More Wintery Mayhem

 Welcome back to another episode of Lost In the Farmers Market, This post is late but it’s going to contain more information and attaches to newly filmed episodes of the YouTube series. So as promised, today’s main feature is how to treat a succulent that has suffered frost damage and is exhibiting signs of necrosis and/or how to treat rot in the early stages.   

 

 

Our ‘patient in this case is one of my Sunset Aloes (scientific name Aloe dorotheae). For those who are unfamiliar with the species Sunset aloes are named for the normally yellow-green color of their foliage which turns orange and reddish with exposure to full sun. They end up looking like a living sunset by the middle of summer. You can Google images of this and boy are they something, it's a color that looks out of place in the world of succulents but it is the real deal! The flowers of this Aloe are pink or sometimes pink-red and are borne on tall spikes that can rise up to two feet over the foliage. Sunset Aloes are amazingly dramatic and an underrated must-have for any succulent collection because they are largely disease free, with the exception of root rot. There is also the potential for their gel being medicinal just like Aloe Vera (Sci-name Aloe barbadensis miller) which is absolutely awesome. 

 

 

The specimen above was supposed to be sold during the houseplant sale months (December to February) but it developed what might have been frost damage or simple necrosis via rot. Root and stem rot is often caused by a bacterium called Phytopthora, which represents it self in very differing ways depending on the effected plant. In rhododendrons entire branches wilt and die off and eventually the entire plant collapses because Phytopthora blocks and destroys the plant's vascular systems. In succulents Phytopthora can attack the roors turning them to brown mush then work it's way of the stem or can attack individual leaves and work it's way into the main stem ending your prized succulent or cactus right quick. Phytopthora does not play around, it can destroy a cluster of prized succulents in a pot within a few days if conditions are just right. The best way to think of Pytopthora or stem/root rot is that it is like Ebola, but for plants.  Few plants ever survive it but there are ways to make this happen. I have a greenhouse so I can do things the average homeowner cannot but the following guide is something you can do as a gardener with no real special tools needed.

 

 

The first step is to identify where the rot and necrosis is located. In the case of this Sunset aloe you can see that three leaves have brown-ish gray areas in the otherwise bright green succulent. Using a simple 2" pocket knife I do point out where the problem is, and with that we move on to the next stage.

As you can see, I cut out the affected leaves down to healthy tissue. Now before I start cutting the knife is sterilized with Hydrogen Peroxide. Normally I would use 70% rubbing alcohol but that's understandably hard to get at the moment. Between each cut, I re-sterilize the blade, dry it with a new clean viva towel and make my cuts as cleanly as is possible. The removal of three leaves has unfortunately made this succulent unsaleable so it will get added to my collection after I am sure of it's recovery.

 

 

This next step is something the succulent books might not talk about. I use rooting hormone in powdered form to dress the wounds. I do this because rooting hormone is mostly inert talcum powder, which can be used to forcibly desiccate the wounds allowing this Aloe to close them off faster. Also the desiccating effect can prevent further transmission of Phytopthora, which increases the chances of survival. The brush used is a chemical brush that you can buy cheaply in the plumbing section of Blowes or Home Despot.

This plant will sit in open air for two weeks and will not be watered at all to see if the treatment takes. Then it will be gently repotted and kept in my personal succulent collection in the growing tray in the office. I won't know if it is out of the woods for a few weeks but heres to hoping for the best. With that said root rot is no joke, it's often the death knell of a succulent and you even have to sterilize the pot a dead succulent was in to avoid transmitting it to a new succulent in the same pot. a simple 1:10 bleach to water solution and a 5 minute soak will kill off the pathogens and restore pots that formerly held sick succulents back to normal.

Here is an unrelated picture from the market in February, a Honey Bee clearly approves of my succulents and hung out for a while. The best part about this is I have never gotten this good of a picture of a Honey Bee before and it was taken with a cell phone camera no less.

 

With all that garden goodness covered this is the part of the blog where I have to advertise for the Fayetteville City Market. Now I know you readers probably don’t much like advertisements, but by booth at the City Market helps to cover the costs of running the test garden and literally maintains the Research & Development budget that is used to bring you the information that has made up the backbone of this blog. Also, as of the start of 2019, my booth can now process credit or debit cards thanks to the acquisition of s a Square reader so your payment options have doubled. With that said, if you want to get some GMO-free, Organic vegetables, herbs and fruiting shrubs come on down to the Fayetteville City Market on 325 Maxwell Street in downtown Fayetteville between the Hours of 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. Even in bad weather the market goes on though you might have to look for me under the ‘arches’ of the Transportation Museum’s front entryway.

 

This Week's Market List:

Soup Kit - Parsnip ($6.00)  

Soup Kit - Turnip ($6.00)

Just Onions ($3.00, 1lb)

Just Parsnips ($4.00-5.00, 1lb or more) 

Garlic Bulbs - Jerimiah's Heirloom ($1.00) 

 

 

Spring Veggies: ($3.00 each)

Parris Island Romaine Lettuce

Cherokee Lettuce

Cimarron Lettuce

Lolo Rosso Lettuce

Black Magic Dinosaur Kale

Red Russian Kale

 

 

February house plant collection (Prices vary, $4.00-8.00)

Devil's Backbone 

Sausage Spurge 

Sansevieria boncellensis - Starfish Sansevieria

Aloe 'Sunset' 

Aloe 'Checkerboard'

Aloe 'Walmsley's Bronze'

Gasteria fusopunctata - Ox-tongue

Haworthia cooperi var. obtusa

Haworthia 'Fat Albert' (Last one in stock)

Haworthia tesselata

Haworthia ‘Savannah’

Haworthia 'West Jogo'

Mistletoe Cactus, 'Drunkards Dream' 

Check it out folks a Plant Showcase Double-header!

 

 

Gasteria fuscopunctata – Ox Tongue

 

Gasteria is a group of plants closely related to the Aloes and the Haworthia groups and they originate from South Africa. The name Gasteria comes from the Latin word Gaster which means stomach and this is due to the stomach shaped flowers. Common names for these succulents are Ox-tongue, Cow-tongue, Lawyer’s Tongue, and less commonly Mother-in-law’s-tongue. Compared to Aloe and Haworthia, Gasteria are the most likely to be mistaken for being plastic and they are the slowest growing of the three. Despite the slow rate of growth Gasteria are known for producing offsets without being induced and are for the most part immune to neglect. What makes them unique is their dark green strap-like leaves that have banding or dots on them that kind of resemble Snake plants (Sanseveria) without actually being snake plants. In cross section the leaves can be rounded, elliptical, U-shaped or sometimes a weird geometric shape (G. bicolor) that defies classification. Gasteria are so closely related to the Aloes and Haworthias that crossbreeds do exist and are commonly called Gasteraloes or Hawortherias. This plant does well with watering once a month, in basic potting soil. It will need re-potting every two to three years and much like Haworthias, Gasterias are pet-safe. The real appeal is the cool foliage and then, the scent-free flowers which tend to appear between February and April. The one thing you should never do with a Gasteria is allow it to be exposed to frost, they are potentially hardy up to zone 9, but can be disfigured by frost or exposure to temperatures below 40 degrees.

 

 

Haworthia ' Savannah'

 

 

Savannah is a unique breed of Haworthia from south Africa that is noted for its silvery-green leaves and sometimes is mistaken for an aloe. It should be protected from exceptionally strong sunlight as it's leaves will turn reddish which may be unappealing to some. Generally, it is grown in bright but indirect sunlight and you only need to water it when the soil is dry to the touch below the surface. You can provide it with a weak fertilizer in the warm months every two weeks to ensure reasonable growth. This succulent should be re-potted once every 1-2 years in a pot no larger than 2" larger than the old one if grown by itself. This Haworthia's big chunky leaves make quite the impression in a succulent collection and it's quite striking when paired with a dark-colored pot. Some growers have suggested that the little bumps on the leaves resemble braille, and indeed who knows what story the plant would tell if someone knew how to read the leaves.

                                          

 

We have a new place to share information and work on groovy sustainable stuff!  You can look for Sustainable Neighbors in our own Nextdoor.com group under the name “Sustainable Neighbors of Fayetteville”. You don’t have to live in Fayetteville to join but it is a private group so feel free to request to join us if you are signed up on the Nextdoor.com site.

 

https://nextdoor.com/g/ybvdm226x/?is=nav_bar

 

Unfortunately, Covid-19 is still mucking up the works in terms of meeting in person. The good news is that Sustainable Neighbors does have a Discord Server. You can request access through our Meetup.com page or you can request access via our Nextdoor.com group. The meetup.com page is below for anyone looking to join us.

 

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

Since our meetings have an open-door policy you don’t need to buy anything or maintain any sort of attendance standard, you can come on in and join the meetings. When this Covid-19 mess calms down we may be able to resume normal in-person meetings. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market. This is the fourth LITFM post of 2021; stay tuned for our next post on or about the 5th of March. Don’t forget to check out of YouTube videos at LITFM-Garden Shorts.

A Profile In Diversity: The Holiday Cacti

            Generally speaking, most people think of cacti in a very limited light; they expect cacti to look like the Saguaro, Prickly pear, Barrel Cactus, or even the Mammillaria, and yet this is only part of the big picture when it comes to Cacti. To further blur the line, a lot of cacti don’t have the word cactus in their common name while a lot of succulents are called cacti but are not. A good example of the former is the Eve’s Needle (Austrocylindropuntia subulata) which is a true cactus and a relative in the Prickly pear family. An example of the latter is the Pencil Cactus (Euphorbia tirucali) which is not a true cactus. To add to this confusion, many thing that cacti grow only in deserts, and dry areas in the Midwest when in fact cacti have adapted to survive on mountainsides (san pedro cactus), grasslands (lawn peyote), and even in forests (the holiday cacti). The diversity as seen is quite impressive and thus many ask what defines a cactus since it’s known that all cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are cacti. The key defining features of a cactus are the following.

1.      They tend to originate from habitats with some level of regular drought.

2.      They show a number of adaptations that conserve water.

3.      They generally have a thickened stem structure that stores water.

4.      Most species have lost the ability to produce true leaves.

5.      The spines we see are actually highly modified leaves.

6.      Stems perform photosynthesis.

7.      Cacti often have shallow fibrous root systems designed to suck up any rain that may fall.

8.      Cacti stems are often ribbed which allows them to readily expand or contract during or after a rainfall.

So, with that said in this episode of LITFM, we are going to take a look at one of the most widely distributed true cacti in the world, the Holiday cactus. Now I know I did an episode on this prior but this year I have quite a number of photos to demonstrate the variety of colors that these forest cacti can bring into your home. But first, I know what some of you may be thinking, ‘Christmas Cacti are bland most of the year’, this is absolutely true however they are also one of the most tolerant easily propagated cacti known. This allows for someone to grow them with a minimum of fuss and very little special care other than a repotting every few years.

In fact, the holiday cactus are almost polar opposites in terms of care to what we would actually expect from a cactus, they like soil with organic content, don’t like being pot bound for too long and don’t like bright direct sun.  It is a common trick in the agriculture business to claim there is an absolute difference between the Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti when in fact, the only difference in their bloom time is how many photo periods of increasing and waning sunlight they are exposed to. Thus, you could get an Easter cactus to bloom at Christmas and a Thanksgiving cactus to bloom at Easter with careful management. Generally, there are two primary groups of Holiday cactus in the trade; (Schlumbergia truncata) Christmas Cactus and (Schlumbergia berkleyii) Thanksgiving Cactus. The two are differentiated by the fact that the first one has angular stem segments (they’re called pads) and is commonly also called crab cactus and the second one has rounded stem segments. Literally the number of photoperiods these two species of cacti see is all that differentiates their blooming time but of course we’ve seen this before as this is similar to what is done with Poinsettias and our perennial garden bulbs. Literally on a small scale we are playing a bit of god by tricking a somewhat simpler life form into performing its yearly ritual when it’s convenient for us. In the Agriculture trade we do this a lot; that’s why certain plants arrive at the nursery already blooming in spring, we manipulate temperatures and light and other tricks to get what we want.

But wait, there’s more, there is a third common member of the same family called Hatiora, these thin-stemmed cacti are a forest epiphyte and the most famous representative of this family is commonly called ‘Dancing Bones Cactus’, ‘Spice Cactus’ or, ‘Drunkard’s Dream’ (Hatiora salicornioides). The first name comes from the longer extended stem segments that look like bones and the fact that they tend to sway in the wind giving the illusion of dancing. The third common name comes from the shape of new and intermediate age stem segments which resemble wine bottles. I don’t precisely know where the second nickname came from, but the flowers of this cacti tend to be turmeric-yellow in color so that’s my best bet. The best part is that Drunkard’s Dream takes literally the same care as a Holiday cactus and tends to bloom roughly between February and April which gives it the common name of Easter Cactus. The difference between Drunkard’s Dream and the other holiday cacti is that you can perceive its active growth, as it’s a moderate to somewhat-fast grower especially during summer with regular water and modest fertilizing.

            Propagation of holiday cacti is very easy, simply twist off a stem that has at least three segments dip the open wound in powdered rooting hormone and stick the segment in a new pot with lightly moist soil mix and monitor for dryness over the next few weeks. The new plant should root in three to four weeks and if you are intending to sell, give it an extra four weeks and light fertilizer to get the pads to swell. For note, Schlumbergia, take a bit longer to get to a moderate saleable size often up to two or three months so plan ahead. If your taking cuttings to save a plant or as a gift then they are ready when a gentle tug on the cutting provides resistance. I should note that just because these cacti are forest cacti does not mean they will tolerate being exposed to very bright all-day sun (7+ hours) very cold, or constantly wet. But as promised I have pictures of this year’s Holiday Cactus display which started in December and is nearing its end in February.

 

Pink tubes, white petals - a true bicolor

 This one is the oldest Christmas cactus in the collection, it was bought at Home Despot in New Jersey and made the trip to NC with me back in 2009. the wispy green stuff in the background is the branches of a Hatiora salicornoides  whose origins I cannot recall but have been in that same pot for at least five or six years now.

This is one hell of a shade of red...three technically.

This Christmas cactus was added to the collection along with two others, and according to the color analysis software I used to try and get an idea of what shade of red it is, it's fire engine red, Cranberry red and Crimson depending on the angle. In case you are wondering the blossoms are crinkly like that because I think they got slightly frosted.






This was a mixed colors pot from the same source as the above red one. Pure white with pink accents and incredibly pink bordering on fuchsia. The next two photos are two angles on the same plant.

While labelled as Dark orange, I prefer to call it Fireball orange.

This is  the third one in that group of plants that came from a Sustainable neighbors Seed Swap. Before this Christmas Cactus I did not think they came in any true shade of orange.

Now with 20% more redness!

Here is another red one, labelled as 'very dark red' it sure lived up to it's name. The curling of the petals is an interesting touch. Much like all the schlumbergia in the collection, this is a crab cactus.

Quick shot of Limelight Christmas cactus about to bloom note the bud color.

Now for the big surprise, last year I was offering a unique variety of Christmas cactus called 'lime light' for sale at LeClair's General Store.  What made the variety interesting was that the parent plant demonstrated bold chartreuse blooms. What I did not expect was that the cuttings would throw a curve ball.  As you can see in this shot, the buds aren't white or yellow as expected but largely pink which should have been an indicator of what was about to happen. Normally with Christmas Cactus, the color of the buds is a strong hint to the final color of the bloom.

This true color shot seems to have skewed the color of this Lime Light.

Dancing Bones Cactus

Pictured here is the first bloom of 'Lime Light'. While I realize that the drop cloth and the true-color setting of the camera has skewed the actual color of the bloom,  the bright pink colors in the tube and reproductive parts is accurate. The bloom turned out to be more of a Chartreuse-yellow than a Chartreuse-Green. From my perspective though yellow or green on a Christmas cactus even with pink tones is still a rarity as they are colors you simply do not ever see. In the next week or so I will try a re-shoot of a 'Lime Light' in bloom as the heavily budded cactus in the above picture is about to bloom any day now. I hope I can have a better image up here in the next episode so all of you out there can get a real feel for what 'Lime Light' has to offer.

This is a close up of Hatiora salicornoides, while it is not in bloom you can see why it got the name 'Drunkard's Dream'. The stem segments with age get longer as you can see and they go from a young sort of beer bottle shape to a wine bottle shape and then eventually look like bones.

This brings to a close the first post of February 2018 and a decent look at the biology, growing habits and nature of the holiday cacti. For note this is where the advertising starts because it keeps the Test Garden’s supplied. As always barring terribly wet and cold weather or illness I still manage a vendor’s space at the Fayetteville City Market at 325 Maxwell street between 9:00 am and 1:00 pm on Saturdays. I sell four things primarily during the winter months and they are:

Soup Kits - $6.00

Seasoning Packets – $2.00

Whole Garlic – $1.00

Fresh Organic Ginger - $1.00

Also, I will be bringing a number of random house plants every week if weather permits and While the assortment is purely random, there is not a thing for sale that is above $8.00.

If the market isn’t your thing or your schedule does not allow you to go there my premium exotic house plants can be purchased in attractive clay pots with unique embellishments at LeClair’s General Store. LeClair’s General Store is located on 1212 Fort Bragg Road in Fayetteville North Carolina.

This is their Facebook Page:

https://www.facebook.com/leclairsgeneralstore/

The Visit NC page’s Listing:

https://www.visitnc.com/listing/leclair-s-general-store

These days I am generally at the store at least twice a week, maintaining stock and/or delivering new materials so if you go to visit the store there is a fair chance I’ll be present to answer your questions. If not, you can always send me questions through this blog or visit the farmer’s market or pay attention to what Sustainable Neighbors is doing at the link below.

https://www.meetup.com/SustainableNeighbors/

            This brings to a close the third LITFM post of the new year, stay tuned the next episode which should be posted on the 21^st of February. The topic will be: A Profile In Diversity: The Philodendron Family.

P.S.

            Now is the time to start your hot-season annuals such as peppers, tomatoes and eggplant, but remember you may need a heat mat and humidity domes.