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wagonwheel

So I just bought a shitload of Queen of the Night Cuttings...

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These are the babies here. Most are around 1.5 meters, up to 2.5ish meters.

Does anyone know anything about this variety?

I've roughly sawed them off the mother plant which was supposedly 100 years

old, i'm taking them inside with the intention of lopping off the ends again with

a cleaver that's been sterilized with a pine o cleen wipe. I know that it's a good

idea to sterilize the wounds, does anyone know whether giving them a good once

over with pine o cleen wipes would do the trick? I understand they're mostly

ethanol, but there are other chemicals, (at least 'benzalkonium chloride 0.47% w/w).

Obviously I don't want to risk losing these arms to any diseases so any advice

would be much appreciated!

I plan on leaving the arms lying flat on a big desk in a room with little direct sunlight

for a week or so until decent calluses have formed, before potting them up and

leaving for a couple of months to establish their roots.

I'm very excited but also nervous as i'm quite new to the world of cacti so feel

free to offer any tips!

Cheers,

Wagonwheel

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hilarious!

never seen a car that full

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I know! Didn't realise what I was getting myself into until I got there...

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must really love that scent hey!

wouldn't bother with any steralizing, just swear at it and throw it overarm vaguely in the direction of soil, it'll grow just fine.

save the steralizing stuff for the many puncture wounds you no doubt have

Edited by NegativeDave
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Haha I have many puncture wounds -.- and would not be able to help my self but jumping ontop of them for a hug!

I have never seen that many mature arms purchased before :o

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I don't know about Pine-o-clean (where did you get that idea? ;o ) but I have successfully used a combination of alcohol hand-wash (on the blade) and a dusting of sulfur to treat all my cuttings, and they have responded excellently. But if you're just treating puncture marks, I would apply a bit of sulfur dust if you're feeling anxious, but usually a healthy cacti will be able to take care of a few puncture wounds (as in, it's probably not necessary to treat them, just to let them dry out on their own, with adequate ventilation).

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Queen of the Night is a term usually referring to epiphyllum sp Thats a Cereus species was it off one plant?what are you going to do with it all? You could start an orchid if you can get your hands on another clone to pollinate them, where abouts are you?

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I would bother about any antiseptic type stuff maybe some sulphur powder is all even then Cereus are stupid tough.

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I was waiting for you to notice this thread Stillman. :)

There are a lot of nice clean flowering size cuts there :wink:

Cheers

Got

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Thanks CßL, think the sulfur dusting can wait till tomorrow morning or should I go to Bunnings tonight to get it on them whilst they're fresh wounds?

I thought the pine o cleen wipes might do the trick since I heard somewhere that they're essentially just alcohol-wipes.

Stillman, you're right, I bought them off ebay listed as Queen of the Night but according to wiki 'Most of the plants under this name belong to other

species or hybrids.', but photos of the real Queen of the NIght clearly show that it's a different species. I'm not quite sure what to do with them all,

the photos on ebay didn't really have any reference point to gauge the size of the mother so I really had no idea i'd have this much! I'm thinking of

making a raised garden feature, and maybe potting up the rest to try to sell on ebay or sell bare rooted to small nurseries/markets (if anyone has any

experience with this i'd love to hear!). I love the idea of making on orchard though, you think there'd be a market for the fruit? I'm living in Melbourne.

Does anyone have any idea what specific Cereus it might be?

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This is the first time i'm hearing anything other Hildmannianus is called "Queen of the Night" but now I searched it and I think thats comical
There can only be one queen of the night laff

Im pretty sure thats a spot on Hildmannianus... Maybe some peruvianus will pollinate with it
I have a Tortuous variety on the way and one of my cereus monsters (I was told Peruvianus) I think is a Hildmannianus monster actually...
Im waiting for the 3rd to get here (the corkscrew) and i'll post pics of them in the freaks category :P

Here it is... spot on imo
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/181307/#b

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Looks the same to me, although the areole spines on mine look quite a bit smaller

on my guys than the ones you posted, Spine Collector. Don't know if that means

anything.

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Well you are right... I was focused on "Queen of the Night"... I know the amount of sunlight can affect spines but I imagine a plant that huge was getting plenty of sunlight... Now im asking myself how to tell Cereus Hildmannianus from Cereus Peruvianus? Im lookings a random google pics and the only thing I notice is difference in spines and that Hildmannianus is a little bluer looking and Peruvianus is a bit greener from what I can tell... I think I can tell their monsters apart and the one I believe to be a Hildmannianus monster has larger spines and is also much waxier blue for sure... so maybe the spines is the way to tell I dunno... I don't know how much these plants can vary... I also got some variegates im about to ask for ID for and im pretty sure they are not cereus peruvianus though they were sold as such... I asked the vendor if they might be another species but they pretty much overlooked my question lol

K im stumped.... thats a cereus :P it's a spot on Cereus " "

Edited by Spine Collector
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I hope somebody paid you to take them off their hands.....

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I essentially paid a guy to stand there watching me almost flatten myself lopping off 2 meter arms

for an hour and a half! He's getting a bobcat to dig out the roots and dumping them, thinking of

trying to pick that up too - something really sad about the idea of a 100 year old plant just getting

thrown on the side of the road, especially if it can grow 50+ 2 meter arms every 3 years!

Edited by wagonwheel

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Great Carload of Grafting stocks there...

You can get yourself some Charcoal to cover the Wounds. Not sure about the correct name for the type of charcoal used for that but im sure you´ll figure that out soon.

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First question why second question why?

I don't want to burst your bubble but these things turn into monsters in a relatively short time they are almost impossible to kill and not very sort after infact hard to get rid of. Imo they are a giant weed one or two looks good but with 100 I can see some big problems down the track. The orchard idea wasn't bad but you'd want to space them 5-10m apart so you'll need quite a bit of land. Id think long and hard about where you put them unless your keen to do a couple of hectic days work and 10 very expensive trips to the dump every few years.

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They fruit on new growth best so the orchid aspect requires regular trimming. Like cc says they are vigorous. You could graft a stack of gymnos and sling them for a tenner each I guess.

Edited by Stillman

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I found a couple links that talk about this plant or rather the difference between the different cereus species

1st link: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/64592/#b
and this link says:

Apparently the synonym "C. peruvianus" was "misapplied" to C. hildmannianus in a 1768 publication. "C. peruvianus" is actually a synonym of C. repandus. Lots of people call C. hildmannianus the Peruvian Apple because the plant looks very close to C. repandus which is the true Peruvian Apple.
Some publications list C. hildmannianus as "Hedge Cactus & Queen of the Night" The main identifying characteristic for C. repandus is it has pinkish white flowers instead of white or white/yellowish flowers; and the flowers are smaller.

The main differences between the two subspecies of Cereus hildmannianus are:
Subspecies 'hildmannianus' ; the stems grow in a more upright fashion and the plant has a more overall compactness look to it. The spines (if any) are also less than an eighth inch long.
Subspecies 'uruguayanus' ; Alot of the stems growing out from the base are at slight angles instead of upright and dosen't look as compact. The spines are longer than a quarter inch. The flowers are the same on both subspecies.

Read more:http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/64592/#ixzz2OhLiWlj5

2
nd Link: http://www.public.asu.edu/~camartin/plants/Plant%20html%20files/cereusrepandus.html

and this link says:
Cereus repandus and Cereus hildmannianus - A confusing tale:
Ceus repandus is very similar too, and is very often confused with, C. hildmannianus. Cereus peruvianus is not an 'officially recognized' taxon, but nonetheless is a botanical name that is 'commonly used' by many to lump together both taxa. And moreover, some taxonomist will not differentiate between the two as separate taxa and will call them both Cereus repandus. Confused yet? Don't worry. Most people, even ardent cactus enthusiasts are too.


and then I also found this tube I think is worth a share



So get you a pollinater... it's apparent that the Cereus Cacti love to have sex Edited by Spine Collector
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I don't think what Wagonwheel has is Cereus repandus although there are conflicting images online I'm pretty sure it has small spines. Similar to this one.

DSCF2006-16_zps6f1465e5.jpg

notice the pink in the flower

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This lot is more like his.

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This is just my perspective not much work has been done and published on Cereus sp

Edited by Stillman
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Cactuscarl, I appreciate your concern, but I only plan on keeping a dozen or so in pots and selling the rest. They might not be first choice for

cactus connoisseur's but i'm sure it can't be too hard to sell the rest given time. I've thought about maybe cutting off the last summer's growth

and potting them for sale (approx 30cm), the new growth looks the nicest and i'm sure more managably sized cuttings in nice pots wouldn't be

as difficult to sell on ebay or at markets. If I did this I could then keep the bottom parts of the arms for grafting. I've never tried that before though,

would I need to find cacti with similar sized vascular rings to use as the piggyback scion? Would loph's be happy growing on Cereus?


Interesting read Spine Collector, and stunning flowering video. Here are a couple of photos of the mother plant pre-butchering.

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As you can see the growth is very upright so i'm guessing its hildmannianus according to your links. Also that last photo Stillman posted looks

spot on as far as I can tell. Is that supposed to be of a hildmannianus Stillman?

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Edited by wagonwheel

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