Tree Cactus

[Sola]

I would like to start growing a couple of tree cacti that will eventually shade some smaller delicate

cacti beneath in a quasi-natural state. I'm wanting to put them in now as I'm sure most if not all

would take a very long time to produce effective shade. Have any people had experience doing similar

in the past or know of relatively fast growing species, shortcuts basically while I wait for the really slow ones

to grow. I looked at:

Browningia candelaris

B. microsperma

Carnegia gigantea

Trichocereus atacamensis pasacana, even though it's a columnar I think it would be impressive near them.

Opuntia bigelowii

O. monoliformis

Neoraimonda arequipensis

Pachycereus pringlei

They all seem to be slow growing, which is fine because they'll look amazing later but for shade in the mean time a faster growing species migh be good.

Cheers

Sola

[Rabelais]

Aloe plicatilis? Fan Aloe http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantab/aloeplicatilis.htm

A succulent, but I think they look great in a cactus garden,

Growing in Tas and mine is about 18" after 2 years and is now just starting to produce it's trunks at the base. I think they are beautiful....they look so...ancient.

Edited December 3, 2010 by Dale Cooper

[mescalito]

Pitaya (Dragon Fruit) man those fruits go for 5 bucks a piece!

If mum hadn't have sold the block years ago

[shortly]

I can't exactly say i've got my collection in anything resembling a natural state since i'm forced to grow many of mine under cover to protect from excessively wet conditions.

Several of the Cereus spp. will fit your need quite well. Cereus jamacaru

I wouldn't say all of your list are all that slow growing, I've got some 3 year old seed grown Pachycereus pringlei in pots that are 1m tall & still bolting.

Saguaro are obscenely slow so my plan is to graft some of my seedlings onto some 1 year old TB's to see if i can give them a little push & stave off any root problems, at least for a while.

Edited December 3, 2010 by shortly

[Sola]

Thanks for the info guys, I'll definitely have to get a Pachycereus pringlei in the ground so it can shade the cacti

while I wait for the saguaro to grow.

I've just put an Aloe plicatilis in so hopefully it grows as quickly here as it does in Tassie.

Haven't tracked down a Pitaya yet but am willing to give it a go. Not sure if it'll get the right amount of water here though.

Unless of course I water it .

BTW if your plan works with grafting the saguaro I would be very interested in purchasing one down the track.

[shortly]

Whilst not actually a cactus And certainly not a tree Kalanchoe beharensis will give pretty decent shade & looks beautifully bizarre.

As long as you are frost free the dragon fruit (hylocereus) should do ok, but you may need to create a warm micro-climate to grow the yellow dragon fruit.

I will only be grafting enough saguaros to satisfy my addiction, i dont have room to be doing to many extras

[Sola]

Thanks for the info shortly, the Kalanchoe beharensis does look very interesting. I may even have one and

planted it in the wrong spot now that I've seen a few wiki photos of what it might become.

I presume they would strike readily from cuttings given the succulent nature but not really sure.

I'll try a couple dragon fruit in different locations and see how they go would be great to have a couple.

No worries with the saguaro's, just thought I'd check.

Cheers

[mutant]

My fetish is with Trichocereus terscheckii, but I also grow T.wendermanianus , Stenocactus thurberii, and a couple of Pachycerei. Been wanting to grow/graft Saguaro. This is a very ambitious project. In any case, its more probable your children see the tree-cactus, but it's no less intriguing like that too

[bit]

Pachycereus Pringlei imo

[bℓσωηG]

Is that guy picking fruit? Freaking awesome cactus!

here is a link i found whilst drooling at pron:

http://www.tucsoncactus.org/html/growing_succulents_in_the_desert_column_oct_2010.html

[Sola]

Thanks again, love that pic. These cactus are amazing but I think mutant may be right, I'm not going to see

many of them as trees but I'll still put them in. If I don't now then people will only have to wait longer to witness

these amazing specimens in maturity.

[mutant]

Blowng, pretty interesting link on terschecki thanks

[zelly]

Fast, year round grower, lots of shade, highly prolific, self fertile

Dracaena drago 'Dragon blood tree'

[Sola]

I planted several Dracena draco's 5ish years ago but you can barely see they're growing.

Maybe they need lots more water and or fertiliser here.

That is an awesome link blowng, I'm definitely getting a T. terscheckii

Edited January 1, 2011 by Sola

[Micromegas]

I would consider the root zone of a cacti before using one as a shade "tree". A PC pedro will be a very large plant in the ground within 10 years which is not really that long to wait. But, cacti grow lateral surface roots that are highly competitive for surface soil moisture during warmer seasons. Something like a mallee eucalypt.

For a shade plant i would look for something with a spreading but not-too thick canopy that grows a deep tap root rather than lateral roots, and possibly which drops its leave during winter. Something like the comparison of a SA blue gum with a Mallee Box. Under the first you will get a growth of seasonal grasses but under the later you get a very reduced soil cover due to root competition.

Cacti really are not typcially shade producing plants and from what I have seen, in their native habitats delicate small cacti prefer to shelter under shrubs or rocks rather than other cacti. That is not to say that a ferocactus or ball echinopsis would not love to grow under a PC pedro, I really don't know, but all but the largest cacti produce "blocks" of shade rather than shade in general so the time of shade on a patch of ground with a cacti is much less than that of leafy plant with a spreading crown... except that crazy pachycereus pictured above!

Some plants I would consider if you are in an arid area would be things like mulga or western myall acacias that are long lived, attractive in combination with cacti, and have a deep tap root. But they are slow growing. There are many others that would grow much faster to make shade such as a.pycnantha or acuminata, or even a euc that has a tap root such as blue gum or pink gum.

But there are probably heaps of cool tree-succulents that would work also I just can think of them and of course, growing massive shady cacti trees is just a worthy goal in its own right.

Cheers!

[Sola]

Cheers that's also something to think about, I have put in an Aloe dichotoma, A. plicatilis and A. barberae.

I'll still put a few tree cactus in and experiment with cacti/ plants underneath, might not get enough moisture.

I have planted lots of pycnantha, retinodes, victorae and a few of some of the others but don't have enough seed yet, I intend on more.

Thanks for the advice, I'll experiment and see what works.

[mutant]

I agree with Micromegas. Maybe forget the shade coming from a large cactus and think of other parameters. Even if you got a terscheckii and grew it for 10-15 years, it wouldn't produce much shade...

[kadakuda]

Cereus will create 3 meter plants in 5 years, as will many opuntia. O. cochinifera (sp?) will grow into a good 2-3 meter "tree like" plant in 5 years form a single pad.

search out candelabra cactus species, like that awesome pic above. i think it would be cool have tree cacti that have room under them...that thing looks fucking perfect for a couple lawn chairs or a hammock....

many cereus, like C. jamacaru will not do this, they grow in dense large stands....but they are pretty solid head to toe.

[tripsis]

I know Dracaena draco has already been mentioned and that you have a few already Sola, but I just love this photo. It's massive!