Tough Flood in Thailand and Cactus Farm

 Now, Thailand has the worst flood in the decade. These floods started in June really and started to move south and have really caused huge damage the whole way down.

“They've affected hundreds and hundreds of villages and towns, they've wiped out 2.5 million acres of farmland. This is a very, very serious disaster." said Matthew Cochrane, spokesperson for the International Red Cross in Bangkok.

Over half a million square kilometers -- an area the size of Spain -- are affected by the floods in Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos, according to CNN meteorologist Jenny Harrison.

Beyond many of houses, hospital, factories and farmland affected by these huge water, the cactus & succulent farms nears Bangkok were flooded already.  Unfortunately, the valuable cactus & succulent were gone with water without any help as the flood came very quickly and strongly.

The water was higher than 2-3 meters on the next day.  Here are the sample of some cactus farms.  To every people affected by this disaster, don't give up !

If you'd like to donate online : http://english.redcross.or.th/home

credit: pictures from http://cactusstation.pantown.com/

Cactus Farm in the industrial style

Let see the industrial cactus farm with automatic machine in Netherlands.

Visit the Cactus Farm & House

On last Sunday (March 29th), I joined the trip to visit the Cactus Farm and house. The first place is Deaw cactus farm which is very famous in Thailand. The owner, Mr. Deaw, has collected a lot of the hi-end rare cactus in his farm. So he has both local and Asian customers. Besides, he has the closed greenhouses, his plants are also very green and beautiful. However, visitors like us couldn't not stay in his greenhouses for long as the inside temperature was about 45-50 C or 113-122 Fahrenheit. In this chance, we had time to talk and discuss about the technique to plant the charming cactus like him.

Then we went to the house of cactus collector, Pae. All members in his family love cacti so planting the cacti is the family activity. The most favorite cacti of his father and himself is Ariocarpus. Pae's mother is retired and her favorite is Harworthia and succulent. So we can see the different plants in the same house. Luckily, Pae has the open greenhouse, so we could feel more comfortable.

As the area here is limited, you can see more pictures of this trip on the right side of my blog.