Maryl said:Baja: Your M. Candida looks alot like my cotton puffed Plumosa. Is yours spiny?

Those are actually not my plants, but yes, they are super spiny, not soft to the touch.

Here's about the most exciting thing going on with my mamms. I have one just producing fruit like crazy. I've been picking it almost daily and just tossing it into salads or enjoying it 'au natural' as a refreshing sweet-tart pick me up whenever I am outside.


We got a magnificent rain storm last evening punctuated with lightning and thunder. Things look much better, plump and green and rejuvenated. The weather is also cooling down and temps are steadily lowering.

We will be edging steadily downwards from the 108-104 F range this week to the 104-99F range next week. Humidity is off the charts here by AZ standards ( to clarify) in the 30-40% range and there is a 10-30% chance of rain ever present for the next 10 days.

While I am not appreciating the humidity I am always ever hopeful for the rain as we can use it and need more. The plants are enjoying it though so that's what is important. Our monsoon this year has been dubbed the 'nonsoon' due to the pitiful absence/lack of moisture and rain.

So one more on the m.decipiens

And this is the anomalous new grow on the fishhook

I think it probably indicates it is not getting enough light.
Alternatively did you repot this recently and during the process lost a bunch of roots?

Neither , im afraid. The 2 next to(matudae and spinossima) it are displaying sings of regular growth, one growing even denser spines and tubercules.
Most of my plants, especially my mams, have entered a growth phase as of recent, this being no exception. I have mams in shadier spots than this, showing no signs of etiolation within the new growth.
I take it this is due to the shorter daytime and lower max temps

Their light needs can differ greatly, I would not judge one Mammillaria's light needs based one another that is not of the same species.

This can also be a sign of root loss.

Absolutely no change in watering, or subjected to any extreme conditions that can cause it..
And out of all the ones in the pot, this one is the only one exhibiting such behaviour.
I dont think its a root, issue, since healthy plants
Dont bloom, pup, and grow in a relatively short ammount of time..
In my experience root loss is indicated by a complete censure of growth..

I have a Mystery Mamm. I've had it for a couple years and its been up-potted once but has not bloomed. Its a little hard to handle so I'm not looking forward to next re-pot. Those hooked spines are over an inch long. Any thoughts?


Yes, it could use some fertilizer. No, that's not rot. Its dirt from the pot of its upstairs neighbor.

DaisyI said:

Yes, it could use some fertilizer.

Why do you say that? Because of the light green color? Wouldn't re-potting it take care of that without adding fertilizer? I've never been tempted to fertilize any cactus. Now that the stink bugs have leached some color out of three of them, I'm sure they look like they need it but it doesn't seem to me that would be a good solution. I'm not being snarky here. At best I have a hate/love attitude toward using fertilizer - especially chemical fertilizer - on container plants. There are definitely some plant that respond well to it, but there are more that seem indifferent and some that react badly. Something I try to avoid and not an area I'm much given to experimenting with. I'm just curious what your marker is.

I think I fertilized last summer, maybe it was the summer before last. I just mentioned it was a little pale because I didn't want that to become the focus of the conversation. That worked well.

The messy spines really make me think of M. decipiens, but I have never seen any of its ssp. with hooked spines... On second thought, you sure this is a Mamm. and not a Coryphantha? Plenty of those with messy and hooked spines...

That's a really good question. I thought the tubercles and the cotton tufts between the tubercles were the defining characteristics. BTW, the spines are 1.5 inches - I measured them.

Coryphantha also has tubercles and its areoles are also dimorphic (spines at the tip of the tubercles, flowers at the axils)... differences being that Coryphantha flowers at the apex (mostly) instead of in a crown-like ring on earlier growth; and Coryphantha has grooved tubercles. The grooves are less evident on some plants (to my non-expert eyes) than others. Complicating things, some plants make grooveless and grooved tubercles, the latter appearing only later in life.

Mamm. oteroi in its new pot, to go along with my recently identified Agave oteroi. The hooked central spines stand out if you look for them.

Cool! The central spines are orange!

I need this Mammillaria/Coryphantha to bloom! The closest match I can find is Coryphantha with some combination of robustispina and scheeri for genus/variation/subspec. names in different orders, depending upon who you read.

A couple of those labeled C. robustispina/scheeri whatever I think are probably Ferocactus.

3 random genera here (beyond Coryphantha) with spines on their tubercles and fuzz (and flowers/fruit) between the tubercles, fyi:



Dimorphic areoles appear on way more cacti than I would have guessed a couple weeks ago, before I started learning about obscure genera of Mexican cacti from my new cactus book.

Some ongoing Mamillaria activity.

M. Rhodantha just keeps blooming. It's just been amazing and still shows no sign of stopping. One of the blooms has set a fruit. That's the first Mammillaria to do that.


M. karwinskiana subsp. nejapensis has decided to bloom. The open blooms aren't much, but the red striped buds are cool. There's at least one other bud showing, but if there are more than that they hiding under the cotton.


This M. species has also been blooming for a long time and there are a lot of buds still to bloom. They circle the barrel, but they only bloom a few at a time in a little colony - never makes the ring. The thing here, though, is that this one is losing the round barrel and elongating into more of a column.


And I purchased this M. elongata 'Copper King' cristata. I already had the non-cristate form of 'Copper King' and thought it would be interesting to observe both growing.

Most of the cactus plants have done well this year, but I think the Mammillaria may have been the most active and grown the most. Those I acquired in the spring and early summer wouldn't fit in the little containers they came in.

The M. rhodantha gets the Energizer Bunny award. It's STILL blooming. It now has four red fruits, though they aren't very plump and fleshy like I would expect.


This little M. species has also been blooming a long time and is blooming more and more as it goes along. Started heading toward making a column instead of the barrel, I think.


The M. karwinskiana subsp nejapensis now has a complete ring of buds and blooms. They were hiding in the cotton earlier, but they continue to emerge. I was looking at the label that came with this and it calls this one 'Silver Arrows'. I don't know whether to bother including the name or not. It's not in the NGA database


The most rewarding for me in terms of growth is the M. spinosissima 'Un Pico'. It got so scarred and battered in the hail storm I wondered if it would recover. It's grown so much since that the damage is barely noticeable. Note to self - protect from hail.

'Silver Arrows' seems to be an Altman Plants cultivar, from what I can tell, and I'm not sure it's particularly different from the subspecies, but we can add it to the database if you so desire.

Photos here of a single fruit on this plant:


The last time it fruited there was only one and there were no viable seeds inside. If you look carefully at the first photo there are tiny white bugs all over the plant. I have been unsuccessful in clearing this bug problem using soapy water and a systemic, and I'm not real happy about there being an ongoing source of pests on the patio.

Baja_Costero said:'Silver Arrows' seems to be an Altman Plants cultivar, from what I can tell, and I'm not sure it's particularly different from the subspecies, but we can add it to the database if you so desire.

Don't add it on my account. I didn't use it initially. They omitted the karwinskia and only listed the plant as M. nejapensis on the label. I have confidence issues with the labeling from the mass market. I expect more specialized sources to be more accurate. I don't have a problem growing their plants because some are really nice, but the assigned name is not always accurate in my experience. If 'Silver Arrows' could be linked to a hybridizer and official registration then it would be nice to have it in the database. If not, well......... I suppose when a plant gets into commercial distribution under a name, it's probably a good thing to have it listed - but not on my part.