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Have a burro's tail (newly started when I got it about 1 month ago). It seems to be OK in east window and moist soil. Not sure if these are the right conditions for long term. Any one know?
I hope Joyce will indulge my musing as I answer. That's kind of a hard question to answer w/o some waffling, though I've always had very good luck growing a wide variety of healthy cacti & succulents. Most of what I know about plants has come as a by-product of my study efforts in those areas of plant and soil science that help me in my efforts to become accomplished at bonsai. Fortunately, those areas of science very broadly overlap other types of plants as well. IOW, if you become very accomplished at rearing a particular plant or a particular group of plants, you've already mostly paid your dues and it's not much of a leap to be able to add other plants to the list of those you find easy to grow.
Becoming proficient at bonsai is not easy. The small volumes of soils we use and the stress that frequent manipulations of plant material impose on the plants make it imperative that we have a thorough understanding of how plants work, how to keep them healthy, and how/when to safely manipulate them in order that we might safely bend them to our will. All bonsai practitioners that have reached a fair degree of proficiency are, by default, extremely good container gardeners. They understand container culture intimately AND they know plants. If they did not, they could not be proficient at bonsai. I'm not talking about those that practice revolving-door bonsai or plant rearage, where their newly acquired plants are constantly declining until they finally expire or get pitched in favor of new; rather, I'm talking about those that can grow healthy plants through myriad manipulations year after year with complete confidence that the 3-10 year plan they have for, and the efforts they will expend on, a tree or other plant they're bringing along will indeed come to fruition because they also have confidence in their ability to keep their plants viable and healthy.
I guess I said all that so I can say that I know what it takes to grow healthy plants, and how to fix the sick ones. My greatest strength probably isn't in houseplants/succulents/cacti, but that doesn't mean that what I know about how to care for them isn't enough greater than the average grower for me to feel comfortable that at least some of my insights and thoughts are bound to be valuable or helpful.
So I guess in one way, I can't say I know a lot about the specifics of cacti culture on a species by species basis - I don't know the little idiosyncrasies and specialized cultural wants of every individual species/cultivar, but I do understand how, as a group, they function and grow and how to provide enough details to the average grower to make their culture easier - the experts don't need the help. ;o)
I've probably already strayed too far off topic - so I don't think we should test Joyce's patience further. You could start your own thread, though. ;o)
Al, That is a stunning photo! Almost makes me want to grow cacti again!
Trina: I don't know much about cacti but back in the early 1970's I had a cactus collection with some fairly large plants and when I found a packet of cacti seeds at a local store, I decided I wanted to try my hand at growing them from seed. They germinated and these cute little sprouts came up, little stems with two teeny leaves each ... I thought the package had been mislabeled as they sure didn't resemble cacti but I figured I would leave them and see what they turned out to be, figuring they were some annual or perennial type plant. Well, eventually they did show the form of little cacti, thorns and all! I actually had them for about four years, they were still small plants and we went away for a few days at Christmas not realizing it was going to get so cold here in central Fl. We were in Miami and it was 40º down there for a couple of days in a row with very cold winds. We came back home and found there had been a hard freeze here and the temp's stayed in the 20's for two days! All of my little cacti babies were mush. That freeze killed our orange and grapefruit trees, as well as quite a few 8 ft. tall shrubs that were along the perimeter of our backyard.
So, if you like thorny plants and can find cacti seeds, I say go for it! Just be sure to use a light, very well draining potting medium (which I recommend for all plants.)
