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propus1979

What is my succulent/cactus?!

propus1979
9 years ago

Hi,

I have searched and searched and haven't been able to identify my succulent/cactus. Can anyone offer any advice on what this is and how best to look after it?

Thanks.

Comments (16)

  • nomen_nudum
    9 years ago

    Don't know what it is but it is over potted The pot is to big and would be better in a sharper draining soil.

  • Microthrix
    9 years ago

    Austrocylindropuntia subulata monstrose possibly?

  • cactusmcharris, interior BC Z4/5
    9 years ago

    propus,

    Either that or the regular kind (non-crested), but one of those two, as Zech (Microthrix) illuminates. It's also called Opunta subulata and gets the size of 6' thickets of wickedly spined hellions of painful contact. Still, if you have some spare room, it should be grown.

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks guys,

    I Googled Opunta subulata and results look exactly like what I have, but no sharp spines. Thanks for the quick replies and setting me on the right direction. This is my first succulent!

    The picture I posted was taken about 1 month after I took the wee plant plant home. At first it had (I don't know the correct term) about three main shoots and was in a tiny tiny pot. Within a few weeks it turned into what was in the picture and was way to big for the pot.

    The pot its in now (as pictured) is actually filled with decent sized gravel at the bottom and a mix of soil, gravel and pebbles in which I repotted the plant. That pot then sits ontop another bed of gravel inside a larger clay pot. I live in UAE and getting my hands on gardening supplies hasn't been the easiest, but I'm sure I'd have better luck with one of the larger garden centres in Dubai... I just need to know what to look for. I have a soil moisture meter in the pot and only water when the soil is dry.

    It's been in the larger pot for about 6 months now and has just started leaning slightly. I'm not sure if the leaning is due to some pretty windy weather we've had or due to location vs. sun.

    By the sounds of your posts I could be in for a rather large plant 'if' I manage to keep it alive.

    I'll post some pictures of its growth over last six months.

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Some pebbles added.

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Put outside with some more pebbles to look a bit nicer. At this point I stopped taking in inside during the night as the weather was starting to warm up again.

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    This was 3-4 weeks ago and when I noticed it had almost shifted up a gear in the growth rate!?

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    This was taken today. Can of soda for size comparison, its a 300ml can.

    Weather has been very windy and as can be seen the plant, pebbles and soil meter are fairly covered in sand even from this high up on the 16th floor balcony. Next time
    I water I'll spray the whole plant with some water to clean off the sand.

    The plant feels fairly solid to touch, but to be honest I have no experience and wouldn't have any idea on how to tell if the slight leaning is natural, due to wind (peoples cushions were blowing off balconies!), due to sun or dreaded rot?!

    How do I check?

    Does the plant generally look OK or should I be concerned about anything... other than the possible size this thing might grow!

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    OK guys, so I think I know why the plant was leaning. It's chasing the sun as it goes past my balcony. By the end of the week the whole plant was leaning to the right pretty bad. I rotated the plant 180 degrees and within a couple days it was upright and a couple more days it was leaning to the right again! I now periodically rotate the pot to keep it straight like in this recent photo.

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Here's a view of where it sits. You can see it shaded right now, but by mid day the sun hits the plants until late afternoon. Sun sets over to the right which is the direction the plant tries to lean.

    What should I feed this thing? Any suggestions for normal plant food I can use? I haven't managed to find specific cacti or succulent food.

    When should I look to repot the big one?!

  • KittieKAT
    9 years ago

    What a beautiful plant, i HAVE something kinda like when you first got it but it doesn't have spikes or whatever those things are growing outta it, very cute... I'd say re-pot when your plant becomes to top heavy ot when you start to see roots sticking outta the bottom, then again I'm not to sure with this plant but it looks like you're doing fine, do what feels right and goodluck

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Hi KittieKAT,

    I'm rather pleased with how it's grown as I had no idea what I was doing. Thanks for the advice. I'll check the pot for roots. Haven't moved it since weather got nice expect rotating the pot. To show how much the plant follows the sun here is a before and after. Before picture was taken today at approx 1100hrs and the after picture was taken today about 1600hrs.

  • chicagardens
    9 years ago

    lovely!

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    So, a wee while has passed and this Cactus has been interesting. It's started growning spikes... which I found out the hard way! It likes to chase the sun (see pictures attached) and I'm wondering when I should think of repotting?

    First picture is yesterday around 6pm after a nice sunny day.

  • propus1979
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    And this picture was taken this morning at around 7:30am!!

  • cactusmcharris, interior BC Z4/5
    9 years ago

    You might consider putting dirt on the floor and planting the cactus in it - in no time you'll have your own thicket o' Opuntia, turning into a beast of barely manageable proportions (and that's with the extended chainsaw-on-a-pruning pole on full bore).

    This post was edited by cactusmcharris on Thu, Jul 3, 14 at 16:18

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