Here is one of the Dioscorea elephantipes that I started from seed. He's about 6 months old.




Do you think he's a cutie?

Adorable

An experiment I've been running for the past 3 or 4 months is growing my plants in a semi-hydro setup.
It is setup like this I stick a wick up though the drain hole of the pot and part of the way into the potting medium and stick the other end of the wick into a water reservoir(which I make from cheap plastic containers)

When I'm not depressed and/or obsessed with something else and pay attention to the reservoirs and refill them when they are empty I got pretty good growth.

Three important points are:
1. Only use on succulents that are permanent house plants by either a sunny window or growlights or ones that don't get rained on.
2. Use a mostly or totally inorganic potting medium.
3. Use only on plants that are leafed out and if they start to go dormant remove the wick from the reservoir.

One way I'm experimenting with improving the system is by putting water storing crystals in the reservoir of my Pachycormus discolor last Wednesday. When I checked the mass of swollen crystals today they haven't shrunk down any. Some of the others have up to about half their water gone.

The reason I'm experimenting with the crystals is because I wanted the water and fertilizer released into the wick more gradually.

Well the experiment with the Pachycormus discolor and the water storing crystals didn't work out. The crystals didn't release water into the wick fast enough and the plant was drying out.

Here is a current picture of my Aloe ramosissima X dichotoma as it slowly branches.
This is the most expensive aloe I have ever bought. It combines the leaf morphology of the dichotoma and ramosissima. With the trunk of the dichotoma and branching habit of the ramosissima.
Does anyone else in this group love tree aloes. Once it branches a few more times I'm going to stage it in a large bonsai pot.

I have seen tree aloes, and they do look beautiful, especially when in bloom. Love the ones I saw growing wildly along San Diego, they like that mix of coastal coolness and full sun and that very coarse, grainy soil.

Adam, I'm a HUGE FAN of tree aloes. I have specimen sized Aloe vaombe, aloe divaricata, aloe thraskii. They are so exotic looking and easy to grow.

Here is a pic of my Dorstenia gypsophila baby.

Happy new year.

I just counted my plants and I have exactly 100.

That's a nice round number!

Hi, new here. Liking all the succulent pictures, especially the baby ones. We have a very mild climate here so just about everything succulent is (theoretically) possible outside. Including a pretty good variety of tree aloes.

I admire ambition but a couple of those tree aloes are really monstrous plants in nature (speaking of dichotoma/x and susannae) and it will be a real challenge to keep them going well in a small pot. That's a skill level way above my own, anyway. I have seen first hand the consequences when they get cranky. Total meltdown. In my experience huge aloes are like huge agaves in that they are hard to keep thriving in pots.

Have you had these plants for a long time? How are you watering the dichotoma & hybrid?

Baja_Costero

I wick water most of my plants so it's sort of like semi-hydro.

I intend to train all my plants as bonsai. Some of them I'm already in the process of training and others I'm letting get larger.

As for the aloe dichotomas they usually don't branch until they get several feet tall. But you can prune the top off to force branching while their smaller.

As for my Aloe ramosissima and Aloe ramosissima X dichotoma I'm going to let them gain size increasing the pot size as necessary. I will then stage them in appropriately sized bonsai pots.

That sounds cool. It's not easy to do, just so you are aware. These plants resist growing in small pots once they get to a certain size. And I doubt you will be able to tell the hybrid from ramosissima until it gets to about 5-10 gallons maybe. Here's a wonderfully full ramosissima grown in a pot:

http://raresucculents.com/extr...

The reason I asked about water is that dichotoma (beyond the very young seedling stage) does not tolerate summer water. In the ground, if it's rain water, okay. But be really careful what you're doing in pots because these plants come from a place where it's bone dry in the summer for months and they don't really know what to do with wet soil during that period. Maybe your semi-hydro method will do the trick.

Another tip: both plants are quite demanding about strong light, especially this time of year (when they are active). I suspect this is one way that ramosissima (for example) uses to manage a canopy. The heads on top that get lots of sun do great but the ones to the side or underneath cover (ie. bright shade) tend of straggle off without continuing.

That is GORGEOUS! Has to be many years old, I would assume. I like 'price on request'....

Welcome Baja, good advice, I too have succulents that when full grown would be large! You're reminding me that I have no idea what will happen then
You're lucky that you live in a place where you can grow them!!

I just repotted my Aloe ramosissima X dichotoma from an 8" terra cotta pot to a 2.5 gallon bucket I got at the dollar tree.
I made holes in the sides of it with a soldering iron so it would have good air flow. Also I put one in the bottom for the wick.

Nice looking roots down there on your little tree!