First Attempt At Growing Cacti

[Gone-and-Back]

Planted 21 bridgesii seeds today, ten in one cup and 11 in the other. They are placed in the window to recieve light, and have a CFL placed over the cups. They have bags placed over them to control humidity, and the seeds were placed on the soil rather then pushed into the soil.

Hopefully with the next month or so I'll see some sprouting. Hopefully in the next year or two I'll have 21 more new friends to add to the house

 

[Gone-and-Back]

Its been four months, and I completely forgot to update this post.

The seeds never sprouted. I do not have them anymore. However, the cutting I had has grown a lot, and even produced two basal pups! I am very excited. At the end of this season I will be taking a cutting, and planting it next season. I will probably cut it in the middle of the thinner section, and plant that in the dirt. Probably the best way to handle an etiolated section. Hopefully come next season it will sprout another pup on the cut end, and I will leave the pups to grow for another season before cutting those off to plant.

It seems this little guy has some good genetics when it comes to speed of growth and producing pups. When the time comes ill be excited to see how well it produces actives.

Hope you enjoy the updated pics. Sorry for the quality, it was taken with a low quality camera phone.

 

[Spanishfly]

Today I pulled on it a little to test for resistance, and was saddened to not feel anything yet. So I pulled it out of the soil to inspect the bottom of the cutting. To my amazement, there was a single little root that had shot out! Success!

PerLease - do not go ripping your cacti out of the soil just to see how they are getting on !!! They will do fine enough!!

 

[Spanishfly]

and if I'm lucky enough to come across a peyote seed or cutting, that would be the ultimate honor.

Drop me a PM.

 

[Gone-and-Back]

Message sent

So last night the first frost hit us. I brought my bridgesii inside for the year. I am letting it sit in a west facing window, and was wondering if this is enough for it to go dormant for the year or if I should place it in a spot that will get almost no light. I plan on watering it once more for the season tomorrow, as it has gone a while without water.

I am also debating if I should take a cutting now and store it til next season in a dark, dry spot, or wait til the next growing season to take the cutting before planting it? What do you guys think will be the best way to go? This is the end of the first season of growing for me, and I have yet to get any experience with the whole dormancy and cutting thing, so I do not know what will produce the most favorable results.

I'm leaning towards cutting it soon though, that way it hopefully won't continue to grow and become etiolated, and then I can plant next season and let it grow properly. I also assume that the low amount of sun light will also prevent it from pupping where I cut it, am I right? I don't want it to pup again and have those become super skinny and etiolated, thus not being able to support the new growth next season.

 

[Continuum]

If you haven't already, don't water it! They can go for a loooong time without water, and you want it going totally dry at this point until Spring.

Colder temps will bring dormancy more so than lower light. I brought mine all in this weekend because they got one last rain I didn't intend them to get about 2 weeks ago, and it's in the low 30's here right now. They will go back out once this cold spell is over to hopefully dry out the rest of the way and get some natural dormancy cues from the 40 degree temps.

As for light, I think windowsill or at least ambient, not totally dark, but others go the other way.

The cutting part should work either way. Cutting now will give it a whole winter to callous and dry well. It likely won't make much progress rooting until it warms up in the Spring, so you'll end up in the same place either way.

 

[Spanishfly]

In their habitat cacti do not ´go dormant´ in winter - winter is dry but sunny - the temperature drops and growth slows, but the last season´s growth will mature and harden, getting ready for a new season. Cacti then still need as much light as possible. In fact the only time that cacti can naturally go dormant is in high summer - when high temperatures can cause the stomata to close and photosynthesis can stop briefly.

 

[Gone-and-Back]

Reviving this thread.

Took two cuttings from the cactus about a week ago, and let them callous over. Planted them today, excited to watch for new growth in the coming months.

The mother cactus is showing good growth so far this year. The two pups from last year are a pretty decent size now, and since cutting the main stalk they have fattened up and are getting taller by the day. I'm hoping it'll sprout yet another arm from the cut surface.

Pictures attached.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Looking good there, fingers crossed you'll soon see a pup by the cut.

Looking back over the thread, I see fertilizers were mentioned. My tip is to use feathers and nail clippings as a slow-release nitrogen source. Just stick the feathers in the pot, or hide the nail clippings under a nice-looking pebble. I like to decorate my pots with nice stones and small figurines

 

[Gone-and-Back]

I actually have a bloom nutrient solution that I used for my cannabis plants, and if I use it very diluted the cactus seems to love it. I will give it a single feeding with this, and then use just water for the rest of the season. I know cacti don't need a whole lot of nutes.

I had some other succulents planted in the pot with the cacti, but over the winter the most of them died and I pulled them out.

 

[DansMaTete]

... I know cacti don't need a whole lot of nutes.

...

This is true but pachanoi&co are not usual cacti. They grow more like weed (fast grower) so they can take what other cacti wouldn't like.
I use high nitrogen fert (the kind for tomatoes) at half dose every 2 weeks when they are in full growing season and sometime (1/3 or 1/4) i switch with a cactus fert still at half dose. And so far they seem to enjoy it.

But you have to be aware that using fert, like with other plants, could lead to weaker specimen more sensitive to rot and sickness. And of course over doing fert is bad, bad, bad and dangerous for them. It is usefull when the soil is quite old (less nutriments).

 

[Gone-and-Back]

The soil is only a year old for the original specimen. The two cuttings are in fresh soil straight from the bag.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Also what DansMaTete said ^

Half strength organic tomato feed, yada yada. They love it! And I tend to use bottom watering.

 

[Gone-and-Back]

What do you mean by bottom watering? I have not heard this term before.

I water from above, making sure to pour some directly on the cactus. They seem to love the water being poured on them, and it seems to help keep away whatever pests were making webs and damaging them.

 

[Gone-and-Back]

The tip cutting is starting to throw out roots! I pulled it up today to check and one of the ribs has two little baby roots just poking through. Super excited! Can't wait to see it start growing.

The mid section cutting still has no signs of roots, but this section was heavily scarred. I don't know if that makes a difference when it comes to rooting. I also planted the mid section on its side, so it will hopefully put out multiple pups that will look nice and healthy.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Bottom watering = if your cactus pot stands in a saucer, pour the water into the saucer.


I still water from on top occasionally, though. Mostly the water from above is spray-misted on, however.

 

[Gone-and-Back]

The saucers the pots are in are not very deep, I don't think that method would do me too much good.

You mentioned misting. I have heard a few others mention it too. Is this something that should be done with cacti? I never mist mine. I also live in a very humid area though.

 

[downwardsfromzero]

Bottom watering encourages downward root growth and lessens leaching out of nutrients.

Misting is ok for Trichocereus spp., they're used to foggy mountainsides to a certain degree. Other more xerically inclined cacti might not appreciate it so much. My cacti are much happier since I started treating them like this. Of course your cacti could well be different, plus if you live somewhere humid you don't want to make your house go mouldy by spraying water all the time. The room where my cacti are is pretty dry (even though the downstairs of my house goes mouldy, spraying or no spraying )

If your cacti are growing well with the way they're treated then that's cool!

 

[Gone-and-Back]

The main stalk that I took cuttings from has started to sprout a pup! Woo hoo!

It must have just popped this morning, because it was not there last night. I got a really good close up of it, and I must say a newly sprouted pup looks very strange and kind of alien. It looks really cool though

 

[Spanishfly]

Bottom watering may have a place if you only have a handful of cacti and can wait ages for the substrate to absorb water for every one. But I am unconvinced by the supposed benefits, God always top waters, and so do most growers. Works well for me.