I swear though.. the prolifera looks a lot more menacing/ferocious on photos, than in real life...

A M. heyderi ssp hemispaerica growing in native habitat here. I meant to move one into a container last spring, but didn't do it. I have a couple growing in awkward places that need moving for their own protection.

Under the normal dry conditions, these grow as flat as a pancake and are often obscured by the native vegetation making them hard to find. When I had one in a container where it got water more often, it made a low barrel and they puff up a bit in wet years. In habitat, they are safe from mower blades but not the tires.

I like button shapped cacti. Granted, like you said they stick out like sore thumbs in pots, but they are very cool in habitat. This one, echinocatus texensis, some rebutias and gymnocalyciums and lobivias are all semi geophytic, often having only their apex stick out of the soil...

As it grows here, Echinocactus texensis isn't as flat as M. heyderi, but usually about half the barrel is below the soil level and it has a long taproot which makes it difficult to dig up if you want to move the plant. Heyderi is restricted to a very small area on my property and in small numbers, but E. texensis is the most plentiful barrel type that grows here - by far. Another one I intended to move into a container last spring. They don't quite grow the same in containers as they do in habitat. They are completely winter hardy in habitat, but weren't in containers for me. I plan to try again and modify my methods a bit. It will probably entail moving them to a more protected spot during winter spells that are exceptionally cold for us and of exceptional long duration - especially if they are associated with moisture. Those were the conditions that produced failure. Otherwise they performed quite well in containers and were safe to leave outdoors most winters.

I owe you guys some photos. Sorry. Way behind on everything as it has been a busy few months. Lots going on personally. So I have been more focused dealing with those things instead of the yard. You all know how life can interfere with gardening sometimes.
Anyhow, will get around to posting a few pics of my yard soon.
Happy day all.
AG

I lost one of the long hooked spine no ID heads. I may loose another, but the last one seems to be stable. I will avoid watering it at all though(i dont think i have been anyway but still).
I did get a weird case of deja-vu. I may have dreamt it or something.

The heyderi bloomed today. It was foggy till noon, so i didnt get to see it fully open.

Here is something going on right now...



Yesterdays photo(not a filter btw, thats sunlight)

We had a warm, dry day today and the Mammillaria flowers were looking pretty good.




And I saw the first buds on my pectinifera today (very exciting!).

Middle of winter here and i stopped watering weeks ago. My Arizona snow cap just wont stop blooming.


whoops wrong thread...

Steve

One of the prolifera's buds opened a tiny bit. The weather isnt cooperating.

skopjecollection said:Idk about that. Dichotomous growth can happen, sometimes its rare, sometimes its a usual thing for a species.But mind you, usual =/= always. There is an exception to every rule...
My own muelhen-whatever now has its growth centers turn a bit oval, stretching out sideways. I dont know whether or not its a indicator, but time will tell...

I've been meaning to revisit this.

Several weeks ago when we had a spell of warm weather, I thought it would be a good time to give the cacti a good watering since they would have time to mostly dry out before the next cold spell.

When I dunked the possible M. muehlenpfordtii in the stock trough and waited for the bubbles to mainly quit bubbling, I noticed the main stream of bubbles wasn't coming from the soil level but directly from the very center of the barrel. Apparently the center is a hole even though it's not detectable with the naked eye. Those bubbles lasted a long time and never completely stopped before I took it out to drain. I'm wondering if that may be a sign there is undetectable dichotomous growth in the plant.

It was sort of an odd visual while it bubbling. It also might be a good idea not to submerge it when giving it water. Afraid it might trap water that didn't evaporate and cause rot. Especially this time of year. At this time it doesn't seem to have caused any negative issues and from the duration of those bubbles it seems likely that the air pocket reaches well down into the soil meaning that barrel is really a tube posing as a barrel.

When the cactus has become a tube it usually means the plant is a goner or soon to be a goner. I have lost several Mammillarias recently that for all outward appearances looked just fine, only when they finally completely collapsed did I realize they had completely rotted on the inside.

To test, gently squeeze the plant, if it gives or is squishy you know what's up.

I fall into this trap too, but unless it is going to be unseasonably warm for a good long period water your Mammillarias and other smaller cacti as little as possible in the winter, tends to not be worth the risk to give them much water at all. For me especially the Mammillarias are very susceptible to winter overwatering. I am even worried about letting them see much of the rain we have been getting even though the summer and early fall were super dry - but I have too many in heavy hanging baskets to move them when rain is in the forecast, so I just hope that my soil is fast draining enough to get them through.

I always avoid wetting the plants center, especially if its a concave plants. Parodia ottonis, lots of rebutias, echinopsis, some mammillarias can be particularly problematic in that regard. I see that i avoid wetting the plant body altogether...
If they do croak, its just due to chance...

@mcvansoest

Thanks Thijs. Good info. They had been without water for so long and we were having a spell of weather in the 70s-80sF range with some windy days. I think I'll be alright since they have all been moved to a porch to keep them dry this winter. They've missed the natural rain and hadn't had any water for a while. The clay containers are relatively small and they tend to dry out fast in our natural low humidity much of the time. It's likely they won't receive any more water until the spring. It's sort of weird to be warned about watering since normally I clearly give less water to a lot of container plants than most people . Some surely don't get it often enough. I'll blame it on the warm spell. Those trick me and the plants both into behaving incorrectly as if spring were beginning. Not good. Also good to know the mamms are susceptible.

I went and gave the possible M. muehlenpfordtii a squeeze and a couple of the other similar sized mamms. It feels quite solid as do they. If it hollow due to rot, the water will just cause the rot to show up faster and probably isn't the cause. If it doesn't collapse, then it won't be subject to the dunking method of water anyway. There are others that I don't dunk for differing reasons. It tends to mar the M. plumose, e.g.

@skopjecollection Stefan I tend to be careful about it when the weather isn't warm and windy or when the humidity is high. My conditions are sure to be harsher in those respects than yours for the most part, but then I don't have some climate challenges that you would have. It's cold, damp and overcast today, but not freezing. The forecast for the days around and including Christmas have some mid 80sF predicted. Lots of beautiful weather during our winters where the days are warm, sunny and dry. Almost everyone would welcome some rain because the area needs it and fire hazards blanket a huge area. Not too likely we'll get much. We are just starting what are usually the lowest rainfall months along with the lowest humidity as well. And wind ranging from a nice breeze to unpleasant conditions that tear at things and remove surface moisture from everything are more common than not.

BTW Thijs - how do you perform the squeeze test? I got stuck - every time .

Bummer about the bubbly cactus, Donald, but an interesting and informative observation.

Just as a distant point of comparison to you folks who live in places with actual winters, I tend not to protect my Mammillarias during winter rain (and winter is our rainy season). Mostly that is out of laziness. I do cover my red-spined M. elongata, which tends to lose its roots for no reason. And I do keep my M. plumosa in a clay pot with excellent drainage in day-long sun. The native Mamms (M. dioica) look the best and tend to flower the most in winter. It could be they are just cleaner after several months of dust has been scrubbed from their surface. I have only registered one casualty I can attribute to winter rain, and that was M. camptotricha (decipiens), also in a full-day sun situation but not in a clay pot.

Also good info Baja! I just kept having wet weather early. Rain amounts weren't large, but nothing was drying out so I just moved everything to a porch. It's open on the south end and west side, so they don't get appreciably less sun than they normally receive. Sometimes I'll stick a succulent there temporarily, but most of the small collection of cacti are there full time unless we a wicked, long-lasting spell of cold weather that causes me to move them in the garage temporarily. Under their current conditions, they've all been managing the cold nights though one showed a bit of burn on one side. Sometimes on nights supposed to get to the lower 20s I'll move a rack with those supposed to be susceptible at the higher ranges of below freezing weather against a wall with the heated house on the other side. That's been enough and the one that burned probably should have been on the rack. It wasn't because it's supposed to be resistant to damage at lower freeze temps, but it apparently went below its tolerance level.

As for the tube mamm, it still looks great and is blooming today with more buds to follow. I'll just wait it out indefinitely. If I knew for certain it had rot in it's core, I might try and slice in half from top to bottom and see if either or both of the halves had roots and deal with the rot in an attempt to salvage it. But at the present time there is nothing perceptible that indicates any rot or other health issues. It had lots of hail damage from this spring, but that's now just small surface scars and not very visible. They didn't lead to rot early which was my concern late spring and early summer.

Donald, I would certainly not start slicing yet. It could be that some of the bubbling came from bubbles trapped between the spines and the body of the cactus.

Blooming is certainly a good sign.

No worry there, Thijs. I would have to see some outward sign before such a drastic endeavor. The bubbles were definitely coming from the center indentation of the barrel. Only that spot and for far too long to be from any trapped between the spines - of that I'm sure. The water was clear enough that the entire cactus and container were visible. Bubbles trapped in the spines would have been visible and from different sources. This was like a hole in a tire when you're trying to find the source of an air leak. Just didn't need to mark it with chalk . I will just keep it under observation - and not dunk it again in the meantime. Sooner or later it will resolve. For now it appears healthy and has even grown considerably since it was acquired.

This is as good as the prolifera is going to get right about now. What a shame.