My collection in Finland

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IainS
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by IainS »

Hi Pia. Have you considered moving house, like Rod?! :lol:

Or, if you have a second floor above, you could cut a small round hole in the ceiling/floor and let it continue growing?! Perhaps a "first"?! :lol:

Seriously, what I would do is cut it back severely and take many cuttings. The tip part would make a new plant like the mother plant. But the other sections should produce multi-stemmed plants. (Remember after cutting which is "up" and "down".) You could keep one or two of the plants and give the others away, once they've become established. A friend who grows columnar cacti wholesale overseas waits until the weather is warm and (obviously) leaves the cuttings for two weeks to callous over before planting. I've done this a few times and found it easy. Use a clean sharp knife.
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Pia
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by Pia »

Thanks for the great tips (all of them :grin:)! But what is the optimal lenght of the top? Or does it matter regarding the chance of succeeding?
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IainS
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by IainS »

I've always stuck to about 30cm for plants of your diameter or thereabouts. Any longer/taller and it becomes a bit unstable. I've grown about 20 plants in the past few years like this with 100% success rate. Perhaps I'm being a bit cautious, but I'd wait until early May before going ahead (unless your ceiling is in danger of "doing a NASA" beforehand).
"Avoidance doesn't work"
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Tina
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by Tina »

The size is up to you really, make it a size you would like so maybe it fits on the window sill, you don't want to waste all your plant and you can keep the base as it will offset.

I'm impressed with the number of variegated cacti you have.

WOw love the huge rocks of the rockery,puts most people pebbles to shame :lol: .
Tina

varied collection of succulents and cacti but I especially like Euphorbia's, Ariocarpus and variegated agaves.

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Pia
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by Pia »

Thanks, Tina, for your tips and kind words! I just found out that those opuntias on the rockery may have survived their first winter although the January was colder than in decades. Even here in the southern Finland (Helsinki), it was between -20 and almost -30 Celsius (in nights) for at least 3-4 weeks (in daytime about -15C). And the rest of the winter was really warm and wet (+5 and even more), which might have been even worse. I have also other large rockeries in my garden.
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Greenlarry
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by Greenlarry »

I love that tall Pilosocereus, gorgeous blue. Reminds me of one I once had. It was nowhere near as tall as yours though.
You can take the boy out of the greenhouse, but you can't take the greenhouse out of the boy!
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Pia
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by Pia »

I bought this Pilosocereus when it was 30 cm tall in summer 2012. Thus, it has grown 2 meters in less than 4 years! However, it may have something to do with etiolation. The new growth is not as thick as the original growth, but it has maintained the blue wax-layer very well indicating that the lack of light may not have been too severe.

Also my Opuntias have grown very fast, and they have reached the size of almost 2 meters very rapidly. But as you can see from my previous photos, many of my barrel-shaped cacti clearly show etiolation. For example, my Echinocactus grusonii is now 70 cm tall and it's circumference is 85 cm. I bought it in 2002 when it was about 10 cm tall.

In Finland, we have a lot of light during the growing season (in northern Finland the sun does not set at all for more than 2 months, and also here in southern Finland, there is only a couple of hours dark), but I have large trees and also some other things that substantially lessen the amount of sunlight.
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Lyn
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by Lyn »

WOW! Pia :-) I absolutely ADORE your collection, you have so many INCREDIBLE plants XXXXXX <3
Check out my Cacti and Succulent website, where I upload weekly blogs, photos, and videos :-)
http://www.desertplantsofavalon.com/
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Pia
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by Pia »

Hi Lyn and thanks for the compliments! Your website is wonderful, including great tips. My latest purchase is Rhipsalidopsis, so it was very ineresting to read about it.
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Pia
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Re: My collection in Finland

Post by Pia »

As I just told, my latest purchase is Rhipsalidopsis (Hatiora x graeseri, I think). I'm not very good in growing these kind of cacti (Schlumbergera, Epiphyllum etc.) but could not resist these star-shaped flowers.
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