Hi SoCal , it´s you again my friend. Yes, I have one - the latest incarnation is Stenocactus multicostatus. Loads of wavy ribs - a beautiful cactus. How can I help you ???

I'm surprised you don't find Stenos down in SD. I find them up hear. Usually at Orchard Hardware Supply for some reason;).

Hey Spanish Fly. Thank you.

So "Stenocactus multicostatus" is what they are being called now? I seem to recall in another post somewhere where you (I think it was you...?) said you were partial to the cacti that are native to Mexico. Am I recalling that correctly?

I love the looks of this one but not sure I want to have one with sooo many thorns like the one I saw yesterday. It was in a 3" pot with such a tangle of thorns I could barely make out the ribs. To me it was unattractive to the point of being undesirable and obscured the reason that I find this plant appealing.

I don't know if there is anyway to tell from the small/juvenile stage what the mature plant will look like regarding the amount of thorns. Or perhaps those images I've seen on the internet of plants that had many less and/or smaller, finer thorns were all images of immature plants. If at maturity they all have such a mass of many long, prominent thorns, I would definitely pass on this one.

If you would care to post a picture of yours, I would love to see it. Also, I'd be appreciative of any additional info you'd like to share. Care, the age of yours, pot size, how long you've had it, etc.

Thank you,

Tyler

Hey Kara. Thank you.

I'e heard of that store but not sure we have them here. I'll definitely find their website and see.

So far, the only nursery I've seen one in was a smaller nursery (family owned I think with only 2 locations in the county) and yesterday was the first time. Of course, I don't get out much. lol

Tyler

There's an upcoming Winter Show;)down where you're at.

Feb 10 at Balboa Park, Casa del Prado.

Lucky duck;)!

Thanks, Kara. I'm going to try to make this one. I haven't been to one of their shows before. It would be nice to get a plant or two, well grown that was also locally grown. Something different, reasonably priced and no shipping. Am I asking too much? lol

Tyler

Yes SoCal - I grow mostly Mexican desert cacti . I will try to get a pic tomorrow.

You should find something good there. Remember SD is a place where you should be able to find almost anything you're looking for or at least close to it. You've got the Goldilocks climate for most succulents;). Usually stays warm enough, but also gets cool enough for some of those plants that need it;).

The place the show is held at looks pretty;).

The area is Balboa Park and it is beautiful. If I remember correctly it's supposed to be the largest urban park outside of Central Park in NYC and was built over 100 years ago for the Panama-California Exposition. Some of the buildings are showing their age but it's beautiful nonetheless. The San Diego Zoo is there, too and there are a lot of museums there that I used to drag my kids to when they were little. Of course, MY favorite place there is the botanical garden building.

I know right where Casa Del Prado is. I've been to a couple of the Plumeria Society's sales there. Seems like a lot of plant societies have their shows and sales there.

Of course, the entire area is a HUGE attraction for tourists so parking, while free (I know! Crazy, right? FREE PARKING???) finding a spot is always a challenge.

It just might be worth it though if I could get a couple of cool plants!

Tyler

The Sac and San Jose shows have easy parking, but the SF show is a pain. It's held at Golden Gate Park. The parking is free because it's the weekend, but I can never find a spot. I usually have to park in a residential area blocks away. Finding parking in the city is an event in itself;).

I love old buildings. The place the SD succulent show is held at looks gorgeous. The old Victorian houses in SF are beautiful too. Creepy and beautiful all at the same time;). Can just picture ghosts standing in the windows;).

My Stenocactus multicostatus - there is a ring of buds around the crown, so that will be one of the first to flower in 2018. See the large number of wavy ribs - multicostatus - ´many ribs´.

YES! Wow! Many, MANY ribs.

What is the pot size, please? 4"? Are the white pebbles top dressing? What substrate do you prefer for most of your plants in general?

Thank you, Tyler

That pot is 5" internal diameter. The marble chips are indeed top dressing. For my Mexican desert cacti I use a predominantly coarse, gritty mix, with a proportion of crushed limestone, some topsoil added and just a bit of organic nutrition, wormcasts and kelp. They seem to like it.

Off topic, I apologise but I have to add... I've only been to California once and one of the things that blew my mind most of all was free parking! Free parking at the beach, free parking at events, you can even just pull over on the side of the road and you're allowed to park there! It's incredible! Last time I went to a concert I had to pay $30 to park in the middle of Camden (murder capital of the us until last yr) and walk over a mile to get to the show. And the beach, forget about it! Its at least $15 to park at the shore and another $15 to get onto the actual beach. Pull over on the side of the road to enjoy the scenery (believe it or not, rural NJ is beautiful!) and a cop is writing you a ticket or searching you before you snap a picture! I'm jealous is what I'm saying. Wish I were there....

San Francisco is probably how NJ is, zero free parking. Except on the weekends of course. All over the city are meters and their maids zipping around in these little carts looking for flashing red lights on meters. They all wear bike helmets in these funny little vehicles too;). Depending where you are at in the city. Sometimes the meter is as steep as .25 for like 5 mins. That's crazy if you have to be somewhere for hours. So usually it's best to find a garage, take Bart, or find a parking site where it's about $20 for the day. If you're a resident I think they have free parking, but on certain days you have to move your car by 6am because of street cleaning. They will tow or boot your car in a hot minute. Now that I've given you SF parking 101;).

I'm sure they have these in other big cities. Pic from the internet.

When you're out of SF you can usually find free parking somewhere. That's why I hate parking in the city because everywhere else has some type of free parking;).

Big national parks or beaches usually will have a fee to park, but there are tons of free parks and beaches everywhere. I mean if you drive up and down the 101 every few miles is a place you can stop and park to take pics or whatever.

Another pic from the internet, but you can even see at the bottom of the pic is a place you can pull over and park.

Another beautiful pic from the internet. I'm sure where this pic was taken there was free parking.

I think it just comes down too the fact that the state takes up a huge majority of the western seaboard. The state is big and would be difficult to regulate parking everywhere;).

Ahh! When I visited my friend in San Luis Obispo we drove up the 101, almost to SF... and that was exactly what I was thinking of when I said you can just pull over on the side of the road! Someplace that looked just like that actually!!! I'm sure it's all gorgeous like that. I remember the smell of the air was so sweet it made me kind of nauseous... I honestly thought maybe I had never smelled fresh air before haha. (He said it was wild fennel that I smelled and it still made him feel sick too. )

Free parking and just freedom in general was so foreign to me. We drove up to some dock on the ocean, parked for free, walked along the ocean and onto the dock where there were sea lions all over the place... NOT ROPED OFF! NO SECURITY! They don't have to pay someone to keep douchebag teenagers from throwing cans at the wildlife or anything! You can hike right up the mountain next to you if you want and there's no trespassing charges waiting for you. I guess you guys just know how to act right!!

You're Totally right tho, huge state, I'm sure there's just as much free parking as paid parking.

Oh boy, I used to live in town with on street parking. I know all about waking up at dawn to move my car for the street sweeper. Or more like I know about not waking up and getting $35 tickets twice a week. I just read that NYC is second only to SF in terms of generating money from parking violations!!

Heh, biker helmets! Anyway, good talk!

GOT ONE! My list is complete...for now.

Tyler

Omg it is so small;). Don't you love the wavy ribs. I wonder if the more you babied it the less spines it would. You were saying you like to see the wavy ribs. I got mine summer of 2016.

This summer it started growing those crazy straight spines. Right now it has a little bud forming. I keep moving it trying to chase the sun;).

Isn't it adorable? Wow! Yours hardly has any spines but those that it does have are definitely serious! Can't wait to see the flower. BONUS!

The seller actually shipped it in a 1" pot with medium so I got to see what it had been growing in, which was pretty much similar to what is shown in my picture above. I think they used perlite though where I have used pumice. I potted up in a 2" pot due to the length of the roots. It's inside for now.

Kara, is yours in your standard mix? Where is yours right now? Inside? Outside? Bright light? Full sun? Like the Monkey Tail you gave me, you think that the growing method might decrease the number of spines? That would be awesome if it was the case.

Tyler

SoCal - that is great - such wicked spines. Latest of mine - a few flowers last week.

I just have mine in my cactus regular mix. In the summer he gets all day sun, but it was filtered because he was under a tree. Right now you could give all day sun, but once it starts getting hot I would just do morning sun/afternoon shade. Just so it doesn't get all marked up. Keep it pretty.

Right now I keep mine on the porch so at night there's some protection from the cold. In your zone I wouldn't worry. They're good down to 23F if kept dry.

A quote from cactus-art:

"E. multicostatum is one of the most variable Echinofossulocactus differing in spination, body shape and number of ribs.".

That is so very true when you go to look at pics they all look so different from eachother. Some are loaded with spines, while others are almost bare.

Yours is nice, too, gdinie. Very wavy ribs and only a few spines so as not to obscure.

Kara, it sounds like it's just the luck of the draw. Keeping my fingers crossed for as few spines as possible. I have no idea how old mine is but if the spines stayed just like they are and didn't obscure the ribs or develop into something lethal that would be all right by me.

Tyler

I will keep my eyeballs open around here. See if I see any with small amounts of spines;).

Dinie, yours looks like frosting;). My worst plant nightmare is root mealies! Maybe mites, root mealies are a very close second.

They vary so much in their looks. I mean look at all four Stenos on here. Same cactus, but look very different;).

Kara, yours has complete swords! That looks so cool. And yes, root mealies are my greatest enemy. Spider mites I can kill with alcohol, other mites I have never had, I am glad to say.

I saw this image on Pinterest. Same plant? TOTALLY spineless. It looks kinda naked with zero spines.

Tyler

The areoles on the cactus above makes me want to squeeze them and see what comes out. Gross I know;).

Anyways here's a pic from Ruth Bancroft of a very hard grown Steno. They had a huge one I would say easily close to a foot tall. Didn't take a pic because there were leaves all over it that needed to be removed before a pic was taken, and I didn't feel like getting stabbed that day;).

That spineless one kinda looks like spermatozoa bombarding an ovum.

Good to see some cacti enthusiasts here! I have a purple Lobivia and Sulcorebutia that are looking for new homes (better than mine preferably), if you know anyone!

That spineless one does kinda look.... funny. I have little seedlings, under a year-old, can't see the ribs yet :(

I still can enjoy ribs while the little guys get fat with these older fellows:)

Stenocactus lamellosus

and this other one, maybe Stenocactus erectocentrus (the labelled said sp. possibly erectocentrus) Might be able to confirm ID when/if it blooms on me.

Alain - no those are Stenocactus - Stenocereus are a different genus. The wavy ribbed genus - once called Echinofossulocactus, thirty years ago - are now included in the resurrected genus Stenocactus.

Stenocereus are tall and thin - like Stenocereus marginatus, shown here, the Mexican fence post.

SpanishFly, my mistake, typed the post too quickly, thanks for pointing it out. will try to edit.

Good luck.

It worked!!!