Watch your fingers! A look at Leopoldo’s cactus collection

We see our customers grow lots of different plants. Various kinds of crops are being grown up with our fertilisers, substrates and additives. But would you expect that even cacti can benefit from our products? Leopoldo can tell you all about it. He runs the Wild Cactus Nursery and has been one of our most loyal customers.

Your place is called a cactus nursery, but do you only grow cacti?

I mostly grow cacti, but I also have some succulents which I also feed with Plagron. Cacti and succulents are my favorites.

Interesting choice. How many cacti do you have? 

How many plants?! I can’t even count them, really! I counted up to 1500 plants once.  But there are a lot more, I think there are around 1700 of them. I’ve sown and grown 90% of those myself. I really enjoy seeing the plant go through all these different plant stages. Each stage requires different kinds of fertilisers, different watering methods and so on. That’s what makes it so interesting.

Wow, that’s a lot of cacti. What do you do with them?

Mainly, sowing the seeds. I produce mother plants to reproduce more cacti later. It's simply my collection, even if talking about a ‘collection’ is an understatement when you’re talking about 1700 plants. The hobby became a little excessive! It’s become my passion. I only grow what I like. Plants that I find intriguing and interesting.

Which ones are interesting for you?

I’m growing Mexican cacti specifically, because I love those. In particular Ariocarpus, Turbinicarpus, Mammillaria, Echinocactus, Epithelantha, for example. I don’t like all species from the same genus, but only plants with something special to them. One thing I don't like is unnatural looking monsters grown for the amusement of other people. I want to keep it natural.

Cool! Why did you choose Plagron to maintain your collection?

I chose Plagron because your line is very complete. You have all the products I need for my plants, from beginning to end and you have them in large containers. With over 1700 plants you can imagine how much base nutrients and additives I need to water them all. I go through dozens of litres of your products, but that’s OK. If something is your passion, it’s alright spend some time and money on it!  Anyway, your product quality is very good and stable. Using your products just feels right. Sometimes that feeling is the most important thing for a grower. 

For how long have you been doing this?

I’ve been sowing cacti and reproducing them since 2013, mostly indoors. And it still is fun. There are always new challenges, like cacti that are harder to grow or need some special care!

And for how long have you been using Plagron?

I’ve been using Plagron for a long long time. I first heard about your products in the early 2000’s and have used them since then.

Which of our products do you use right now? 

I sow in my own soil mix of pumice adding your Perlite, Lightmix and Mega worm. I then add charcoal and clay in different percentages for different substrates. I do this because not all cacti have the same preferences. Some like more drainage. That is why I add Perlite, pumice and charcoal. Others want less drainage, for which the clay helps. The charcoal also adds some more potassium lets the soil hold on to nutrients a little better. For the actual growth phase of the plants I use Power Roots, Terra Grow and Terra Bloom, Start Up and Ph min. For adult plants I use Terra Grow and Terra Bloom in vegetative season and around May I also use PK13-14 and Green Sensation for a bloom explosion! And I always use Ph min to have slightly acidic water, because cacti like it that way. Like I said: lots of products in large quantities.

Why did you choose Lightmix for your soil mix?

Your Lightmix substrate has a low nitrogen proportion and more phosphorus and potassium. Cacti like this combination of NPK! They love a low concentration of nitrogen and more phosphorus and potassium. So Lightmix is perfect for them, but I always add more pumice because cacti like a lot of drainage.

We’ll check back later this season. Where do you hope your grow will be?

I hope I will have plants full of pure seeds, a nice grow (but I’m pretty sure of that) and other new plants to grow!
 
Check out Leopoldo’s IG: @wild_cactus_nursery