Today's deep thoughts about plants

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Azuleja
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Today's deep thoughts about plants

#1

Post by Azuleja »

I never thought I'd be meticulously grooming a cactus with needle nose tweezers, but I spilled some soil in its wool and the little black specks are making me crazy. So here we are.

Also, A. ovatifolia leaves break really, really easily.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#2

Post by Melt in the Sun »

Sounds like fun! I've spent my share of time picking crap out of spines, but at least not on a cactus.

As I moved a bunch of my spring trade acquisitions into more sun yesterday, I wonder which will be the first to suffer from the errant soccer ball, and how bad the damage will be. The cynical part of me says that Aloe ikiorum, mawii, and Agave albopilosa will naturally be the first and hardest hit.

I look ahead to removing a bloomed 'Sharkskin' and wonder how long it will take and how many stab wounds and subsequent infections I will suffer. I watch my 6' across Dasylirion bloom for the first time (male, BTW) and wonder if it will split heads and thus need removal. That'll be fun. Is any of this worth it?

But then I start to consider what I might put in the ground in those spots...sounds exciting again. At least for now!
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#3

Post by Agavemonger »

Azuleja: Try delicately using an old, gentle-bristled toothbrush; they work great for cleaning up most bristly cacti without injuring the plant. ::wink::

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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#4

Post by Azuleja »

^Thank you, I used a short bristled artist's brush with moderate success and finished picking the wool clean with tweezers. Couldn't stand seeing it in a black plastic pot anymore.
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Azuleja
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#5

Post by Azuleja »

Mits, I think about removal too. I have a nice big spot waiting for A. franzosinii, which is small and many years off from going in the ground. But I think, good God, who will remove it? I hope to be dead by then so it will be someone else's problem.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#6

Post by mcvansoest »

Removing big Agave carcasses is definitely an adventure, but with the right preparation and tools it is not excessively hard.

One thing I learned through personal experience is that personal protection is worth spending a little bit of time, effort, and money on. The first time I had to remove a big A. weberi carcass, I just wore a long sleeve t-shirt, jeans, solid work boots, work gloves and a hat. I used big sharp hedge shears to go after the leaves. It worked, but I suffered a large number of cuts and scrapes from the small but definitely present teeth. However, that was not the worst, I got exposed to a lot of the Agaves juices on my arms and chest area (do not hug debris when moving it to the waste bin, duh!) and I turn out to be one of the persons that gets pretty severe allergic reactions to those juices with terrible itching rashes that kept happening for several weeks after my last exposure... I went through a lot of benadryl in those weeks.

So the next time I prepared better - safety goggles, thick canvas arm protectors, sturdier hat (I hat a hard hat when cutting the stalk down), two shirts iso one, work gloves, jeans and solid work boots - and I landed upon my electric chainsaw on a stick to do most of the cutting - which works great - and no exposure to juices and only a few scrapes here and there. So success.

Now, most recently, following Ron's advice I have traded in my chain saw on a stick for a very sharp bowie knife, for my latest weberi removal project, which I have to acknowledge, despite being skeptical at first, worked really really well. You still need some kind of saw for the stalk, but leaf removal becomes super easy.

Now the big deal after leave removal is getting the stump and its roots out. With most of my big weberis I have had the fortunate situation that they were planted close enough to the street that I could get a towing cable around them and pull the stump out with my truck. Beats digging, and for some of the big plants you definitely want to try and get as much of the roots as possible otherwise you will be dealing with volunteers for years to come...
I had to dig out one stump that was too far back from the street, and that was a solid weekend project, of digging around the plant and trying to get it loose enough to manhandle it out of the ground. Not the greatest amount of fun I have had working in the yard, but not really that terrible either - I got muddy because I got the ground soaked to make digging and moving the stump about easier.

So, I get the dread of planting something that will get big enough (and has enough sharp bits to do some damage) to be a hassle to remove later on, but on the other hand having one or more of the large to giant agaves growing in the yard is an incredibly impressive sight. Even though A. weberi is not the most exciting of Agaves around, at its full mature 6-7 feet height and 10-12 feet circumference it is an impressive sight and I always get a lot of comments on those big plants. One thing to do though is keep them tidy - do not let the offsets get out of control, because that really makes removing them a lot harder, and also takes away from the overall look of the plant.
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Azuleja
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#7

Post by Azuleja »

Well you make it sound so sensible and organized.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#8

Post by Stan »

A good use for the leaf blower. OR if you are a techie,canned compressed air. I just use water...if something is impaled- tweezers. And even then,that's only if Im about to take a photo..otherwise..
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#9

Post by Azuleja »

I do use canned air once in a while to clean out my A. v-r. I try to be sparing with it because it comes out really cold.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#10

Post by Stan »

Ahh. I never used it. But that sounds right. Like compressed Freon!
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#11

Post by toditd »

Azuleja, The mammillaria is looking good in its new digs. It cleaned up real nice for its photoshoot.

I once found myself with a pick and a shop vac fitted out with auto detailing nozzles trying to clean out debris that was collected in rosettes of agaves. I found that a quick controlled blast of water was much more satisfying. But I can see that you might not necessarily want to do that with a woolen mamm.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#12

Post by Azuleja »

^Haha, I bet the neighbors got a kick out of watching you vacuum your agaves.

So, it's raining and thundering here in the second week of June. Nighttime lows in the mid 40s, and then up to 100F again this week.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#13

Post by Azuleja »

One of my echeverias blew off the porch in the storm and got pretty mangled up. Otherwise, everything else seems fine. These three were looking especially colorful this morning so I thought a group photo was in order. Aloe capitata var. quartziticola, Aloe 'Spiney,' Aloe 'Dragon.'
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#14

Post by Melt in the Sun »

Nice group...how much sun and water do you give that capitata? Also, nice 'Spiney' :)
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#15

Post by Spination »

Looking good! :U
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#16

Post by Azuleja »

Mits, my benches get sun from about 9:30-3:30 and the capitata was sunburning on the outer leaves. I think it would have grown out of it and been fine, but now I have 40% shade cloth up. I water it when the pot gets light. As a side note, I have two others but they're more pink.

'Spiney' has such unique color, like several flavors of sherbet in one pot. This one never showed signs of sunburn.

'Dragon' stays outside but in a much more protected spot with filtered light for about 3 hrs before noon.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#17

Post by Viegener »

'Spiney' is one of my favorites, though I haven't seen its flowers yet & they should be great (one of the parents is A. marlothii). It's supposed to get no more than 1' wide, so a little bigger than the miniatures. They go really well together though.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#18

Post by Azuleja »

Thank you for giving it a shout out, otherwise I wouldn't have noticed it tucked away in previous ISI descriptions. A. marlothii is awesome but a real lunker. To have all those spines in such a compact colorful package is really cool.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#19

Post by Viegener »

Yeah I think 'Spiney' is under-appreciated. Pls post pics if yours flowers!
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#20

Post by Stan »

I think A. quarticola is a must have. I guess its on ebay? anyplace cheaper?
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#21

Post by Viegener »

You mean A. capitata var. quartziticola? I got a few at Arid Lands. They grow slowly but are beauties even when small...
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#22

Post by Azuleja »

Mine are from Arid Lands too. Each is a slightly different color so I'm glad I got a few.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#23

Post by Azuleja »

None of my agaves are quite so colorful as the aloes, but here are three with some nice shades of plum. A. marmorata, A. 'Little Shark,' A. delamateri.
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#24

Post by Viegener »

My marmorata has great coloring, also my little delamateri. Did you get yours from GeeS too?
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Re: Today's deep thoughts about plants

#25

Post by Azuleja »

The delamateri, yes. How is yours coming along?
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