How old can a cactus be to take a cutting?

[rottenjonny]

forgive my poor cactus knowledge I'm still learning.

 

The question relates to the attached photo which is of Eileen. She was root bound and had a funky top when she was very nicely gifted to me. Since then I have been looking for happy places around the yard and she has since taken off with new growth. I want to know if I can cut that part off so that I have 2 or I should wait till she is much bigger. total height maybe 60cm the new growth i'd say about 20cm.

 

I then started thinking about some of the pachanoi I have that have come from seed. They are maybe just over a year old and only 5 - 10cm tall. Can they be cut? when is too young etc.

[Ethnoob]

I've seen really small seedlings, way smaller than yours, grafted to pereskipsis before so it can be done but if you aren't grafting them I'd probably just let them be.  As for your beautiful Eileen you could easily give it a chop and turn it into quite a few plants.  The bigger they are the faster they'll root and grow but I've had quite a few very small cuts (under 10cm) that have taken off no problems.  Just make sure that you don't put them in a pot upside down after they callous over and you'll be golden.

[rottenjonny]

I just wish I could get the photo to be up the right way haha

[Ethnoob]

37 minutes ago, rottenjonny said:

I just wish I could get the photo to be up the right way haha

It's that way being of an orientation tag in the exif info.  Mobile phones use them to try and display the picture the same way it was taken.  To fix it you can rotate the image in any program like mspaint and save it as a different file type like png or gif.  Alternatively there's apps like irfanview which allow you to strip all that kind of data away from the pictures when you save them again.

 

Personally I recommend irfanview as you can do a bulk conversion of files using the same settings like resizing, losing that orientation tag, etc. which makes the process considerably faster when dealing with lots of pictures.  Also it's free

[nothinghead]

Should be all good. I've rooted a couple of cuttings of young seedlings <10cm, and rooted <10cm Eileen cuts. Tiny cuts take ages to root and get growing again though, IME. Make sure they are calloused well and kept in a sheltered spot for rooting. 

[SayN]

These were always going to be an experiment and were pups that grew off a cutting I was in the process of callousing.  To be honest I only think they have roots as i'm too scared to move them and find out for sure yet but they are at least 8 months old and growing (very slowly) which must be a good sign.

 

[Strontium Dawg]

The smaller the cut, the slower it will grow. They get stunted and take ages to really fatten up. Big cut often take forever to root though, I think because they have plenty of reserves they aren't desperate to get roots out. Big cuts of terscheckii and Validus for example can take years to root.

[rottenjonny]

well basically the idea was to take the healthy new 20cm or so off the top and hope that they both kept growing. the small cuts were just a shower thought. 

 

It this a good time of year to be doing that?

 

Next photo right way up I swear ahha I think stripping the exif is what made it sideways

[nothinghead]

Yeah 20cm is a reasonable sized cutting to take, and this time of year will give you plenty of time to get it calloused, rooted, and growing again in the Hunter.