Tips or tools for removal of spines

[DetritusTheEgo]

Greetings,

Curious if any fellow members have a method or tool to remove trichocereus spines in a simple but effective way that that gave you an epiphany to where you thought "oh this is amazing, I'll never go back to doing it the old way again."

I have a trichocereus collection that encompasses pretty much every kind of spine I can think of, from nearly spineless scopulicola to bridgessii with 3mm thick spines longer than my middle finger.

I have used flush cutters in the past when I am potting cacti to chop spines down to dull stumps. The bottom two inches of the cacti that is going into the soil, I use the flush cutters to remove as much of the spines as I can while I hold or rest the cactus inside something like a bin or trash can to collect the spines for disposal. This allows me to insert the dirt into the pot and pack the soil around the stump without obliterating my hands and fingers on the spines. I do still use bamboo sticks or other tools to pack the soil once it is stable enough to stand itself up. It also remains the case through the life of the cacti to where I can touch the top of the soil to apply a top dressing of fertilizer, compost, diatomaceous earth, remove weeds, or whatever the cacti calls for. This trick does seem to work well enough at bringing the spines down to a couple millimeter stumps but it does not do a good job of removing the spines entirely.

I've been trying to find weirdly shaped manicure / pedicure clippers, veterinary clippers, and various tool clippers but nothing has given me that epiphany moment quite yet. I'm not expecting a magic tool that works for every cacti equally, I have some cactus with areolas that are recessed and some that are protruding. In my experience it is easier to remove all of the spines along with the entire areola with cacti that have protruding areola.

I hope someone drops a trick on me that changes my cacti harvesting for the better. Look forward to any feedback.

 

[Transform]

Blowtorch, followed by a stiff brush.

 

[AstralRoots]

The first few teas I brewed I took the time to remove the spines. I then read people having fine success without removing them though instead using a Vitamix or equally powerful blender. The vitamix has always done the trick for me! Removing spines was very time consuming.

 

[DetritusTheEgo]

Blowtorch, followed by a stiff brush.

Interesting, I do already have a blow torch. Though the stiff brushes I have are metal wire brushes, so I'll take a gander at what my options are there. I'll for sure give this a try.

The first few teas I brewed I took the time to remove the spines. I then read people having fine success without removing them though instead using a Vitamix or equally powerful blender. The vitamix has always done the trick for me! Removing spines was very time consuming.

That makes sense to me with teas. The spines will just add to material that is removed after you filter the tea. I presume you did not notice any tangible change in the tea experience when leaving the spines in while making the tea? I assume no, since you continued to not remove them in subsequent brews but would be a disservice to not ask and miss the opportunity for your insight.

I wonder if leaving the spines in the powdered material is viable when doing extractions with stronger solvents? I don't believe I have ever seen an analysis of what spines are made of. Anyone happen to have any input there? I'll have to go try and find that information. The two tek from the wiki that I plan to attempt is CIELO and Kash's A/B. CIELO will be my first extract as I followed and posted in the Mescaline: Kash AB HCl and Cielo Extraction Attempts(update: Extractions Complete) +New extractions thread posted by Madhattress in 2022.

 

[Transform]

Though the stiff brushes I have are metal wire brushes, so I'll take a gander at what my options are there. I'll for sure give this a try.

Metal might be overkill, an old (or new!) tooth brush with stiff bristles should suffice.

 

[LFS]

For my plants with long spines I just use small pliers and pull them out in a clump.

 

[Transform]

For my plants with long spines I just use small pliers and pull them out in a clump.

Simple and effective, indeed.

My previous suggestion to use a blowtorch should come with the caveat that it effectively prevents the areoles from sprouting. The upshot being, in the case that the idea of brewing subsequently gets postponed or abandoned, there will be little chance of propagating the de-spined cutting unless you have a strain that will sprout from the roots. (And I need to confirm whether this is even possible, since the specimen I have in mind may be sprouting from the buried stem. It will soon be repotted, wherein I shall be checking the situation - since it's not a flame-despined specimen.)

 

[DetritusTheEgo]

Played with burning the spines and found it leaves a few mm tall stump behind if you catch the spine on fire and let it naturally go out, kind of like a match does if you hold it with pliers. Have yet to go down the blowtorch route, simply because the idea of churning through fuel to accomplish the task.

Pliers on my multi-tool work quite well as mentioned by LFS. With pliers it either pulls the areola out entirely with all of the spines or will snap the spines to create a few mm tall stump.

I did purchase a channel knife that is used to make cocktails with based on reading through Working with fresh cactus - a pictoral. by Phlux- to try with short spined varieties. Haven't had great results with it yet as it results in tearouts on the opposite rib of where I start the cut. A large factor in that, at least I believe, is the cacti I am dealing with were cut anywhere from nine to twelve months ago. The plan is to try with freshly cut cacti that are plump and not water starved. I want to play around with some kind of brace to place between the ribs that I can then pull towards the brace to reduce tearouts as well.