Hard growing Copiapoa in Oceanside California
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- čas přidán 17. 11. 2023
- One of my favorite genera of cacti is Copiapoa and todays guest is Ben Grillo who has been growing and collecting Copiapoa for the past decade in oceanside California where he has a certain approach that tends to mimic the habitat look of these plants, albeit not perfectly but damn close in my opinion. He tour his shade house and dive into his care routine, soil mix and history as a collector.
Here is the Stone eaters pdf Ben mentioned.
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COPIAPOA \ Big Cactus Blando
www.big-cactus.com/en/
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This is one of the best collections that you've shown on the channel so far. Shout-outs to every grower who approach to make their plants look as natural as possible.
Highly weathered granite and other rocks with similar mineralogical composition are often seen in cacti locations in Chile, therefore decomposed granite and pumice are logical choice as a soil base for Copiapoa. I would not sift out fine fractions though. Local soil and bag potting mix contain and store most of the nutrients and provide it to plants.
Speaking of "The Stone Eaters" article, once I was hyped for it and it was my inspirations for further research. But since I started doing my own research, I've realized that the authors used to have barely any knowledge on soils, soil science or petrology. The positive impact that they've made was a contribution to make people start experimenting with different ingredients and more mineral soil mixes, but that's all. Their first attempt on this topic in the article called "The Soil Hexalogue" was a completely mambo jambo. "The Stone Eaters" is more comprehensive and did somewhat better job, but still far from understanding this complex topic.
The authors didn't even know that most of the ingredients they recommend barely react in soil or do not react at all, simply because particles they recommend (mostly gravel fractions) are too big and the mineral bonds too strong to release significant amount of nutrients, that would be able to impact overall chemical composition of the substrate.
And I'm not telling this to be mean or whatever, as I said, the article used to be my inspiration at some point, but the more knowledge I get on this topic, the more I see that it has barely touched the surface. It's better to follow the article rather than most of random gardening advises, but it's still so much to be done in the topic.
Beautiful copiapoas, he certainly got the soil mix perfect, thanks for sharing Hunter!
Good exchange of thoughts. Nice set-up. Thanks for your time.
thanks for the Stone Eaters link. would be interesting to custom tailor soil for different species of cacti to more closely mimic natural habitats.
Cool collection and I love this guys vibe. When he said the plants look pretty bitching I was cracking up 😂
Hell yeah, been looking forward to this one!
Stunning plants!! Another fantastic tour ❤
670👍 checking in. Just realized you came to my neighborhood. Hope you enjoyed Oceanside.
Beautiful plants.
Great video, fantastic collection, thanks for sharing!
Great informative video .Thank you for all the folden nuggets 👍
Awesomeness‼️ Been waiting to see My bro Ben’s video !! 🙌🏼🔥👏🏼😮💨
What an awesome video!
It’s been a while bro.
You got me deep into this hobby, don’t leave me hanging BRRROOo
MUY BUENO !
MUCHAS GRACIAS !!!😊😊😊
Beautiful collection. I've been wanting to own a Copiapoa, but they are expensive here, and there aren't many nurseries growing and selling them.
Truly amazing content Hunter, thank you very much for sharing.
His greenhouse is pretty similar to mine and here in Madrid, Spain I believe that I have more or less the same climate, probably even more harsh here. I have to completely opened my Greenhouse in summer and as we approach Autumn I tend to enclose the Greenhouse again (with automatic vents and fans) and my Turbis seem to love this kind of approach. I also keep my cacti without any watering in mid-summer (3 weeks more or less) with lots of air circulation and the lophs and turbis get really blue. However my soil mix for north-mexican cacti is much more calcareus without any DG and some limestone.
My rule of thumb is just water if the cacti are really deflated and sad, then observe if after watering they get really plump, if not probably there are some problems with the roots or the soil mix. During hot days I mist some water to cool them down (here in Madrid we get up to 110F and nights with 85F).
What an incredible man 🌱
Súper good video. Very informative. Definitely going mineral is never a mistake a prevent any human error.
beautiful cactus plants
Definitely goals right there!
I’d love to have at least one in my collection ❤
WaW just awesome 🌵🌵🌵...
Awesome 😮
Awesome
Thats a rad collection of poas
I always thought the marine layer that slams O SIDE and Point Loma would be perfect growing conditions for Copiapoas.
Mine are turning a little red/purple from being blasted with LEDs indoors and pampered. 😂
Copiapurple?
it's not a secret. SD county is great for cactus and succulents
Great video man! You should come to Peru!
Just great information here. Hey, can you do an episode on Lophophora? Shout out from Taiwan~~~~~~
this is so awesome! his cacti are incredible. im a cacti fan growing not too far from him, so i got some very invaluable information from this video!
u should upload videos every week
🇧🇩❤️
Another nice tour hunter
I am interested in stopping the poaching, but I have no interest in trying to grow this one... They are beautiful, but you can't save them all!
First. Love your content! Copiapoa😁
This is a great video! Can you elaborate on why we should avoid decomposed granite from Home Depot? Is it because it's less cost effective than buying DG from a rock or landscape company? All I've been using is Home Depot DG because it's so easy to access 😬
maybe because it is stabilized? he didn't elaborate, but made a point of avoiding ''stabilized'' dg
@@bobs5596 that was my first thought too but I looked up the Vigoro brand DG and the Q&A section on the Home Depot site says there's no stabilizer in the DG. I always wash the dust off the DG before using it and I've never had any experience with caking, it remains loose rock no matter how many times I water it.
@@cookiescacti oh, hey cookie, didn't realize i was speaking to you. yeah, i'll have to go see it for myself, it might make good aquarium gravel. another good product they have is red scoria, they call it ''flower rock'' i think. also for gas bbq grills. it has to be reduced in size, but its a good soil component. i saw one vid where they used it straight for everything, even the pathways in the nursery.
Home Depot DG (in my experience) has always carried very poor quality DG. Most of the bag is very fine and you have to sift most of it out. The stuff from landscape/rock suppliers have the nicer quality, and grittier stuff.
@@benjamingrillo3423 Thank you for the clarification! And it makes sense - I always have to sift the bagged stuff from Home Depot and there's a lot of very fine particles in it. Appreciate the response and your plants are absolutely gorgeous!
What are the big black trays that he is using to hold all his pots in?
I have copiapoas sitting on full permatil.
So I have a couple that I bought locally in the midwest, weren't pricey at all, now wondering if those were poached from somewhere of natural habitat or seed grown locally, how do you know if the one you buy is legit? Sorry if this sounds confusing, I know what I'm trying to say but don't also lol!
Anyone know what the reddish little cactus is at 10:18? I’m talking about the one between two Copiapoa’s.
How does one order from Blando? The website asks for tax numbers…a bit confusing
why does he feel shade cloth necessary? is the Atacama cloudy?
i found this about fog oases. looks like most plants grow in the oasis area near the coastline, so maybe not much sun? a very specialized habitat for sure.
''Is there fog in the Atacama Desert?
Fog desert - Wikipedia
The Atacama Desert, the driest desert in the world, features lomas, areas in which fog condenses against mountain slopes near the sea and creates "fog oases" with an abundant biodiversity of plant and animal species.''
6:20
what is he saying?
"4 parts of pmas"? permas? pomas?
I want to know what product is he mixing with dg, vermiculite, akadama and dirt.
Pumice
so basically impossible in canada haha. amazing plants tho. also was wondering did he lose any?
What zone are you in? We can grow them in the UK!
@@greatnorthernexotic yea u guys domt get cold as us so u might b able to get that look. Im in canada ontario
Cacti and collections are perfect here.
But you should manage the basic movements when filming with a camera,
it's terrible - forward, backward, left and right, one could get dizzy...
A lot of the xerophilia journal/stone eaters article contributors are involved in the poached cacti trade. One of them is responsible for the 2 biggest busts in Europe having trafficked more than a million EUR worth of poached cacti, while other contributors were his buyers. Copiapoa were the most trafficked.
The soil info of stone eaters is also not very accurate.
can you send article? link? im unaware of this. thank you
''The soil info of stone eaters is also not very accurate.''
Yep. It is mostly speculative nonsense.
What is D&G?
decomposed granite
What's DG please?
Decomposing granite
I am watching numerous videos on cactus soil preparation but I am having a hard time putting it all together. You quickly throw off names of ingredients that I don’t know. I looked for names or links in the comments but still not clear. Visited the page you suggest and it was daunting. Too much information. I search for a “recipe” I can follow!
Too many little pots for me
is it hard grown tho if its oceanside? lolol hard grown Is like az sun
The atacama is fed by a thick fog, my guess is that has something to do with it