The ordinary-ness of "Eileen"

[nut]

mike i hear ya bud,theres observation and theres personificatioin (yeah yeah sic all round),mate your dealing with peeps who view this as personal slander against against an individual not just a clone/plant ,would make for great psychology study.both have valid points.some maybe more concrete than others.ive eileen.its a beautiful plant in many ways,its botanical talk peeps not war!!!!

[mutant]

Rooting in 2-3 months? that's the exception. 2-3 weeks is a rule. In warm weather. Same for penis plants. I had one branch taking 6 months to root, while the other 2 that were cut the same time rooted in 3-4 weeks [during winter] . When spring came, I cut and rooted more penises. That one left from the winter still hadn't rooted. I saw a small rootlet yesterday and I nearly threw out a party! So, a big heathly cut will root fast in growing period, MOST of the time. It doesn't show something in particular about a clone.

I still haven't formed a solid opinion on Eileen, the cut I received initially was shitty. I grafted at the shitty tip but failed, then I cut off a smallish branch. SO now I got two eillens in a less than ideal state. Still waiting. Their tips are fattening now, we'll see.

For now , Tig {PsychoO ?? ] is by far the fastest and biggest bridge I got. A seed grown of my own is reaching up and it pretty fat, it might be fattier than Tig. I hope Eilleen catches up and then we got a race!

[Philocacti]

mutant, what method do you use to you root your trichos?

[Gunter]

don't they root themselves?

i don't think anything we do makes that faster

[Philocacti]

come on,

like i have always read that they don't need to be watered and they would root themselves, i tried that but it didn't work at least with columnar cacti. All that i tried this with shriveled and died.

some people put them in perlite and water them once in a while

some stick them in soil until they see new growth then they start to water

none (as much as i read) puts them in direct sun.

Well i put them in soil or on soil and i water twice a week and they get 4-5 hours of direct sun.

Since mutant lives in a similar weather as i do, i thought he might have a more efficient method or something.

[Gunter]

like i have always read that they don't need to be watered and they would root themselves, i tried that but it didn't work at least with columnar cacti. All that i tried this with shriveled and died...

none (as much as i read) puts them in direct sun.

 

I've been growing them for over a decade and have never had a plant shrivel and die before rooting. I do not plant them up until roots show and I do keep them in bright conditions, if they are small cuttings i give them some shelter, but large cuttings root in full sun no problem for me, without being planted up. It is the only method I use and it works very well for me. \

Rooting for me is as follows: take a cutting, leave it on it's side or upside down for a day three to heal the cut, then I either set the cutting on it's side or move it so it is pointing upright, check on it every few days until it shows signs of roots, then pot it up. It is failsafe in my experience, Photos to prove it if you want, I have cacti rooting as I type. For me the Fastest growers, like Eileen appears to be, are the fastest rooting, the slowest growers are the slowest rooting, with a few exceptions where they too root quickly.

In my own collection and grow I do not plant until they have grown roots, nor do I water them while they are rooting. I used to do this and that and found that less is more and nothing I did made them root faster.

[Philocacti]

i believe you Archaea, but i tried the method you use on pachanoi, melted wax bridgesii, myrtillo, peyotes and a 1 meter taquimbalensis cutting and non of them made it.

The method i described is the only one that worked for me til now. So i concluded that maybe the difference in humidity level where i live and where others live is the variable that determines the success of cacti shooting roots.

All im saying is different environments probably need different methods, so maybe mutant's method will be better than the one im using.

[Gunter]

In my experience it takes the same amount of time no matter what you do, planted, not planted, etc. Nothing i have tried seemed to speed up the process. If a cutting ever gets too dry you can soak it for a few hours, there is no need to dehydrate them, though i've yet to see a cutting fail to root before losing enough moisture to die.

I am from an area of very low humidity 20-50% maximum, hot days (to 110F/43C) and 4500 (370meters) feet elevation (fairly intense light with a high UV index.

[Moses]

Philocacti how long are they taking to shrivel and die without rooting?

I've only had probs rooting one cutting ever it was a monstrose peruvianus and i shit you not it took almost 2 years to die without rooting.If i'd known now what i didnt then i would have grafted

[Philocacti]

they took from 6 months to a year and a few months, they were put in my room where they didn't get any direct sun at all.

peyotes never survived more than 7 months

[mira]

I have had two cuttings both from the same T. bridgesii semi-montrose shrivel up and die before throwing roots when all of the other cuts they were stored with from the same time period (~4 months) survived just fine.

[Philocacti]

so mira in your experience, it's hit or miss thing?

[mira]

I don't know if it was the that specific clone which was the issue or maybe a latent infection that neither I nor the person who sent it to me noticed. In any case the poor things dehydrated to death. I've only had one cutting rot on me before rooting, but I'm fairly sure it had a latent infection.

I've rooted about every way mentioned without any problems (except for the previously noted exception). Now I root in dry soil with intermittent watering during growing season and sometimes like Archaea does if I don't have time to pot it before it throws out roots or during winter. It's very humid (>85% outside) here year round if that makes any difference. Even indoors humidity is 40-65+% with A/C.

Edited May 23, 2011 by mira

[mutant]

I haven't attempted to root a Lopho yet.

For Trichos I really thought you have to try hard to kill a cut. I do it more or less as Archaea says it. more or less, only I do it in a more shady spot usually. They root fast, so they dont have the time to etoliate.

In winter I rooted them inside in pots filled with perlite, near warmth. Dry soil works. Check every new week and plant and water as soon as you see roots.

Also, no need to wait too much after cutting, 5 days in dry weather is enough usually IME. But yeah, If they refuse to root, I think wetting them might trigger rooting faster.

[Mitosis]

For me, the girth or thickness of eileens base pups and resulting stems on the mature potted ~5ft+ multibranch plant exceeded the Baker, BBB bridgesii, and KGC, but had a similar girth as ss02, and lumberjack.  On average, the aforementioned slightly thinner growers and to me the prototypical bridgesii had been on the leaner side... until this one.  It continues to persevere decently here even in less than optimal conditions. Maybe you were used to sourcing bridgesii of a hardier breed on average.  As far as the potency is concerned, I have limited basis for comparision head for head with brew of other bridgesii, so I take your word for it that by weight it may be average for its species.  I guess the thing is upgrading from a BBB PC pachanoi and bridgesii strains as one's journeying mainstays to an Eileen, it was quite the upgrade to me at the time I got my cut from ed.