Ariocarpus afternoon

[Tina]

Some great plants & flowers, the season for these is really late isn't it. Normally at ELk you have some flowering & mine are in a go slow, just a few retusus atm

[KarlR]

Great plants! Ariocarpus season is always fun. Been a lot of cloudy and colder weather here over the past few weeks, so not as much flowering as I'd hoped this year. Some have obliged though. Here's some agavoides and trigonus from Sunday.

IMG_20211017_141215~2.jpg

Wow - how many have you got?!

Not sure a few hundred. It's always been my favourite genus.

[Aiko]

Great plants! Ariocarpus season is always fun. Been a lot of cloudy and colder weather here over the past few weeks, so not as much flowering as I'd hoped this year. Some have obliged though. Here's some agavoides and trigonus from Sunday.

IMG_20211017_141215~2.jpg

Wow - how many have you got?!

Not sure a few hundred. It's always been my favourite genus.

Have you been testing them for hardyness in your winters, keeping them in an unheated greenhouse, by any chance?

[KarlR]

Have you been testing them for hardyness in your winters, keeping them in an unheated greenhouse, by any chance?

No, they've always been in a polycarbonate greenhouse heated to ca +5C, with the odd dip below 0 during particularly cold days. But this year they're in a new glass greenhouse and I'm only aiming to keep temps above freezing now. I figure if they can take +5 without problem they can take 0C. Most cacti can withstand lower temps than is usually recommended. We'll see how it goes with the more tender species. The soil will be bone dry and the greenhouse is placed on a rise next to the house, so any sunlight at all during the day will hit it, giving a bit of extra warmth.

I will admit I'm a bit anxious, but if things go wrong they go wrong. Then I'll just have to accept the lesson learned and start a new generation.

Edit: I have two electrical heater fans to keep the temperature above freezing. I'm also putting in a weather/temperature system to monitor the temps on my phone and will probably use smart power outlets for one or two more electrical fan heaters to turn them on from my phone if needed.

[Aiko]

Theoretically they should be quite hardy to at least -10C. I am pretty confident most individual plants will survive an unprotected winter with me. We don't have many extreme cold days, maybe up to a week of -10C to -15C once every few winters, but a regular -5C at night for about two months. But I can imagine your winters are longer and a bit more brutal.

[Herts Mike]

A few more today-

[el48tel]

'Appiness on an Ariocarpus Afternoon?

[Diane]

Nice! Mine are only just coming in to flower now, a bit late this year.

[Tina]

Very nice, I do like double headed ariocarpus, is this an age thing or they were always double ? that aztekium is stunning, how old is it plz.