TBM Growth Rates

[nitrogen]

Ok I've heard 1. that TBM's grow very slowly, and 2. that TBM's grow very fast

I have some of the B clones, the clumping variety, and they seem to be growing slowly - they only have a few offsets each though...

I have a couple A clones, the long and mostly spineless type, and they seem to be growing slowly as well - they are young too, only several inches tall...

Is there an age or size at which point the TBM grow more quickly?

Does one clone grow more quickly than another? I would guess if I had to the A clone would grow more quickly because it's columnar/more similar to a regular bridgesii in morphology, and that not having to produce pups all the time like the B clone would be easier...

[tonic]

They grow slowly unless you graft them

[Ace]

There has been a bit of talk suggesting that the so called a and b clones are all from the same background and should be pretty much identical (i.e. if you had both growing in identical conditions, they will eventually look the same - perhaps over a couple years). That said, they will both still be fairly slow growing. Like Phosphene mentioned, if they are grafted, they will grow much faster.

If not, I would suggest providing ideal conditions (have a search if you dont already know them) to get them growing at their fastest. They wont grow much faster when they are older, provided your plants already have a very good root structure. The only reason that an older plant would be speedier is due to a better root ball, a regular fert/watering cycle, climitisation and more tissue for photosynthesis. Provided that your small plants are in an ideal environment, they will quickly adapt to their home and will rapidly pump out growth (well, as much as a cactus can...).

I would highly recommend fluorescent lighting and fortnightly watering for very rapid growth.

As you were enquiring into the speed of growth between 'clones', if one pups faster than the other, but the second grows tall, then you need to weigh up how much is actually being grown. For example, just because one is 6 inches tall with no pups and the other is only 1 inch tall but producing 5 or 6 pups (not likely, just an example), then they will be about the same.