Sunday, March 15, 2009

Repotting Lophophora williamsii in the coldhouse

Since 2004 I have experimented with growing Lophophora williamsii in an unheated greenhouse in Denmark. During this period the plants have been repotted only once a couple of years ago.

Coldhouse grown Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Texas)
Coldhouse grown Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Texas)

The plants are growing in 11 cm (4.33'') clay pots and it might not be apparent from a superficial inspection that they are in need of being repotted again. But on closer investigation it turns out that the taproots are visible through the drainage hole in the bottom of the pots.

Taproot visible through drainage hole
Taproot visible through drainage hole

I consequently decided to repot the plants. I'm usually not repotting plants in the coldhouse this early in the year as we still might get the occasional night with sub-freezing temperatures, but I figured that the plants are completely dormant – i.e. there are no actively growing roots to harm – and if repotted in bone-dry soil the plants will not notice they have been disturbed when the growing season starts in a few weeks. Anyway, that's my theory ;-)

Lophophora williamsii plants removed from the pots
Lophophora williamsii plants removed from the pots

Close-up of three Lophophora williamsii crowns
Close-up of three Lophophora williamsii crowns

Close-up of exposed Lophophora williamsii taproot-ball
Close-up of exposed Lophophora williamsii taproot-ball

After removing the plants from their pots I could smell that some of the roots had been damaged; a broken Lophophora root gives off an easily detectable smell reminiscent (to me anyway ;-) of that of fresh green peas. This stressed the fact that the soil really had to be bone-dry before potting the plants, so I let them sit for a day in order for the broken roots to dry out a bit, and shoved the soil into the oven to remove every last bit of moisture it might hold (this gave off an... let's call it interesting... smell and I weren't popular at all with the rest of the house).

The soil ended up being so dry that I was literally working in a cloud of dust while repotting – my throat was still irritated the day after so I'll probably buy a dust mask to avoid this situation in the future (not that I expect to get pneumoconiosis or anything but it's annoying to go “ahem”, “hrmph”, “cough” for a day when it can be avoided ;-).

Freshly repotted Lophophora williamsii plants
Freshly repotted Lophophora williamsii plants

The dry and dusty soil is also evident by the dusted fingerprints on the pots (12 x 12 x 20 cm, ideal for plants with large taproots) in the picture above.

Lastly I would like to make a note on the soil. I am adding unperfumed (and unused ;-) cat litter made from baked “moler” to my soil as this material is very lightweight and retains water easily without the soil getting soaked. I'm not quite sure how to translate “moler” into English but it is a diatomite deposit that Skamol, a “moler” processing plant, defines as:

Moler - a diatomaceous earth
Diatomaceous earth is a naturally occurring, soft, chalk-like sedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. This powder has an abrasive feel, similar to pumice powder, and is very light, due to its high porosity. Moler is a special mixture of diatomaceous earth and bentonite clay, ca. 60% diatoms and 40% clay. The clay gives the raw moler a brownish colour, and due to a high iron oxide content the materials become pink, when baked.

The pinkish granules visible in the topsoil in the photo above is “moler” cat litter.

As I live within driving distance of where the “moler” is quarried I decided to get some raw and unbaked “moler” to mix into my soil. Last summer I collected a few bags in the, now defunct, quarry pictured below; the plants described in this post are the first to be planted in soil with chunks of raw “moler” mixed in (visible as large, grayish flakes in the above picture), so I'm eager to see how the plants agree with this new additive to their soil. Even though “moler” contains large fractions of clay (the Danish word “ler” means clay, i.e. a literal translation of “moler” would be mo-clay) it's a relatively stable material that doesn't dissolve in water, so it will not clog up the soil when watered.

Old moler quarry on the island of Mors
Old moler quarry on the island of Mors

I'm a bit curious as to what effect diatomaceous earth has on insects. According to Wikipedia “diatomite is also used as an insecticide, due to its physico-sorptive properties. The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects' exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate”, i.e. the diatomaceous earth in the “moler” might actively help me control pests.

Monday, March 02, 2009

Flowering Lophophora diffusa, time-lapse video

I took the pictures for this time-lapse video of a flowering Lophophora diffusa in early May, 2008. I can't quite remember why I decided to not publish it back then – I was probably disgruntled by the glitches (a couple of seconds into the movie you can see the plant shift a bit, and after 14 seconds there's an abrupt change in focus) and decided I could do better. Anyways, I never got around to doing that and now, after all these flowerless winter months, the small errors don't seem to matter ;-)

It seems like the movie couldn't be embedded - you can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJFZXj_l0yk

The L. diffusa flower opened amazingly fast. The time-lapse video covers a time span of only 45 minutes and is made from 154 still photos taken at intervals of 15 seconds; the photos are played back at a rate of 10 photos per second (the attentive reader will notice that the above numbers don't add up – the focus change 14 seconds into the video indicates a problem that resulted in loosing images for a period of approximately 6 minutes)

Flowering Lophophora diffusa, time-lapse video
Flowering Lophophora diffusa, time-lapse video

The plant was bought just a couple of months prior to these pictures being taken, as described in my post on a Lophophora bargain.

Update - March 28, 2009
You can now watch the flowering Lophophora diffusa in blazing high-definition ;-) I cropped the photos used for the time-lapse video to a size of 1280x720 in order to make the 16x9 HD movie shown below.

It seems like the movie couldn't be embedded - you can watch it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOglA7PeHhM

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