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Cacti Rooting with Growth Hormon - DMSO method??

Twilight Person

Twilight Person

Esteemed member
While Normally it would not be too dramatic, last summer i had some angry situations when a cactus refused to root, but started to grow. I could not place it in direct sun, because it would also get direct rain and be destroyed. So it was kept in shallow light and that ruined the growth. Especially for a giant cactus it looks terrible if it suddenly just has 30% of its diameter :cry:


So for this season i want to try something new. As i will buy a cutting that is already healed, i cannot attach my root Hormon (= auxine) powder, as it will not diffuse through the cured skin. A liquid formulation (as you normally buy it) would also Not be good, because it could again cause rot.

So my idea: how about using DMSO to make a tincture that diffuses into the cactus? That could minimize a very delayed root growth and thus the chance of ruined growth.

Put some auxine into DMSO

Use a painter to add it to lower end of cured plant

Repeat after 1 week if no roots visible


As far as i see the only important question would be the concentration. Im pretty Sure absolutely nobody has any cllue what would be a reasonable concentration. But well i thought i will just ask.

Any tips? Commercial water-based stuff has a concentration of 3%. But ultimately it more boils down to the Total AMOUNT of auxine added. Concentration would only define the amount of liquid i *need* to apply.

What do you think, how many milligram are reasonable for a 0,5-1 m cactus cutting?

Cheers
 
Presuming you're talking about trichocereus cuttings here, IME they'd be less happy with direct sun (particularly midday sun) whereas rain exposure might even do the job of getting them to root. It's at the most shaded areas of a cactus where the roots will be most likely to appear.
Maybe keep an untreated cutting for comparison? (You can always treat it later on if it stubbornly refuses to set root.) One of my specimens took seven years to root - it was damp, shady grit that finally got the pathetic, crusty thing back to life and it's doing very nicely now a further five years on.
20230616_161804.jpg
 
Ok yes but i would try it with a very big one and i dont want to buy 2 of this :( so probably wont do a direct comaprison. And yes full sun is also not what is recommended, but on the other hand i feel so bad when i see that cactus with the weird growth now in my basement xD
 
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