Caudex & Cactus Lab
This is a grower’s notebook about caudiciforms, cacti and rare succulents, with a focus on raising them from seed.
I got into desert plants by accident. In 2020 my spouse started bringing home cacti and succulents, and before long I was the one looking after them. The collection grew on a balcony, outgrew it, and now lives in a small greenhouse that I heat through the winter.
These days most of my attention goes to the seed trays. Dioscorea elephantipes, Welwitschia mirabilis, Dorstenia gigas, Pachypodium and aloes have all come up for me. Plenty of other sowings have failed, and I’ll write about those too.
What you’ll find here
Seed-to-plant logs, with photos of the same plants taken over months and years
Species notes on caudiciforms and rarer succulents that are hard to find good information on in English
What actually happened in my greenhouse, including temperatures, soil mixes, losses and fixes
A lot of what I learned early on came from Japanese growers’ blogs, which go into far more species-specific detail than most English sources. Part of the reason for this newsletter is to bring that kind of detail to English-speaking growers, alongside my own records.
Who it’s for: anyone who grows succulents, from first-time seed sowers to collectors looking for notes on a particular species.
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