bit

Optimum cutting size seems to be approximately 6". You could experiment a bit and take various size cuttings to see which works for you.

Oops, that came out wrong I meant to say you can buy it from CC for $250, I didn't buy it as I have no room Martin said he has kept every variety of Trich, but they will obviously only be available in much smaller numbers now, as he has limited parent stock

I thought I didn't have a pic of the parent plant, but turns out I do :D Even if it's a bit crappy lol, you get the idea. BTW, you can have this for $250... I can't justify it as I have nowhere to put it

Have you seen the mother plant their bridgesii cuttings come from? Apart from the odd spination it displays all the other characteristics of bridgesii. It's rib formations, tendency to pup, overall look of the plant from a distance, diametre of the limbs, protruding roots close to the ground, blue colour etc all say bridgesii. For what it's worth they're not dead set on IDs for hardly any of their trichs. Their bridgesii was ID'd by a prominant cacti specialist from the UK, but if you have definite proof of an alternate ID, Martin's always willing to listen. Chances are it's a hybrid with strong bridgesoid tendencies, but there's no way to say more than that. With regard to the original post, as far as I know only bridgesii display the penis form, so it has to be. Spination on mutated species are almost never a good indication of form of the standard plant - spination is expected to be quite different. My 2c anyways.

Thanks guys :D One more from this morning, it was raining lightly. Uknown Echinopsis I refer to as Betty (my Grandma in law who gave it to me to rescue) Echinopsis spp (Betty)

Would be cool if you could get some pics of the arios, and that cres up The seeds will be pachanoi/peruvianus/scopulicola crosses (bees pollinate them - I'm not able to keep them separate). Possibly some echinopsis hybrids this year if the bees are out and about yet. I can probably post some of the smaller plants. I have a metric shit-tonne of Trich x's (named) seedlings from the states that I sowed not thinking I'd get close to 100% germ rates. Plus a couple of "macrogonus" seedlings which are a bit older. Have a look through my posts and you'll see pics of most of my plants. Anything in particular you want pics of, just ask

Where in NZ are you? I could be interested - I have some seed from the last two years, and will have eons of fresh seed when my fruit ripens early in the new year. Also have various plants to trade (seedling through to mature trichs and echinopsis), but I'm lazy too post so you would have to visit to see. Myself I'm only looking for rare plants, crests, buttons, living rock types etc as I have extremely limited room right now (too many plants lol).

daemondamian: you're going to find that trichocereus taxonomy is a very difficult subject. There are no set in stone rules based on appearance. Any particular plant can vary ridiculously based on the environment it's grown in. Take this one for example: Same plant, different environment. The only true way to tell what the plant is is by checking it's genetics, which most don't have the tools to do. So we make do with a combination of labelling plants with the names the came with, or if we're quite certain (ie have another one identical) we give them that label.

Last one in Micromegas' post is taquimbalensis. 6th is Cuzcoensis, 4th terscheckii... according to id's I've seen here in NZ anyway

yeah that's a cereus without doubt

Just recording the start of the season Sorry for the artsy shots New to my heard, Pachycereus marginatus - picked up this nice straight 1.2m beauty for $25. Needs watering hah. Liking the shadows from the other plants in the late afternoon light. Mammillaria Gracilis - 25cm+ diameter, big gastie in the background. Echinopsis budding up, big fella Random Trich hybrid, nice dark green Barrels T.IDontKnowButILikeIt Cool patterns thrown through the yukka leaves out of shot Unusual T."Peruvianus" with spring growth Echinopsis Spring Blush (named hybrid) budding up Random echinopsis rescues, budding up. Need to sell these off and they'll get a better price with a pic of them flowering

So anyway, I went and I purchased about $100 worth of stuff. Only a few trichs tho. Sadly I had to leave 3 hours before the end, and they hadn't got up to some of the plants I was interested in :/ I'll post up some pics tomorrow probably. I will need a trailer to get them home lol. Apparently they didn't get through absolutely everything, so there's a little bit of hope there's still something interesting left over. I'll head back first thing in the morning.

Hi All I just received this rather sobering email from Corromandel Cacti, and thought I should share. For those of you who don't know, CC is NZ's biggest cacti and succulent nursery by far, having the best and biggest variety of products. They are continually bringing new and interesting plants into the NZ market. CC is also Martin's (the owner, pictured below) life work and I know that despite the tone in the email he must be absolutely shattered :/ This really is a sad day for the C+S lovers of NZ. It's no small thing that a number of plants will cease to be available anywhere in NZ after this event.

Yeah the cereus there is monstrose and crested - they grow massive and very cool over time.

Just a reminder to any other Kiwis... auction is tomorrow. I've been in a couple of times this week and scoped the place out. They truly have some awesome massive plants in their groundbeds. Going to be such a shame to lose the resource. I honestly don't think they're going to be able to auction everything tomorrow. It will probably spill over into Sunday. It's looking like over 600 lots, which means 40 seconds per auction over 8 hours lol. Anyhow, quite excited even though I won't be able to stay for the whole thing :/

Thanks guys, will definitely take pics of the flowers. I have a few different varieties of echinopsis I hope will flower this year I actually didn't grow those trich weirdos myself, they came from a random nursery, and I was unable to get any lineage details off the owners. Still plan to visit the nursery in person one day to check out the parent plants if they'll let me. They only cost me a couple of dollars each, I should have bought more of them dammit, but when I purchased I was skeptical of them being cereus.

Thanks all Hey nice to hear from you Sure is, and the b+w pic is your big fat long spined t.something

T.Macrogonus (according to the seed seller) Same T.Macrogonus seedies Young Bridgesii from my first ever seed batch - mad variation between plants Weirdos More weirdos Aftermath of greenhouse collapse Greenhouse collapse aftermath #2 This guy supported an entire shelf during the collapse, unmarked and protected a lot of other plants T. Huasca crest, took some fall damage which I haven't shown in this shot Cactus art.

Cuttings costly? If you're patient you can get them for next to nothing, or even free. I read somewhere that 10 plants was sufficient for one person per year, but it depends on how much of a fiend you are?

Yeah I wouldn't chop it. There's nothing to save by chopping. I'd be tempted to repot into fresh soil, and give it a really good drink of good water to flush whatever's got into it.. Depends how much you like this plant though? If you can stand to lose it it would be worth just watching to see what happens. I've never seen this before and I've been growing for 4 years or so.

Can you remember where you got it? I've got the same stuff an can't remember where I got it from - a mate wants to get some.

Harvest those fruit as soon as you see them! Use a knife to cut them open and liberate 5-10 seeds from each

Overall form reminds me of my pseudocandicans, but the spines are whiter and longer.

Blue ones are Pilocereus Azureus and similar - can be purchased at cacti.co.nz PS, would love to trade for a piece of that blue crest, and some of that schotti ;)

Hey guys, some pics of my plants in their semi-dormant state midwinter - although the seedlings just don't seem to know the meaning of the word? They're getting fatter and bigger at a rapid rate!