magical9

Get better mr zelly!

this is for sure not true and will mess you up. saguaro's actually are psychedelic but not a fun trip. do not drink a cactus for thirst

if i were to guess... maybe 10-15 years? they can grow like a foot easy per season per arm. at least it seems so as i drive by hundreds of them daily. friend of mine has a saguaro that is no joke... about 5-6ft wide... the arm was about 3ft wide.. in.. sane... i didnt even know they could get so huge.

my biggest issue was that the nieghbor had a broken sprinkler up until like a month ago when i finally asked them to verify the integrity of their sprinkler system. sigh. should have said something earlier. Lost some but the ones that survived can clearly take a LOT of water so now that the issue is fixed... i should have no more wet issues. Hopefully all the weak looking pup growth will kick in gear this year along with some fertz.

Alright im working on putting the best of my best cactus in ground. Starting first with my Colossus, SS02, Eileen, BBG, peruvianus(various). What is the most ideal spacing and depth for in ground planting? My goal is to grow plants big enough to take 12-18" cuttings from every season(or when they grow to that size....). Id like to get them packed in tight as possible while still allowing healthy fat growth. Any suggestions? So far ive got one of five garden beds dug and im not sure if its even sufficiently dug yet. Right now its 4' x 2' x 1.5' Deep. I was hoping to plant 1 cutting per square foot since ill be harvesting tips/arms frequently so assuming they arent so close that they grow into eachother.. i would think id be good? I live in Arizona.. do you think it would be beneficial to mix in the dirt im digging up into my cactus mix? How many plants would you experienced in ground growers(*cough*zelly*cough*mutant) plant for my 5 beds at 4x2x??deep?

Are these seedlings too etiolated to bother with? How will they hold themselves up in a few months? Should i fill their pots higher, burying them deeper, once i repot them? Or would that induce rotting? I was planning on poking each spot out from the bottom and just repotting in a bigger pot and whatever seedlings in the group survive then they win.

Here are some updated pics and some phalaris AQ1 grass. The two in the fabric pots are 2 of my 3 colossus cuttings from zelly. ;)

Updated pic.

I thought this was just neet and figured id share. I bought these pair of tricho's the first week of February 2014. Look at their sexy growths! I was always told cactus grow super slow... this seems quite fast. 4months later

things were lookin good for a while. ill have to upload some pics. there were a series of rainstorms timed very well with my own waterings and my neighbor watering their grass that caused 4 or 5 plants to rot out. sucked but most of them had small pups that i managed to cut off and graft to some PC stock for now. Most of the in ground is looking good though. Its been getting into the 50's at night and im still seeing new growth heh. I grafted a Blue Peruvianus that has grown another almost 2" since grafting. Also a BBG pup to a PC stock. This grafting thing is amazing. Im working on my first seedling + pere graft now. Im considering growing seedlings year round under really nice LED light. Ill try to get some pics up

10x5x3 WxHxD 30% Total cost was about ~$120 +/-10 Finally. Ive been planning to put this thing together for a while. Now ill be building a few more.

How could you build a similar structure for 10$... ? the shade screen itself cost over 10$

So i moved my existing outdoor seedlings to a nicer area in the backyard. I also rose the indoor seedlings up towards the light. Im stoked again about these seedlings. I was getting bummed at the lack of growth but ive been so busy with lots of other things that i just havnt had time to ask for help. thanks again! zelly imma have to get a ton new seed from you soon so i can follow your process to a T. Hit me up when you get a chance and let me know what you recommend for seed tricho wise.

Ive had these seedlings going for about 6 months now, maybe longer, i lost track. They seem to be pretty stunted for what ive seen other growers accomplish in the same time span. Can ya'll tell me what im doing wrong? Using 3 brand new T5 lights with a bunch of LED light strips. its plenty of light for my vegetable plants (peppers and tomatoes, etc). I leave the humidity dome off as seen in the pictures. Ive been doing this for at least 3 months. They all seem to be a darker color, reddish BUT in the last few weeks ive suddenly seen a lot of the tips turn nice and green as though they were maybe stunted and have just resumed growth? I water them every day, generally twice a day. I keep the soil damp on them. It dries out fast. Is my light not strong enough? Not close enough?

thanks guys. this is awesome info. so with the tubs, do i just cut a for holes in the lid and thats it?

Excellent! I will do as prescribed thanks guys,

i have not yet

Up-potted my Melted Wax. In-ground planted my monstrose Pachanoi New shade structure 30%

FYI the fake grass is for the grey hound rescue we have. so she can run around. albeit in a circle... BUT thats what the gf wanted. (before we met)

LOL when he said "lawn" i just assumed the cactus. Ya its fake grass. It was here before me.

LOL blessed by local shaman... in missouri LOL

I need to spend a day relabeling.

WELL. the western sun gets super intense for a few hours at just the right angle for this plant so its original growth (the middle of the plant, originally the top of the plant) was starting to yellow so i just tossed some small nearby pieces on that spot. seems to be doing the job while allowing me to see the cactus mostly still.

lol ya its sarcasm. CHUG CHUG! <holds beer funnel>