What do you mean by ´regular´ cactus soil?? That rubbish sold by MiracleGro that is 90% peat?? And most garden centres sell dolomite lime - did you actually go to one? Otherwise you can use any calcium carbonate - crushed sea shells or crushed eggshells are all calcium carbonate.

Nice collection coming on, well done. That last Ariocarpus looks like a hybrid - I have a few like that of unknown parentage - if anyone wants one for free - postage only.

Nice choice of plants, if you want something a bit more challenging. May I show you mine? My Ariocarpus fissuratus, I bought that in 2000 when it was about 1" across - it flowers beautifully every autumn. And Aztekium ritteri, one of my few grafted plants - suffers from the curse of...

Thanks for the kind words - it is about 15.

adetheproducer - I echo all that you say - my philosophy exactly !!

I did not know Astrophytum capricorne was psycho active. Are any other Astrophytums psycho active? I have a few of them - here is my Astrophytum myriostigma.

Cacti are naturally slower growers than annual plants like cannabis or nettles. But peyote is not an especially slow grower - I can grow a flowering adult on its own roots in two years, on a par with many other globular cacti, and a lot faster than may other species that I grow. Plant on left...

Raising cacti from seed often results in a number of losses. I have been raising peyote from seed for about 15 years now - have raised hundreds, but have had a lot of casualties as well. A few here that I have raised from seed - quite a few peyote, Lophophora williamsii, and Astrophytum...

Concur with adetheproducer - look like Myrtillocactus to me. The trouble with ribbed columnar cactus is there are so many of them that are very similar.

Doesn´t look like sun stress to me - too localised. The flesh does seem to be collapsing a bit - this looks like a form of rot - but seeing as it is a couple of months since the first pic, how has it got on since then?? I agree with adetheproducer that you soil looks poor. My standard mix...