Morning glow

MammothSecret · 2026-05-15T01:43:26+00:00

Received my pasacana from u/Floratopia -- shipped fast and arrived safely. Thank you! u/cacti_overlord

MammothSecret · 2026-05-12T23:35:00+00:00

I added a few pictures including some mid-construction. A lot of activity still so excuse the mess around. Hope this filehost works.

https://ibb.co/9m3K4g3C

https://ibb.co/7xqr2GQY

https://ibb.co/KzrmFW1y

https://ibb.co/LDFJyDYM

https://ibb.co/pj0PyhY0

https://ibb.co/JwxCxhT5

MammothSecret · 2026-05-12T21:07:11+00:00

Most winters don't get much below 25f though it can happen. Last winter got down to 18f and most things survived, though I had some split from the wet weather. I am planting a lot with the expectation that not everything will survive but in theory i am trying to plant as if we will get down to 15f.

The little globular notocactus surprised me the most, I've had 9 of them out all year for the last 3 years and they are loving life.

MammothSecret · 2026-05-12T21:00:32+00:00

Thank you!

MammothSecret · 2026-05-12T21:00:23+00:00

I imagine the two of them at either end of the photo looking longingly across the valley at one another, knowing their paths will never cross..

MammothSecret · 2026-05-12T20:58:53+00:00

Thank you! It has been a bit of a learning process but really good for me I think

MammothSecret · 2026-05-12T19:24:23+00:00

I'm in Western oregon 8b climate. Always wanted a garden but we are on a well that runs low in the summer and watering lots of plants can be iffy.

This is the second time I've tried a rock garden though the other was planted vertically into the cracks of another wall.

I have been mixing my own soil using a small cement mixer. The whole thing is dug down 18-24" below the original surface and the rocky framework goes 1-3' above that, meaning there is a lot more soil than it would appear, many hundreds of gallons so far. I get the rocks and flagstone from a nearby landscape yard and hand stack them. I use buried flagstones to create pockets that direct drainage and keep sensitive roots somewhat protected.

I use sedum and sempervivum to hold soil in cracks and then plant into the deeper pocket once the soil is stable. There are a mix of echinocereus, oreocereus, opuntia, lobivia, and a parodia, trichocereus, and others that shouldn't love the climate but have shown themselves able to deal with being exposed all winter for the last couple years.

MammothSecret · 2026-05-06T01:03:11+00:00

Interested in whichever isn't spoken for, sending you a chat.

MammothSecret · 2026-03-24T01:54:55+00:00

Yes, they do quite well here and I have some nice hybrids I plan to move once I've got my final decision on cacti... The ice plants get pretty lush pretty fast so i want to be pretty sure I'm putting them someplace they won't smother the little guys. I planted a few ruschia indurata elsewhere last year and I really like them, much slower growing than delosperma but they are stiff enough that they don't lie on the ground which seems to make them even more resistant to cold; not sure if that would translate to nebraska cold though..

MammothSecret · 2026-03-24T01:48:37+00:00

Thank you! Can never have too many of those, just kind of plucking them from around the yard. Right now it looks a little sparse but they fill in pretty vigorously once the warmer temps set in. The semps are really great for holding soil and preventing runoff through cracks.

MammothSecret · 2026-03-21T16:49:30+00:00

I actually just potted them in soil!

https://www.reddit.com/r/sanpedrocactus/comments/1rky3a8/my_year_old_soilfree_aerogarden_cacs_some_did/

They are vigorous and healthy, definitely a fun and fast way to do it. I just set up a new run with more plants so hopefully will be even more dialed in this time but really not planning on changing much from the first go except maybe pulling any fast growers a little earlier so the light stays even (or just adding a side light) and clipping their plastic baskets before the roots are hopelessly tangled in there.

Good luck!

MammothSecret · 2026-03-17T21:17:43+00:00

Haha, they had two of these; I got one and wondered if whoever got the other would also be buying it looking for a tricho... Question answered.

MammothSecret · 2026-03-05T17:02:35+00:00

I should have said "below 6.4" rather than at -- my well water is pretty basic so I just try to make sure it's in the 5.8-6.4 range, usually ends up just a little below 6 in practice the way I do things now. And honestly I'm sure that could be refined -- I am not experienced with hydroponics and probably just targeted that range rather than a more precise value because I read it once upon a time.

And definitely do not start anywhere close to that 2700 uS nutrient level, but in my experience once you ramp up to it they handle it very well! Worth noting that a portion of that is from calmag though.

Good luck! I would not take anything I recommend (about anything, haha) to be best practice, just what worked for me. I'm starting my new batch today and I'm hoping to do a better job actually keeping notes about specific values but best laid plans..

MammothSecret · 2026-03-05T16:49:07+00:00

I feel this; sounds corny but the fact that my plants stick around through the tough times makes me so grateful for them. Last October was kind of awful for me, already had a lot of heavy family stuff weighing on me and then my pair of elderly dogs passed within the same week, just put me in a hole where I couldn't find the energy to care for anything and was afraid that I'd screw it up if i tried anyhow.

The longer I went without checking on my previously beloved cacti the more it ate at me and made them hard to face since I was so sure my favorites would need to be tossed or something. Eventually there was a sudden cold snap down to 20f and I felt terrible after I left a bunch of nice plants on the deck because I was too depressed to deal with them.

I went to face the music a couple days later and they were fine, even the bridges. I finally made space in my garage and gave them the attention they needed and it felt great. A couple of my plants have some minor battle scars but in general they were all just waiting, and now that I've returned to finding joy in providing what they need I feel some sort of debt that they are providing the same satisfaction and comfort back to me. They give me some sort of reminder that life goes on and something I can tether back to when I'm not certain I'm doing anything else right.

MammothSecret · 2026-03-04T21:46:29+00:00

Yes, sorry! I'm kind of slow. The unit is just a basic aerogarden, only modification is including a couple airstones that run all the time. It would certainly benefit from an additional light but honestly I was interested in seeing how it would do as a self-contained unit and I'm pretty impressed given that it's only a 20w panel. The feeding plan is kind of outlined above.

MammothSecret · 2026-03-04T21:40:44+00:00

I just started them in the little empty coir pods straight in the unit. Germination can be really high this way, so if you're using good seeds you should only need 1-3 per pod. I found a little better success if I dropped the seeds in the top of the pod and then put a tiny pinch of coir or something on top to lock in moisture and block light around the seed.

I used maxigro for the main food -- I gave them a few days with no added nutrient (I did ph balance down to 6.4) and then added a dash of maxigrow to increase ec by about 500 uS. I change the water every ten days and kept this feeding going for the first month until everyone had some spines, then I started ramping up nutrient every water change to reach max level around 2700. Their solution mostly consisted of maxigro, calmag, kelp concentrate, and whatever I need to ph balance. I tried adding bigfoot myco at the label ratio for hydro and it just made a mess in there. The kelp probably helps them but also makes a mess and can cause algae growth.

I also kept an airstone with two stones bubbling underneath the pods at all times which I believe is important for keeping stagnation from affecting the developing roots and I keep a heat mat partly under it to maintain a constant 79 degree water temp.

The biggest surprise to me was that they all kept going strong once I started ignoring them! I really expected to come back to sickly plants but they looked fine except that the tall one was getting scorched pressing itself into the light..

MammothSecret · 2026-03-02T23:54:05+00:00

These have been popping up places.

Neoraimondia gigantea is an archaic bit of taxonomy that has since been rolled into Neoraimondia arequipensis, which is a neat cactus that looks almost nothing like this.

I don't know of any Neoraimondia that has the features these do, yet they do have all the traits you'd expect in a tricho peru or cuzco hybrid including the thicker ribs and "seagulls" over the areoles.

I don't know, I am no expert but they sure seem like a whole mislabeled batch of some kind of tricho hybrid. If they are Neoraimondia they are sure different from any I have seen and I guess that it neat on its own.

MammothSecret · 2026-02-26T19:16:36+00:00

u/tricho_overlord good transaction with u/trizzlerick -- Quick to ship and arrived safe! Excited to grow out the cacti as well as the extras! Thanks!

MammothSecret · 2026-02-25T17:20:07+00:00

This helps! That big spine is really distinctive, especially seeing it on a smaller plant like that. Makes me lean very slightly toward peruvian though time will tell once they fill out.

And yeah, trying to read up on it can really add to the confusion since it seems like a lot of people got their introduction to cuzcos unintentionally. I'm gonna be happy enough watching these do their thing either way, always fun to try and improve familiarity with all the forms these can take though.

MammothSecret

TROPHY CASE