My garden and my dream

[Bdevall158]

Hello Nexians! Im very delighted to say that ive finally been promoted to a full member, so I can finally share more about my garden. I would say I have roughly 30 san pedro/peruvian torch which are all reaching their 2nd winter(and theyre getting much bigger finally :d ) and I have around 60 peruvian torch seedlings still in their protective incubator. Its hard for me to say exactly what is compelling me to push for such a potentially massive garden, but I just trust that the medicine I am growing is going to do alot of healing in the future, and I intend to continue to grow these beautiful cacti until the father cactus says enough.
I myself have only consumed peruvian torch tea one time, on strange circumstances that I believe was the plant spirit putting itself in my life. When I first learned about san pedro I was watching the nat geo episode about it, and was amazed to learn of this unknown "cousin" of peyote. I was so intrigued, but basically I told my self I would never want to try that without a proper shaman and ceremony in the homeland of the cactus. Shortly after this mental note, A good friend of mine called me and asked me if I wanted two trichocereus peruvianus that fell over in his yard. I jumped on the offer although I was not intending still to cook it, or even caring about the amount I got. To my lucky suprise he gave me two fatty 24in x 3.5in peruvian torch cuttings, and I took them home and began a little research.
To make a long story short eventually I cooked down the cati, and consumed the tea with two good friends. The experience its self was poorly prepared for, as we found ourselves very intimidated to be in the presense of the rest of society. The entire experience would be a whole other story so ill spare you for now, but it proved to be the most visually intense experience of my life, far better than any lsd or mushroom I had yet to encounter. I look back now and am so greatful for the experience, although my first was not exactly anything near enlightening, but it showed me that there really are amazing plants in the world the can produce far better enlightenment than any dodgy chemical or drug dealer.
Now my mission is to grow and grow and grow not only pedros but any plant that finds its way into my life. I have a vision that one day down the road im going to have an amazing abundance of cacti in my life, and eventually I would love to have enough land somewhere to have some what of a safe haven or retreat for people to recieve the healing of this medicine. It may be a tad far fetched to attempt a healing retreat in todays times in "the land of the free":? but I have an incredible amount of energy put towards my garden, and all I intend for now is to grow and grow until the need for healing calls.
Thanks for reading, enjoy the pics. some are a few months old but Ill post new ones ASAP

 

[Bdevall158]

apologies some of the pics doubled up. Most of the smaller guys in those pics are much larger now, and I dont have any shots yet of my peruvianus seedlings but ill soon get some. I intend to get at least one more large crop of torches growing this spring, and after that im going to need to find a new place to live because of thses guys. Ill probably be able to manage 1-2 more years at my home if I wanted, but after that im going to have a little height restriction, and im thinking trees, I dont intending on chopping these babys up at first chance.

 

[dg]

sometimes you start such a thing because of the 'medecine' but continue because you love the plants.
i grow far more than i could ever consume and you will too quite soon by the looks of it.

thanks for sharing and congrats on the promotion!
hope to see updates along the way

ps. you didn't ask but i'll give some gardening advice none the less
-looks like things could use a bit more light or more intense light
-large pots for small lophophora tend to lead to rot because they take forever to dry.
unlike other plants lophs roots enjoy being crowded and more soil doesn't mean they grow bigger or faster(often the opposite is true). especially in low light conditions small pots w/little to no organic matter are recommended

 

[wearepeople]

Awesome Bdevalld158!

I like how you top off the soil with shells and crystals. very cool.


:thumb_up:

 

[Bdevall158]

DG-
thanks for the advice, I agree with you on the light, unfortunatley I have a small balcony and It gets little summer light and more in the winter. Ive already come to the conclusion that these guys are going to require me to move to a bigger place with a yard and tons of sunlight. Im completely fine with that so as soon as I can get through some finacial issues im going to aim for a place with as much outdoor space as possible. I look forward to having as many cacti as I can possibly handle.
For the lophs, would it be better if I put more in that pot or should I just downsize? I have 6 now and probably going to get 25 more hopefully. How close can they be together because ill just squeeze as many in there as i can.

 

[dg]

yes you can pack them in a single pot. 1/2" to 1" apart in big containers is fine- but you will need to separate them eventually. I'd shoot for 1" buttons in 3" pots.

basically w/low light they need very little if any water until temps are up in the 80's

you could also consider making them go dormant during low light and low temp times- which can help with the skinny tip syndrome. What is your USDA zone?

also the top dressing of the pots looks nice- just be sure it isn't slowing the evaporation and encouraging rot. usually mulch is best in high sun high heat spaces to slow the water evap down. but i dont think you are in that position yet.

did i mention very little to no water?

 

[Bdevall158]

I live on the texas coast, so its generally sunny most of the time. but it gets chilly from time to time. we dropped to 38 farenheit yesterday, but thats about the lowest we get and its already back up to 50+ in one day. I was planning on letting them go dormant since winter officially just started. The advice I was give from a friend was to not water in the winter, as that will cause the skinny tip syndrome. Some of my guys are definatley on the skinny side, but they are mostly all just on their first year of major growth. I got them from 4inch pups off of amazon. Are they supposed to grow fatter than they are this young? I just figured once growth starts next year thats when theyre gunna start putting on the real weight.
one in particular started as a bud from a cutting at the end of the summer of 2012, and is currently 24inches tall and about 1.5inches wide and has two 8inch pups that popped up around august of this year. I was surprised and very happy with its growth, and from my observations it did not appear to be too skinny at any point. I give them water about every two weeks in the hottest and driest parts of the summer, along with cactus juice which is just a brand from my local nursery. Ive never noticed any adverse reactions or odd growth behavior, other than happy and productive in almost all of my cacti, is their any thing bad about using that type of cact nutrient in your opinion?

 

[wearepeople]

Hi Bdevall158,

From what M S Smith has written about skinny tips, its caused by low light.

Root rot is caused by watering while in dormancy.

What M S Smith does with his cacti is put them in his garage, on a layer of cardboard, with no light and no water for the winter. He swears this is the best thing to avoid skinny tips and root rot.

As far as nutrients, I am no expert, but I can tell you what I use: worm castings and burnt egg shells. As far as I understand, with cacti, you want low nitrogen, medium Potassium, and medium Phosphorus. And they need supple calcium as well.

Burnt eggshells provide calcium, phosphorus and potassium. Worm castings are full of nutrients, but it depends on what the worms were fed. From what I've read, the nutrients from worm castings are more readily available than other ferts. They also introduce beneficial microbes.

dg, hostilis, and other cacti pros, what do you use for ferts? Would you recommend organic ferts for cacti that's going to be eaten?


EDit: threads about nutes:

Nutrition for my babies? - Cultivation - Welcome to the DMT-Nexus

 

[Bdevall158]

Yeah fortunatley all my guys have very excellent soil. They get all their nutrients and have plenty of perlite to keep the soil drainable.. only two I think out of 30 ish have gotten rot in the last year. I gave most of them a good layer of sifted compost, and earthworm castings earlier in the year. come spring i plan of relayering them and upszizing any guys that need new pots. just from my observations, it appears that because the temps have dropped that they have all stopped growing, or at least dramatically slowed down. One just sprouteda pup but it seems that the growth has gone on pause since the cold has rolled in. I dont plan on watering until spring, but ill keep an eye on them o see what happens when they get more light.
my guess though would be that in nature these guys dont get a chance to stay out of the light by choice, although they go dormant still so I dont think putting them out of light would nessearily benefit them. some people do however like to try and stress the cacti to increase alkaloids. imo i think that due to the nature of the cacti, that may help if alkaloids are all that one cares for, but my personal method is just to give 150% love and respect to the plant spirit and it will do exactly what is intended to do. I know these guys are hella tough and hardy, but they sure do love love, and dont seems to mind loads of food during peak season. I accuired most of my soil nutrient knowledge and feeding knowledge from sacredcatus.com. they really seem to know what they are doing. anybody think otherwise?
I still very new at this, basically rounding up my second year with these guys so im open for advice, thanks :thumb_up:

 

[Bdevall158]

for those who checked out my pics, the one with the torch seedlings you can see one of my odd ball pedros to the left. That guy was one that just seemed to get stunted for unknown reasons. You can slightly see in the picture that he had a sunburn or something like that, I thought it was rot for a bit, but eventually he picked up the pace and started gowing like normal. Ill try and post better pics this week if I can get a camera. My camera phone unfortunately is a trick nasty so i cant take any cacti porn for you guys

 

[wearepeople]

I still very new at this, basically rounding up my second year with these guys so im open for advice, thanks :thumb_up:

I'm right there with ya Bdevall158. I'm still very new at this as well.

"If this is an Ehteogenic University", we're classmates. Want to do homework together? :d

 

[Bdevall158]

Another note, looking at the first photo of the flowering one, they skinny tip on that one I believe came from the catus falling on its side after either being cut or breaking off. I bought it at a cacti shop in houston as is, just the buds had yet to flower, that occured about a week after sticking it in some happy soil. from looking at the way that skinny tip is like that and crooked, I think it was left on its side for whatever reason after it had fell and attempted to grow up from the ground. There is even what looks like dried out root buts on the other side where it would have rooted had it stayed on the ground, but then they decided to pot it up and have it for sale. its growing fine now and is about 6-8 inches taller, its just got a crooked tip and even has a super fat pup that popped up a few months back