Starting from seed or cuttings... what do you prefer?

[Sedation Nation]

When it came to starting your own cacti garden what did you do first and now that you are more experience, what do you think you SHOULD have done?

For example, would starting from seed be a good idea or starting from 30cm cuttings? 100 seed for $16 or $30 per 30cm cutting. It could work out costly per cutting, although would take longer via the seedling route.

I just wanted to make clear this is all hypothetical and i personally couldn't grow a Tomato plant lol I was just curious..

Edited October 4, 2010 by Sedation Nation

[bit]

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?

[Sedation Nation]

I would imagine (in my mind) somebody who would want to do this would have a dose once a month or twice maybe. Although that person would probably like to try extractions so excess material would come in handy.

[Ethos]

Yeah as bit said it really depends on how much of your 'GOODIES' your going to need for a year.

In my opinion don't harvest anything you cannot propagate , all my Loph's/pach's/peruvianoids are seed grown

Also this is just me but when i discovered that it was legal to grow trich's and loph's and they contain mescaline.

I was amazed as i was a fiending teenager looking for some new and exciting drug.

And since then have gained a genuine interest in ethno's and find that gardening (not just ethno's) and watching the little buggers grow works wonders for my anxiety, also it is very satisfying to look back at something you have grown yourself (almost like nurturing a child to become one day healthy and self reliant).

and that's not mentioning hybridizing, cloning cuttings, don't get me started on how much fun grafts are and when things get flowering... absolutely awe inspiring! forgot to mention how amazing mutations are

and this is my first year growing ethno's... still have lots to learn, but i am loving every single step of the way

so in summary i went from a naive adolescent who ordered some seeds from SAB having know idea what i was doing, and became a very calm peaceful person who loves gardening and rarely experiments with actives they contain.

further summarizing the whole ethnobotanical community especially the people on these forums just give out so many positive vibes and welcome with all fellow enthusiasts with open arms

either way you will have to wait for either roots and new growth or seedlings to become of size as you said, i would personally start some seedlings watch them grow a bit, graft to peres, de graft when too large to be supported by the graft stock and then plant those babies. And wait = profit.... but its all up to you just do some research and you'll find what will work best for you.

thanks,

Ethen

[Ethos]

in the case your dosing once or twice a month start some seedlings when they sprout you wont know what to do with them all get a cutting or two, root it

Make a garden

you'll have excess, its just the virtue of patience

[shortly]

Growing from cuttings at least you know exactly what you have which you don't with seedlings.

But you just cant beat the satisfaction of watching a tiny seed grow into a great prickly beast with character all its own or the one seedling in the batch that turns out to be something special:wub:

[santiago]

do both, seems pretty simple to me...getting cuttings is probably the best short term, whilst seeds provide the chance to grow hundreds of individuals, its a dollar here, 50 cents there...if your like most people (me) then sure you might start out seeking that goal (mesc), but then it turns into a hobby and a passion, in a zen sense....its like that bible quote or wherever it comes from.

give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for the rest of his life.

[MagikF]

Definitely do both. Cuttings for short term, seeds for long term.

[Ethos]

until your nephew tips all your takeaway containers ass up with icaro, peruvianus, pachanois, peru kk1252.

oh man this sucks none of the peru's or the icaro's had sprouted yet and lost about 70% of my seeds, and found the little almost dead pach seedlings squashed against the roof of the container they are about a month old about a centimeter tall recovered 18 out of 20 of them so that isn't that bad.

[Yeti101]

Seedlings will recover from being up-ended & buried. What they won't survive is a serious snail attack !

[shoes]

Also this is just me but when i discovered that it was legal to grow trich's and loph's and they contain mescaline.

I was amazed as i was a fiending teenager looking for some new and exciting drug.

Which Newcastle you in, I could be wrong but isn't growing lophs anywhere in Australia illegal?

Agreed growing cacti or any plant is kinda therapeutic depending on state of mind,

Most cacti can be obtained for free on this site, check the trading forums, sometimes users have excess or are just nice enough to give cuts away

Shoes ;)

[Illustro]

I started out with cuttings and a few boring seed-grown hybrids, they all appeared to be variants of Echinopsis scopulicola x Echinopsis pachanoi hybrids. They were what got me interested in cacti, but I ultimately got bored of them, they were kinda ugly tbh; and I like spines ^-^

I ended up giving away all my old cacti, or what was left of them lol. I'm not a real fan of hybrids, or mutants (which one was), I really like the strong genetic examples of species.

The only cuttings I still have are an Echinopsis macrogona and an Echinopsis peruviana, everything else is seed grown. I have about 200+ seed grown cacti now, some 2m+ tall.

It is much more rewarding to grow from seed imo, especially once they get past about 2yo and they start looking like adult cacti, just a lot smaller. At that age the growth starts exploding as well which is awesome to watch, especially during spring when the shoot apical meristem starts 'glowing' bright lime green - the same happens in large cacti but its just not quite as prominent in older specimens.

Plus, starting a large batch of seeds of a single species and seeing the huge amount of variation that arises in the lot as they grow is pretty damn cool.

Edited October 6, 2010 by Illustro Verum

[Ethos]

shoes Newcastle NSW, also i was under the intention that it is legal but only in certain states (incase something has changed within the last month?).

hence the reason why SAB can sell seeds and why members on this forum have a wide variety of loph's

illegal to grow in QLD and WA, illegal to cultivate under the intention to prepare/take mescaline - all of AUS, anyone feel free to correct me if i'm wrong. otherwise i been bad