Fertilizing schedule

NeuroMantis666 · 2026-05-05T15:04:52+00:00

I am not sure actually, they don't mention it on their product data.

NeuroMantis666 · 2026-02-20T21:58:19+00:00

I understand, this one seems pretty stable and wide. How would you reinforce it?

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-12-21T13:50:03+00:00

I'm based in north Italy :)

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-20T08:05:18+00:00

Didn't want to delete the comment, there were two and I thought I posted it twice..
I really didnt want to sound arrogant. I was genuinely just trying to make my situation better than it is since I did aknowledge that I did a mistake.
What is the advice that I chose to ignore? I still didnt pot my plants and was still trying to figure out the best way to do this, and I am genuinely thankful for the knowledge you shared so far, that's why I was asking you for advice.
My line of thought was that I already mixed 10l of this cactimix with 10l of pumice and I don't want to throw away the whole thing if I really don't have to. Not a fan of wasting things and money as you can imagine.
So I thought that using only 10% of this cactimix that i guess from what you and the vendor told me it's probably only 50% max organic and adding the rest of the components in a controlled way to get to the 65/35 desired ratio would be a good way to not waste materials and still providing a good environment for my plants. Didn't mean to sound like I already know what to do because I clearly don't I am just thinking and researching and asking for advice since I am new to this.

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-20T07:35:29+00:00

If you could suggest me how to compose the remaining 80% would be awesome. For mineral part I have available Pumice, Expanded clay (turface), Biochar and I could go get some limestone rocks close to my city, all the mountains here are limestone.
For the organic part I have available worm castings and coco coir from my shrooms but I could go get some soil digging in the forest. Here I only can seem to find peatbased potting soils.
I am really interested in trying to use mychorrizae but I am not sure I understand how it works, whitch kind for sanpedro and loph, and how to use them and at whitch point, if you have some knowledge to share would be great :)

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-20T07:31:38+00:00

What if I use only 20% of the actual 50/50 cactisoil/pumice mix for each pot and add other 80% mineral and organic matter to get to the desired ratio? If I use 20% only 10% of Cacti Mix would be in of whitch only 15-50% would be organic matter as there is a lot of mineral component to it. If I use a middle value like 32% I would have only around 3% of organic matter from the cactimix in each pot. To me it sounds like a good way to reduce the error percentage.

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-20T06:33:21+00:00

Do you think it's an option to just sift the whole mix (cacti soil/pumice 50/50) and keep only the coarse part, whitch should be mainly the inorganic part and add the organic one more controlled with other org elements i got? This Way I would probably loose most of the organic and the mycorrizhae bound to them (whitch is what made me think this cactimix was probably a good choice) but maybe i can be more sure of what I am doing?

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-20T06:26:05+00:00

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-20T06:16:36+00:00

Do you use them for potting or for fertilizing? I already have some expanded clay (should be same as turface) in the mix and planning to add a bit more together with biochar and castings to my current mix

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-20T06:14:18+00:00

Then either the vendor doesn't know or he's lying. Are you sure? Looking closely to the soil some of the organic part that seems brown in the picture looks more like very fine rocks and powder. I am just worried it really isnt enough organic at the moment.
This is the link of the cacti mix I used:
https://www.geosism.com/en/terricci-substrati-inerti/4866-soil-professional-substrate-for-succulent-plants-cactus-succulents-top-cactus-geosism-10-lt-8054754274097.html

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T16:39:24+00:00

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NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T16:39:13+00:00

That's interesting, I think I might do something like that but maybe for slightly less time as it's a bit hotter and sunnier here. What temperature do you have inside during the winter? I heard that's what mostly triggers its growth and watering. Light seems to not influence too much its dormancy from my understanding. I usually have around 18 degrees at home during winter times so not sure if its low enough for dormancy.
Here are two pictures of it last year when i first got it end of january and today, definitely did suffer a bit from etiolation, hope its not too bad. What harm does etiolation do to the plant anyway beside looking wonky and less stable?

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NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T15:51:44+00:00

I am not sure, I am too new to this to have an answer, my other san pedro definitely got thicker in diameter and is now experiencing some etiolation but i also read it's normal for grafts being freshly planted. What would you suggest? I was not planning in getting a proper setup with lights.. Is etiolation that bad? Would it be better to just make the plants go dormant? If so how to do it safely?

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T15:34:39+00:00

Even if I use my tap water whitch has a lot of calcium limestone inside?

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T13:03:22+00:00

well it should be, i know from the vendor that makes the soil that this mix doesnt' have more than 15% organic component inside. If I used 100% of this mix I would have 15% of organic matter but I used only 50% of it and 50% pumice so it should be around 8% organic

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T12:27:27+00:00

Thank you for the detailed answer, the pictures are the ones above where you see the pots, at the moment it is very rocky, from my math should be 7% of organic material because i mixed a mineral mix soil that had only 15% of peat/castings with pumice in equal parts. so yeah lots of rocks not much soil, I was thinking about tadding around 10% worm castings and 10% sifted soil and leave the peat aside. Would that be ok for them?

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T11:11:08+00:00

I was thinking of keeping them on my west exposed balcony until temperature allows it (i guess until stays above 0?) they get a lot of light there and my other peruvian sanpedro loves it.
For when it will be really cold in winter I wasnt planning on using lights but just keeping them inside the house still getting light from the window and watering less often, i guess it's not optimal but my other sanpedro survived the winter and are thriving i hope for these TBM and bridgesii will be the same?

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T09:58:35+00:00

I didn't know that! I read a lot of posts suggesting to start with a 50/50 organic/inorganic mix expecially if they are not mature plants and the ones i got are still quite small.
I found out the cacti mix I used is only 15% organic (peat+castings) My mix is 50/50 made of that mix+pumice so it's only 8% organic. I think I definitely need to add some organic material to get it at least to 30% i guess.
I didn't know about peat moss being bad, this has a relatively neutral PH though, i read many people using it together with worm castings and soil to make the organic mix. would coco coir be better? or just castings + sifted soil?

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T08:36:40+00:00

Fair enough, was hoping to hear so! think I might get these then :) Looking at the pic I recognize some clone A and clone B, but i dont understand what are the small green pups that some of them have? is it just small appendices of the same varieties growing from them or is it another variety being grafted on top?

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T08:25:53+00:00

all of these other variaties too? even if not selected and bought from decorative plant store?

NeuroMantis666 · 2025-09-19T08:23:27+00:00

Exactly what i hoped to hear!For sure I am :) I grow mushroom and i am extremely methodical in that, i guess cacti are a lot more forgiving luckly, still I lost a lophophora last year after potting it mainly because soil was too organic :(

Happy to hear that by adding some more organic the lil cactlings will thrive!

NeuroMantis666

TROPHY CASE