Coryphantha maiz-tablasensis in flower

 

    It may seem difficult to grow it, but it surely is easy to get it to flower in my growing set-up. I use a largely mineral soil-mix, comprising granite, some clay-ish calcarous stone chippings, large diameter river gravel, some sand, perlite and 5 to 10% wormcastings. Except for the perlite, everything is sort of DIY, as I never buy materials but prefer to collect it myself while visiting various places in the (nearby) mountains and hills.    

    Mature plants are kept outside, in full sun, with no shade and are subject to intense heat during the entire summer months. I give them rain water once per week or two times a month, depending on the heat and humidity. During the winter they are kept without water in a cool dry room. It is normal for them to shrivel and loose body volume in this period. The watering only resumes when outside temps exceed 18 degrees Celsius. I rarely feed them nutrients. If so, they should be poor in Nitrogen and applied in small doses at the beginning of the season, after the first waterings.

How I keep my lophophoras happy

 

    It begins with the soil mix which must be coarse and gritty. I usually use small gravel gathered from mountain river beds, perlite, volcanic rocks, granite chippings, coco choir and worm casts - produced in the house. I keep mature specimens in full sun, with no shade, even when temps are above 40ºC. Waterings are done twice a month or so, with rain water only. If kept in the same pot for several years, I usually sprinkle some fresh worm castings on top once a year as seen in the picture above. Other diluted nutrients are used very rarely and only if organic, with low N values and high PK.

    During dormancy I stop watering completely and keep them in a dry and well illuminated environment - natural light only. Temperatures may drop below freezing point with no consequences whatsoever. 

     The specimen in the pictures is the El Huizache variety originally from San Luis Potosi, Mexico, 7 or 8 years old and produced copious amount of seeds the last 3 years - cross pollinated with the same or other SLP varieties only.  

    On a side note, I might have some seeds for trade so don't hesitate to contact me in private if interested.

Hard grown astrophytum capricorne var. niveum

     This mature astrophytum capricorne var. niveum is now resting as it's winter time here and temperatures are at freezing point. It does not receive water at all this time of the year and is kept in a well aerated, dry and well lit environment - sunlight only. It is a cold hardy specimen which can withstand temperatures of -10ºC, although in my set-up it rarely gets below 0ºC. In summer time it is kept in full sun at temps often above 40 ºC and flowers profusely if watered abundantly once a week or so. I use exclusively rainwater.

 

    The soil mix is coarse comprising perlite, coco choir,  small gravel, sand and self produced wormcasts. I rarely use nutrients on it - once or twice a year maybe. If so, I use something preferably organic with low N and high PK values enriched with microelements.