by Bob 3
Hi Colin
Please put me on your customers list.

Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Mon Feb 05, 2018 3:55 pm
by Lyn
Your plants and Polytunnel are AMAZING :-D

Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Sat Jun 02, 2018 6:44 pm
by Conrad
Time for a very long overdue update, life has been rather busy with a new job etc., but the cacti are still growing away apace, and I'm still spending a lot of time repotting!

The business idea will happen, and now I've got a little more time, it shouldn't be too long before I have a website up and running. A lot of plants are actually ready for sale, and I'm already selling a few when people ask for them, but currently have no shopfront!

In the meantime, here's how things are looking:

One bench:
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The other:
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Some 2yr old Ortegocactus, about to flower for the first time!
Ortegos
Ortegos
Pelecyphoras, with a Cintia in the background. My cintias flowered abundantly this year, and I think I will have alot of seed.
Pelecyphora and cintia
Pelecyphora and cintia
Mediolobivia pectinata AVF64. Lots of medios at saleable size now, second year flowering for most of them.
Medio Pectinata
Medio Pectinata
A nice little Epi micromeris, lots of these at good saleable size now.
Epi micro
Epi micro
Rebutia fusca. Really intense flower tones. About 200 of these at 6cm pot size.
Fusca
Fusca
Gymno stellatum obductum PEM50. The cryptic brown Gymnocalyciums remain my absolute favourites.
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More Gymno. obductum, Coryphantha echinoidea at the bottom.
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Various Turbinicarpus klinkerianus, Turb. panarotoi, Turb polaskii, Gmno. bruchii, and a Sulco which I forget.
IMG_20180602_104739622.jpg
Astro myriostigma nudum, and more Rebutia fusca
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Turb. valdezianus. Slow, but has done surprisingly well in the big trays, only lost five or so from probably 100 or so plants spread over a couple of trays.
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Loph. williamsii. I have many hundreds of these at various stages of growth. Also lots of kohresii. An interesting variegated one in the photo.
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Gymno obductum LF82
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Acantholobivia plominiana. Got lots of these, looking forward to the stunning flowers.
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Gymno. prochazkianum.
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Sulco arenacea HS30.
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Blossfeldia and Strombocactus. These Strombos growing unusually slowly.
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Those Mamm bocasana from page 1 - grow like stink!
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The tunnel in all its' glory! Need to get up a ladder and trim the trees back a little mind.......
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Next is a new 8m by 1.5m bench to run all the way down the middle, I'm putting off a lot of repotting because I'm running out of room at the moment. I'll build it in a couple of weeks time.

Until next time...........

Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2018 8:38 pm
by MaciejW
Looking great! (tu) (tu) (tu)

Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2018 7:34 am
by dalesmatt
Well done with all you have achieved Conrad, it looks really great. Look forward to seeing more in due time. (tu)
Kind regards
Matt

Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2018 10:19 pm
by Cidermanrolls
Looking very good Conrad.
Your shop front doesn't have to be too special to attract buyers. Three different and very good examples to look at are:
Ralph Martin's list accessible from this board. A very neat solution.
"Plantlifecactus" on eBay. A weekly auction listing of about 100 to 150 plants. Often most plants are the same species as previous weeks, but almost always a few new ones. Good photos and interesting descriptions.
"Solentguy", also on eBay but a more static "buy it now" style listing. Often some hard to find plants.
These are just examples, there are several other very good ones you could gain inspiration from.
One interesting trick, used by "cactuslover" in Poland is to offer "buy 10 get one free". He allows the buyer to delay payment to build up a reasonable order size and several times I've benefitted from this offer. He doesn't tell you what the freebie will be so it could be common as muck, but the offer is always appealing....and sometimes it's been a really nice surprise.
Good luck and let us know when your sales start, I'm already in the queue for a few plants in the photos....

Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2018 8:28 pm
by Keith H
Hi Conrad, the poly tunnel and your plants are looking great. It is really good to see the update, good luck launching the web site. Have you considered selling at one or more of the cactus marts or perhaps a branch or regional show?

Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 9:29 am
by Conrad
Thanks for the replies folks, useful suggestions.

Re: Shopfront - I've got a website very nearly ready to go live, built by my ingenious better half. I'm hoping I can do everything through my own website, but may also go the ebay route depending on how things go - it does seem to work well, as Ciderman suggested.

I have thought about selling at branch shows etc. and may do this in the future - but I'll largely be online at least at first, basically because my 'real' job and other commitments take up too much of my time. Because of this I'll only have one posting day each week, but hopefully if this is made clear from the off then nobody should mind.

Really nice to hear some of you guys are in the queue! Gives me a bit of impetus to fire up the website.

A few more photos from the last two very hot days in the tunnel:

My position for the day - umbrella essential!
IMG_20180628_151709964_HDR.jpg
Freshly repotted Lobivia haematantha albolantata, these guys are about 80% root.
IMG_20180628_151716186.jpg
Gymno prochazkianum coming into flower for the 1st time.
IMG_20180628_151756795.jpg
E. pectinatus castaneus
IMG_20180628_151832001.jpg
Some superkabutos. I have about 50 of these at this size.
IMG_20180628_151856814.jpg
R.heliosa and E.occulta. Have lots of heliosas, but the bloody labels faded over winter so will sell them minus field numbers, which is frustrating.
IMG_20180628_152006139.jpg
Coryphantha retusa Lau. Only seven of these, will be raised for seed stock.
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Gymno obductum, my favourite
IMG_20180628_155515397.jpg
Lophs. Like little turnips.
IMG_20180628_175032529.jpg
Various - Frailea grahliana, R. heliosa, G. monvillei, G. saglionis. Also horribly overcrowded notocacti in that 6cm pot.
IMG_20180628_181131281.jpg
Too much to mention in this photo - turbs, gymnos, echinocereus, thelocacti, acanthocalycium etc.
IMG_20180616_165835046.jpg
Nice mamm microthele
IMG_20180616_165840121.jpg
F. castanea. Small, but actually growing surprisingly quickly. I've found they really like being in very shallow trays. I lose them in deeper pots.
IMG_20180616_165950228.jpg
G. baldianum. I sowed the contents of one seedpod and now have far too many!
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Frailea grahliana, freshly rehoused.
IMG_20180616_170330227.jpg
Mamm perbella. badly in need of repotting.
IMG_20180616_170012092.jpg
On the subject of repotting..... Asto. cap. aureum. and a mamm which I forget.
IMG_20180616_170036921.jpg
Have trimmed back the trees and built one of the two new benches for the middle of the 'tunnel too.

More photos to follow soon!

Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2018 12:47 pm
by juster
All looking very good. Let us know when the website is live.

Re: New polytunnel

Posted: Sat Jul 07, 2018 6:56 pm
by Conrad
Sweltering day in the tunnel today, built a new bench, a second one to follow soon. Repotted a hundred or so Stenocacti, turbs and mamms under my sunshade before wilting in the heat.
IMG_20180707_170335166_HDR.jpg
Another 3000 6cm pots on the way.... getting there slowly! :grin: