STOCKTON CACTUS & SUCCULENT SOCIETY NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2018 MEETINGS: Fourth Thursday each month, 7:00 p.m. * Unless otherwise noted WHERE: San Joaquin County Building 2707 Transworld Drive Stockton, California *NEXT MEETING: Thursday, January 25 th, 2018 PRE MEETING DINNER: Denny s Restaurant Arch Road location 5:30 p.m. STOCKTON CACTUS & SUCCULENT SOCIETY C/O BRIAN POOT 5617 ANADA COURT SALIDA, CA 95368
2018 BOARD: President: Lesley Slayter (209) 679-3078 lesley_shores@yahoo.com Vice President: Greg Severi (209) 612-8289 gregseveri@gmail.com Treasurer: Roelyn Poot (209) 599-7241 billroelynpoot@gmail.com Secretary: Angela Severi (209) 612-8289 gregseveri@gmail.com Board Members: Jerry Slayter, Bill Poot & Brian Poot Newsletter: Brian Poot (209) 679-8899 jeffgordonfan24@sbcglobal.net BOARD MEETINGS: Please note, board meetings will now be held the second Wednesday of each month, at 7:00 p.m., except in December, or if that date conflicts with something else. Anyone is welcome to attend, but please call first to let them know you will be coming to make sure of the date. Thanks! We can always use new ideas & opinions for the club, as well as help with behind the scenes stuff. If you are interested, please come to a board meeting. Thx! MEMBERSHIP INFORMATION: Individual $20/yr Family $25/yr Contributing $35/yr Patron $50/yr All dues should be sent to the treasurer before the February general meeting. Membership runs January-December. Complimentary Jan. & Feb. issue if unpaid. CALENDAR: January 10 th - Board Meeting at the Poot s 7:00 p.m. 25 th - General Meeting 7:00pm: Ernesto Sandoval - Propgation of Succulents from Seed at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory February 14 th - Board Meeting at the Poot s 7:00 p.m. 22 nd - General Meeting 7:00pm: To Be Determined March 14 th - Board Meeting at the Poot s 7:00 p.m. 22 nd - General Meeting 7:00pm: To Be Determined OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS: (not club related) None SUNSHINE REPORT: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to: Roger Coelho, Leslie Oliver & Edward Aldrete.
THIS MONTHS PROGRAM: Ernesto Sandoval The January program will be presented by Ernesto Sandoval; he will give a talk on: Propagation of Succulents from Seed at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory Ernesto and Company been experimenting with various techniques for propagating succulents from seed and want to share these techniques and tips for better seed germination. If you haven t tried growing from seed or if you are looking for ways to perhaps increase your success rate Ernesto thinks you ll appreciate this visual tour of propagation of plants such Welwitschia, Aloes, Cacti, Dorstenia, Othonna, Mesembs and more. Biography: Ernesto Sandoval has been wondering and seeking questions to why plants grow and look the way that they do for a long time. Now he explains and interprets the world of plants to a variety of ages and experiences from K-12 to professionals and Master Gardeners. He regularly lectures to a variety of western Garden Clubs throughout the year and particularly to Succulent Clubs throughout the State and elsewhere since that group of plants is his particular passion within his general passion for plants. He describes himself as a "Jose of All Plants, Master of None." Ernesto thoroughly enjoys helping others, and gardeners in particular, to understand why and how plants do what they do. When he was about 13 he asked his dad why one tree was pruned a particular way and another tree another way. His dad answered bluntly "because that's the way you do it. Since then he's been learning and teaching himself the answers to those and many other questions by getting a degree at UC Davis in Botany and working from student weeder/waterer to Director over the last 26 years at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory. He's long left the "mow blow and go" monoculture landscape gardening world and has immersed himself in the world of polyculture and biodiversity by growing several thousand types of plants at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, many of them succulents. Several of his favorite garden projects involved converting lawns and or water loving landscapes to drought tolerant and diversity filled gardens! He likes to promote plant liberation by encouraging gardeners of all sorts to grow more plants in the ground when possible. He loves the technical language of Botany but prefers to relate information in more understandable methods of communication! By helping people to understand the workings of plants he hopes to help us better understand how to and why our plants do what they do and how we can maximize their growth with less effort. * Ernesto will provide the raffle table this month. Ernesto will also bring plants to sell. *Reminder to the Severi's (drinks) & (snacks), this is your month to bring refreshments. *Reminder that we need someone to volunteer to be the greeter this month. 2017 MINI-SHOW WINNERS: Novice: Joan Stewart with 51 points Advanced: Kathy Zumbrunn with 59 points Open: Bill Poot with 37 points Congratulations to all the winners. We had a total of 13 different participants throughout the year & I hope to see more of you participate this year. It is so nice to see such a great number & variety of plants at each meeting.
PRESIDENT S MESSAGE: by Lesley Slayter Hi all, Hope everyone had a joyous holiday season & your New Year has started well! It was great to see all who came to the Christmas party dinner & auction. Thanks to everyone who donated things, as well as the people who helped set up & brought decorations & food dishes to share. I was a bit rushed to do things so didn't get to socialize much, so I apologize if you were one of those I didn't end up sitting down & speaking with. The night went well though & I had fun. Hoping you did too! I am looking forward to this year. A big welcome & thank you again to the Severi's for stepping up. With their added help, the club now has the amount of people it needs for the board & can continue. They have some great ideas for getting new members, advertising, etc. But the board can always use any additional help we can get. We have speakers we usually use, but if you have ideas for meetings please let me know, or even better, come to a board meeting! All are welcome & coming doesn't put you on the board...just come share an opinion or idea. We can always use new ideas & even more helpers. Last year, we did not have a lot of help; ESP with setting up outings & activities. So if anyone wants to help with that, please give me a call. (Please do not email me!) It is much needed & would be truly appreciated. With the boards help, I will do my best to get good speakers, schedule some outings & a few workshops, but because of my health you may again see others leading meetings & those things at times. We could still use help making calls, getting workshops scheduled & items picked up, help with getting our clubs name out there, etc...very few do all the work for this club & it gets hard to continually do that. I do hope that you all will come to the meetings & participate even more this year. Remember, this is your club & your participation is what makes it fun for all! Hoping that I get to know the new members & those I haven't been able to yet, better this year! Please come up & say hi... I don't bite. See you at the January meeting. We have a great speaker who always brings good plants for sale & the raffle! Sincerely, Lesley Slayter, Pres. MONTHLY MINI SHOW: OPEN TO ANY CLUB MEMBERS THAT WANT TO SHOW PLANTS! The mini show, held at the general meetings, is a time when you can bring your plants, to compete against other members plants. There are 10 categories: Cacti & Succulent, (Open, Advanced & Novice Divisions), Bloomers (anything in bloom, also three divisions) & Allied Interest (dish gardens or natural planters). You may bring up to 2 from each category. The forms for judging are available to take home so that you can fill them out prior to the meeting if you wish, or there will be some at the meeting as well. The plants are judged by the members attending that meeting; whoever receives the most votes wins that months mini show & will get their name in the next newsletter. The person(s) receiving the most votes at the end of the year will receive a gift from the club. WE ENCOURAGE ALL MEMBERS TO BRING PLANTS TO SHOW THROUGHOUT THE YEAR! FYI: The mini show categories are Novice - those with fewer than 5 years of showing in the mini-show. Advanced those who have shown for more than 5 years in the mini-show & does not sell more than $300 in plants a year. Open those who sell more than $300 in plants a year. Also you must own the plant for at least 6 months before you can show the plant in the mini show. Brian Poot, Mini show coordinator
HOW TO SAVE SUCCULENTS FROM ROT IN WINTER: by Maureen Gilmer 01-17-18 Are your succulents turning black? Are they gushy and soft when you touch them? The small accent color plants from warm dry climates slow down with the shortening of days into winter. They stop growing and therefore need no moisture besides what their bodies already hold. Yet water is continually applied, be it by rain or automatic sprinklers or a diligent overwater-er. This demonstrates why the small succulents rot out over winter, not necessarily from frost but lack of light and too much moisture. When moisture accumulation meets morning frost, there s a perfect environment to start rot. This is the enemy of all succulents. Their water-holding interior tissues are sterile, protected by a hard outer skin that prevents moisture loss. When this outer skin gets damaged by frost, or any other cause, fungus and bacteria set in. They need evenly moist conditions to proliferate before the wound dries out and heals over. Once you find rot on a succulent, be it a huge agave or a tiny lithops, you re already at a disadvantage. The rotting organisms are already inside doing their worst to spread throughout the entire plant body. They won t stop until the whole plant melts down into goo. There is a remedy, if you have a strong hand and good eye. First observe the rot, which is usually a yellow or brown spot. It often begins at the soil line where too much moisture is in contact with the green skin of the plant, which is much like earth-to-wood contact rotting wood posts. Rotting can also be stimulated by tiny skin breaks during transplanting, particularly if it s a thin skinned species. Use a fingertip to lightly press the rot to see how soft it is. Sometimes sunburn looks like rot but is just skin discoloring. Softness is the clue. If rot is there, it will feel softer under gentle fingertip pressure than the surrounding unaffected skin. A little softness means the rot is localized. By the time it s so soft your finger goes right through the skin, it may be history. Succulents are resilient, so once you assess where the rot is by sight and feel, strategize how to surgically remove it. Just like cancer, you must remove all the rot, especially residual tentacles extending further into normal tissue. These inevitably contain pathogens that will resurface. It won t be pretty after you ve cleaned out the plant, but don t give up. Succulents have truly amazing healing powers. Place the plant in the shade for a few days to help the skin callus into a new outer skin to hold the moisture. If you had to remove part or all the roots, treat them the same before reinserting into media so root initials will develop quickly. If you can t salvage the plant itself, consider segmenting the healthy tissue and rooting it in moist clean sand. Every encounter of ailing succulent plants is almost always a rot problem they re really trouble-free as a group. It can lurk in the center of an old Beaucarnea caudex only to surface after a rainy period. In dry desert climates rot rarely occurs in succulents except when associated with irrigation. The best way to protect your succulents from rot is to protect them from frost. When frost nips at the tips of your Euphorbia, it s an injury that is exacerbated into rot by rain at just the right time. Maybe it s too high to notice until the whole top end discolors. So many homes feature large and very expensive specimen succulents that may be borderline tolerant of the climate. Keep Plankets or a bed sheet on hand for those cold snaps this winter. For narrow tall cactus such as fence post, slide a recycled plastic foam coffee cup over the top to protect from tip burn. The regions where most of these plants come from are high UV in the winter, so overcast days put them into a funk, then rot sets in. Protect what you can and let the others go because they re probably going to rot. Then come spring, you may be surprised at what survives.
Suggested winter entertainment: growing succulents indoors: by Janice Hasselius 12-27-17 Indoor plants don t have to be the good ole standards of African Violets, etc. Why not try something different that is gaining popularity: succulents (Mammillarias). They are easy to grow, require less watering, and endure drier conditions than other houseplants. In the wild they are only found in the Americas, mostly in Mexico. Some species are in the southwestern USA and a few make their way into Central America/ northern South America and the islands of the Caribbean. They vary in size from miniature 1 diameter to columnar types 1 foot tall. Allow me to relate a cute true story. Shelly and Chuck were excited to move into their first home and had a housewarming party. One of the gifts was a lovely dish garden full of small to medium cacti/succulents in a desert setting. Shelly was famous for killing house plants and no care instructions came with the garden. Shelly went online and found they were very easy to take care of and only required light watering once a month. Shelly thought, OK! I can do that! and placed it in a bright sunny window and for the first time she was successful and kept the plant from dying for almost five years! Yes! Five years! One winter Shelly and Chuck planned a trip and needed someone to check on the house and water the dish garden. Shelly called her aunt who lived nearby. Auntie knew her houseplants and was the envy of Shelly. Auntie was happy to oblige. Shelly told Auntie, The dish garden is special to me as it is the only plant I have never killed. They both laughed knowing Shelly s history. Even though it has not grown, at least it hasn t died! Shelly warned her, Do not overwater the dish garden. It needs just a very little water once a month and that is all! I know. I know!, Auntie said. When they returned home Shelly was happy to see her dish garden was just fine and called Auntie to thank her. Auntie laughed and laughed when Shelly called. Shelly! I didn t realize you were talking about the dish garden I gave you for a housewarming gift years ago. Do you realize that the dish garden is made of fake plants! I knew you loved houseplants and also knew your affinity to kill plants! I didn t realize that was the plant you wanted me to babysit! Now, I know that this is a cute story, but raising cacti and succulents is almost that easy. You only need a few guidelines. Succulent refers to a wide loose category of plants, including cacti. They include the following popular varieties: the jade plant (Crassula arborescens), the snake plant (Sansevieria trifasciata), the medicine plant (Aloe barbadensis), the century plant (Agave americana), the flowering Kalanchoes (Kalanchoe blossfeldiana) sold as gift plants as well as the sedums (Sedum sp.), and hens and chicks (Sempervivum sp.) so common in the perennial garden. Water once a month until water runs from the drainage holes. Wait for a few minutes and pour off any water collected from the drainage holes. In the summer you can place them outdoors. When first introducing them to the outdoors, place them in a semi-shaded, protected area of the yard and then gradually move them to a sunnier location. Avoid locations where they receive hot, intense sunlight from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Once outdoors these plants will require more water and should be rechecked regularly. Cacti/succulents are not bothered by many pests. They can get mealybugs or scale but the problem is simple: wipe them off with alcohol dipped cotton swabs. Fungal/bacterial rots can be prevented by proper water and light conditions. Propagate by stem cuttings. Many succulents form new plants from leaves which have been broken off. Allow the cutting to air dry before just sticking it into slightly moistened, sterile, sand. Water sparingly. When the roots have formed, you can transplant into the regular sand/potting soil mixture succulents require: one part potting soil and one part coarse sand. A good test is to moisten the mixture and squeeze it in your hand. On release, the soil should fall apart. Both pot and growing medium should be sterile. Grow in pots with drainage holes because excess water trapped in the soil will result in rotting and decay in a very short time. Although you may be more adept at keeping houseplants alive than my friend, Shelly, the succulents/cacti are great plants to start your indoor gardens.
DECEMBER MEETING 2017 - PHOTO'S BY BRIAN POOT & KATHY ZUMBRUNN
PLANT STUDY: by Elton Roberts Schlumbergera Truncata X the Christmas cactus There are a lot of Schlumbergera crosses and they are usually sold as Christmas cactus. The fact is that the plants can bloom any where from before Thanksgiving to past Easter. I have seen stores and nurseries selling the plants with different names on them depending on what holiday is coming up. The nurseries that grow the plant by the tens of thousands know when to start withholding water and thus have now come up with plants that bloom when they want them to. Thus we have Thanksgiving cactus, Christmas cactus, Valentines cactus and Easter cactus. It is also interesting to see the plants change names from holiday to holiday if they are still blooming. I have seen some inventive places even selling the red and hot pink flowered plants as Valentine cactus. Many people even those that do not like cactus as a general rule, will have a Christmas cactus and sometimes several of them. I think the main thing that decides as to when one of the plants is going to bloom is how soon in the fall water is with held from the plant. Many people will see buds coming on and they will water the plant; it then drops most or all its buds. My wife took a plant in the back porch and forgot to water it I would guess from August on and that plant was blooming in mid October. Other times if we have good weather till about Christmas time the plants will get watered till then and no flowers appear till Easter or in March and April. Many people see the leaves starting to wither and they take pity on the plant and there goes the chances of the plant blooming for some time. If the plant is given water as it is setting buds it will abort the buds and start to throw new leaves. The plants come from Brazil at elevations up to about 6,000 feet. In the past the plants were called Zygocactus but that name has now gone by the way side. I must have with held water at the right time or forgot to water the white flowering plant for here it is just before Christmas and it is blooming. It opened its first flower about four days ago or about the 18th or 19th of December. The plants need a rich but still fast draining soil. As the plants come from the mountains of Brazil the only rain they get is from thunderstorms. So they need acidic water in order to grow very well at all. They can take cold down to about frost. I say that because my plants have lived out side of many years and have taken temperatures down to a degree or two of frost. Just remember that they have to have been with out water for several months before the frosty nights. STOCKTON CACTUS & SUCCULENT SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM Annual dues (January-December 2018) Single Membership.$20.00 Family Membership...$25.00 Contributing $35.00 Total Due$ Please Print: Name(s) Address City State Zip Do you want the newsletter Phone E-mail E-mailed to you - Check 1 Yes No Birthday (Month Required) *Please mail this form, along with a check made payable to the Stockton Cactus & Succulent Society to the membership chairperson before the February general meeting to continue receiving the newsletter. Roelyn Poot 17229 East Hwy 120 Ripon, CA 95366