My 2018 - This is my Hobby: Growing Stone Eaters

andrijana (51)in #my2018 • 6 years ago (edited)

This is my entry for @anomadsoul
CONTEST: My 2018 - This is my Hobby

Growing Stone Eaters

Oh! They are here! They are soooooo cute!
Such a tiny creatures, so vulnerable….

(…after few days..)

There are SO MANY of them!!
They are whispering to me: ‘I want to live! Me too! Look at me! I am a fighter! Me too!’

I need two companions: Persistence and Patience. Love will be like fire, keeping such significant pair always here, together dancing in the flame so I can catch them although I’m not in the mood for anything, being ill or tired out.

Every year there is a time when in my life come hundreds of tiny little green beings. If having those two companions I can keep those small creatures alive. Not all of them, it depends on their sensitivity. But if the third one comes - the Knowledge, it can help me even with those sensitive issues!

Having these three friends means a good start. So, let’s get some good seeds! It meant years of searching the internet, seeds ordering, trying them out, till finally succeed in finding some reliable nurseries that are not so expensive though, just to have good chance to succeed in my long way of growing those beauties.

When they germinate, looking like very small green balls, nobody would ever guess in what they will turn out. At first glance to those tiny greenies coming out of barely visible seeds my heart jumps, the joy is so huge, like being in love, like catching the happiness and flying on it’s wings.

Then, after a week or two first tiny spines come out of those small green balls! That is the first sign of success, like they are whispering, ‘I want to live! Me too! Look at me! I am a fighter! Me too!’

In habitat there is much less chance for them to survive. To keep them alive as many as possible I have to check them every day in first months. They are like babies. There is possibility of fungal disease that would kill them if not noticed on time.

I have to water them regularly, but have to be very careful when the soil dries out to leave them one day without water and only then is the right time to water them again. Growing cacti from seeds is the skill, especially when sensitive species are in question. Some species have to be in zip-bag for two years to keep them alive, like enigmatic Blossfeldia, the smallest cactus with the capability of completely drying out and then re-hydrating cells when watered again (poikilohydric).

Many cactus growers keep such sensitive species, like Blossfeldia, grafted, as a best chance of survival. But me, I’m ambitious, I want to grow them on their own roots.

Every day I need to engage Persistence, Patience and Knowledge thriving on the fire of Love to succeed in my cacti adventure!

Two years old Blossfeldias:

After first 6 month of their subsistence and every day checking, watering, shading, taking care of the good airflow, they have endurance to overwinter without water in a cold place together with grow-ups!

In next two years they build even greater endurance but are not ready to be on full sun yet. Although adult cacti do not like to be repott, seedlings are grateful to be re-potted at least every year, then they are growing faster. So I spend hours and many days in pricking seedlings. Not alone. There is always Patience to join me. And my cat! I would not dare to forget that important member of our pack. Once she was watching me in re-potting cactus, how I was cleaning the roots before putting it in new pot and you won’t believe it, she did almost the same thing trying to clean roots of another cactus. I thought, ‘Wow I have apprentice!’, but it was false hope, after first try – a good one – she ran looking for a new game.

Now they look like cacti. Finally! Still very small, but resistant. That’s a quite relief for me. I do not have to dance around them every day.

A long way is waiting for many species to have first flowers but members of some species like Rebutia can cheer me up earlier, they can even flower in three or four years from seeds.

What a joy when my own seedlings flower for the first time, although they are still very young plants!

Most of the cacti love to grow in a mineral mixture. I can buy such ingredients like perlite, zeolite, vermiculite, etc., but is better to find some in nature.

The soil in my own habitat is much different than those on which cacti thrives, they mostly live among the rocks or in sandy deserts, and I live in loamy, green land. But maybe if I do some search, look better I will find something suitable for them, I thought. Luckily I have done many long walks in the area of my hometown and found one wonderful place near one of many brooks coming out of Medvednica hill. At first glance the soil looks dark like humus, but there are also lots of blue and green stones around, so I looked at the soil with greater attention and discover it’s actually tiny stones with a little humus! Closer to the brook the soil is even more rocky and has less humus in itself. Perfect for cacti!

Perfect soil for cacti I have found on a highlands of my hometown thanks to my long walks in the woods. (That's me few years younger.)

The soil found in woods I usually mix with zeolite. The appropriate amount of zeolite depends on the species. It is very important to know the right ID for cactus or any other succulent I care and grow. So the Knowledge comes in the play again. If I know the right ID I can search the internet for more information. It is very good to find some images of that species in habitat. If one grows in rocky mountains or sandy desert it needs more zeolite and small amount of humus, but if it inhabits a grassy place it needs less zeolite and a bit more of humus.

It sounds quite simple, isn’t it? But I didn’t know it at first. I live in green part of our planet, it is common to everyone here to consider: more humus, better growth and more flowers. But with cacti such a way of thinking can kill them. The way of my soil preparing, just described, sounds too excessive to many cactus enthusiast in my country . They mix zeolite with peat, and their plants grow and flower also, but with such acid environment plant is more sensitive to diseases. On contrary in mineral soil mixture cactus will be more healthy, more endurable, and with excellent growth and abundance flowering. It is just in their genes to accept mineral soil better. I realized that when reading how Dag Panco called them ‘stone eaters’. Of course there are some species which love organic soil, like members of genus Cereus and of course Epiphytes. Not are all species with same requirements, so Knowledge often comes on the scene.

The reaction of my cacti on the mineral soil I mixed for them:

Everything started with one cactus I found in a supermarket 18 years ago, and one book that a friend borrowed me, E. and B. Lamb ‘Cactus’. I was looking at images in that book everyday imagining how beautiful it would be to have any of those beauties. In that time there were no web pages of cacti tips growing, so I had to learn from my own mistakes.

Now when internet has grown there are many free journals of cacti, even free library of some good books. It is available to order almost any species via net, and that’s why I do not want to do that. It is too easy. Enjoyment is much bigger when I grow them from seeds, thanks to Persistence and Patience, of course. That pair from the beginning of this story are helping me a lot on my way of fulfilling my life with beauty and satisfaction.

Except that I’m looking for some good seeds, bringing soil from woods, checking their health and progress, I also look for nice, sometimes handmade pots. There are few fairs of used goods in my city which I visit from time to time, and every interesting pot that I find makes me happy. My cacti and other succulents look so handsome in them.

One of the pots found on a fair of used goods.

Now I have them more then words in this story! In summertime I need to spend two or three evenings a week to water all of my stone-eaters. It is very important to let the soil dry between watering. Some of you would probably not believe when I say they are very thirsty creatures. Well, they are like small kegs of water - with spines. But you will agree, they all have very interesting shape of bodies and spines. Most of the flowers are intense colors that makes them more noticeable to the pollinators in habitat. I love their colors!

What makes me especially thrilled is when some cactus flowers for the first time. I wait for that moment with a big excitement. Now the spring is coming and I can’t wait for them to wake up and buds to appear! I already have seeds prepared, just waiting warmth to come and Sun to join me and than to light the fire of Love in whose flames my darling Persistence and Patience would dance and Knowledge to grow, honoring wonder of cacti.

For the end there is an illustration of my cacti-addicted head with spines: 😊