"Fat Plants" : cacti,succulents, caudiciforms, whatever..

[cohan]

beautiful arios, kris!
for those interested, here is a website on these plants, with some habitat shots:
http://www.living-rocks.com/haibitat.htm

[ashley]

What extraordinary plants.  Are they hard to grow?

[cohan]

What extraordinary plants.  Are they hard to grow?

the same site has a good article on culture, better than i can say   but the short answer is not hard to grow at all, just quite slow (some species more than others-some retusus are no slower than most cacti)..but need of course good light and control of moisture--not an outdoor plant in many areas with climates unlike their native one, though many people do fine with summer outdoors in warm-hot summer areas..

looking forward to hearing kris' regime, which i'm sure will be quite simple...

[Carlo]

Just getting the watering regime down. Lots of light and water at the RIGHT time is all you really need do after potting in a free-draining medium.

[krisderaeymaeker]

What extraordinary plants.  Are they hard to grow?

the same site has a good article on culture, better than i can say   but the short answer is not hard to grow at all, just quite slow (some species more than others-some retusus are no slower than most cacti)..but need of course good light and control of moisture--not an outdoor plant in many areas with climates unlike their native one, though many people do fine with summer outdoors in warm-hot summer areas..
looking forward to hearing kris' regime, which i'm sure will be quite simple...

Hi Cohan and Ashley . My regime is maybe quite simple but the Arios don't always seem to like it ... This has to do with our unpredictable climate.
Like al the cacti I cultivate (my greenhouse is 6,2 x 4.5 m)they get only 5 or 6 times water each year(once in a month).For the Arios :I start watering in may (for the other genus this is april)and in september I finish watering.The potting compost in our climate has to be very sharp drained.I use 60% bims/10% sand and 30% loam.As Cohan told ,they are very slow growing and it is not possible to hurry them.
I you hurry them , they will get some diseases anyway.
There are few problems in our climate...
E.g. , it is september and it is still good weather so you decide to watering once. But in Belgium our weather changes very quick. Few days later  the weather changes...and sun make place for wet ,cloudy and it became a colder period.In such circumstances we get some huge problems.The potting compost stays wet to long and the roots start to rot.Same can happen in may or even in june.Other problem , when the greenhouse get to warm in summer it is also dangerous to watering.Be carefull with sharp materials in your potting compost.They make huge taproots and sharp stones or grit could damage the taproots. The taproots grow so big that they fil up the whole pot and due the pressure the sharp materials damage this taproots.Repotting must be done very carefully.Damaged taproots could cause some infections.I only repot when the pots start to swallow...But once you understand some of this rules you be rewarded by the very nice flowers.The flowering season here is a bonus to because they are flowering in our autumn (or late summer)  .   

[ashley]

Thanks Cohan, Carlo and Kris.  Yet another temptation
The problems you describe with changeable weather apply even more so here in SW Ireland Kris, but maybe I'll try a few seeds & see how things go.
Lithops survive and slowly multiply for me in a cold greenhouse but rarely flower.  I'm not sure why but from Kris's description above maybe I water them a bit too often during the growing season.

[cohan]

What extraordinary plants.  Are they hard to grow?

Hi Cohan and Ashley . My regime is maybe quite simple but the Arios don't always seem to like it ... This has to do with our unpredictable climate.
Like al the cacti I cultivate (my greenhouse is 6,2 x 4.5 m)they get only 5 or 6 times water each year(once in a month).For the Arios :I start watering in may (for the other genus this is april)and in september I finish watering.The potting compost in our climate has to be very sharp drained.I use 60% bims/10% sand and 30% loam.As Cohan told ,they are very slow growing and it is not possible to hurry them.
I you hurry them , they will get some diseases anyway.
There are few problems in our climate...
E.g. , it is september and it is still good weather so you decide to watering once. But in Belgium our weather changes very quick. Few days later  the weather changes...and sun make place for wet ,cloudy and it became a colder period.In such circumstances we get some huge problems.The potting compost stays wet to long and the roots start to rot.Same can happen in may or even in june.Other problem , when the greenhouse get to warm in summer it is also dangerous to watering.Be carefull with sharp materials in your potting compost.They make huge taproots and sharp stones or grit could damage the taproots. The taproots grow so big that they fil up the whole pot and due the pressure the sharp materials damage this taproots.Repotting must be done very carefully.Damaged taproots could cause some infections.I only repot when the pots start to swallow...But once you understand some of this rules you be rewarded by the very nice flowers.The flowering season here is a bonus to because they are flowering in our autumn (or late summer)  .   

you water your cacti only once a month? are they in big pots? mine probably sometimes get water only monthly, but its definitely not enough for most of them in my conditions (indoors) i know they would like more..i've started watering earlier in the year (march or so) and continuing later into fall --oct-nov since in my current situation, i get more light early and late, and less in midsummer when the sun is high and doesn't shine into the house as much, also, a lot of our rainy (=less sunlight indoors) weather is in june-july..so i water less in midsummer

[krisderaeymaeker]

you water your cacti only once a month? are they in big pots? mine probably sometimes get water only monthly, but its definitely not enough for most of them in my conditions (indoors) i know they would like more..i've started watering earlier in the year (march or so) and continuing later into fall --oct-nov since in my current situation, i get more light early and late, and less in midsummer when the sun is high and doesn't shine into the house as much, also, a lot of our rainy (=less sunlight indoors) weather is in june-july..so i water less in midsummer

Oh yes Cohan ,once a month.The little ones are in smal pots ( diameter 5,5 cm) and bigger plants in flat planttrays (diameter 30-35cm) .
In my greenhouse temperature reaches 50°C in summer.There is no shading at all.The potting compost contains always loam and bims.Both components store water for longer period.The monthly irrigation is really a significant watering.
Much water at once is better than many times a little water. (I suppose this is the way it goes in the desert )
This is my  watering regime since 1984.For me it works well.In march and even in april the nights are to cold for watering .In this months I have to heat the greenhouse sometimes at night .So with this cold nights I keep the plants on the drier side. In march I mist the greenhouse on sunny days and this is a good method for plants to re-start and raise them again to create fine fibrous roots.Because the temperature goes down to 0°c in wintertime (this could happen from october )I finishing watering in september.So they can shrivel a bit and in this conditions they could resist more cold.

[YT]

Today, a Huernia guttata JSK005 flower is fully open. Fortunately, it has no terribly smell.

[krisderaeymaeker]

Very nice flower Tatsuo ! Do you grow more Stapeliads ?

[cohan]

you water your cacti only once a month? are they in big pots? mine probably sometimes get water only monthly, but its definitely not enough for most of them in my conditions (indoors) i know they would like more..i've started watering earlier in the year (march or so) and continuing later into fall --oct-nov since in my current situation, i get more light early and late, and less in midsummer when the sun is high and doesn't shine into the house as much, also, a lot of our rainy (=less sunlight indoors) weather is in june-july..so i water less in midsummer

Oh yes Cohan ,once a month.The little ones are in smal pots ( diameter 5,5 cm) and bigger plants in flat planttrays (diameter 30-35cm) .
In my greenhouse temperature reaches 50°C in summer.There is no shading at all.The potting compost contains always loam and bims.Both components store water for longer period.The monthly irrigation is really a significant watering.
Much water at once is better than many times a little water. (I suppose this is the way it goes in the desert )
This is my  watering regime since 1984.For me it works well.In march and even in april the nights are to cold for watering .In this months I have to heat the greenhouse sometimes at night .So with this cold nights I keep the plants on the drier side. In march I mist the greenhouse on sunny days and this is a good method for plants to re-start and raise them again to create fine fibrous roots.Because the temperature goes down to 0°c in wintertime (this could happen from october )I finishing watering in september.So they can shrivel a bit and in this conditions they could resist more cold.

definitely in a greenhouse they will get colder than  those indoors and must be drier..
i do some misting at times when i would like to give a bit of water but not too much, also; interestingly, this seems to be a typical practise in europe, very uncommon in north america..

[YT]

Very nice flower Tatsuo ! Do you grow more Stapeliads ?

Thank you, Kris! Yes, there are some more potted Huernias and Orbeas on my outside bench. I grow them outside by sunny and south facing wall just under the eaves all year round.

Here is an another one, Huernia occulta PVB 7767, but I took this photo in August and the flowers are all gone now.

[cohan]

nice huernias, tatsuo-- are you frost free there, or these plants are taking a bit of frost in stride?

[YT]

nice huernias, tatsuo-- are you frost free there, or these plants are taking a bit of frost in stride?

Hi, cohan! My place is in 9b-10a in USDA Hardiness Zones and one of the most sunny winter area in Japan. I've never lost my stapeliads by frost here.

[cohan]

nice huernias, tatsuo-- are you frost free there, or these plants are taking a bit of frost in stride?

Hi, cohan! My place is in 9b-10a in USDA Hardiness Zones and one of the most sunny winter area in Japan. I've never lost my stapeliads by frost here.

very interesting! winter sun is especially good  i will have to research your area a little.. we have already had nights as low as -9, though many days still in the mid teens C, and the soil is freezing already in shady places..