Tropical Trichos

[Halcyon Daze]

A friend s interested in planting some Trichos in a tropical region,up in the mountains and with fairly high rainfall, think Atherton Tablelands.

I guess the high rainfall is the main concern for the cacti so we were wondering which Trichos deal with higher rainfall the best, (and which are the worst for that matter)?

What other planting strategies can be used to help ensure the don't fall victim to the evil black rot death?

[amp]

The obvious answer is well draining soil/situation. Dig out a large pit and fill with a well draining mix.

[cactuscarl]

I think pachanoi are the best to handle water but none of my trichocereus seem to mind heaps of water I'm on the sunshine coast and haven't lost any even with all the rain at the start of the year. I water my pots every three days in summer and I've heard ppl say they water every day. Keep them in pots if your real worried that way you can at least move them if you have to

[Sir Jeans]

To ensure good drainage, you could try planting them in an elevated position. I'm thinking that you could put down a few inches of coarse gravel, and then put a big pile of cactus soil on top of that. It could be like a raised vegetable bed, and could be enclosed by wood or bricks or something. If it gets rained on a lot, all the water would drain down through the soil, and then out to the sides through the gravel. Ive never tried this, but its an idea I had a while ago when thinking about planting cacti in the ground.

[Cereusly]

I live in a climate where I can get a lot of rainfall so I built a raised cactus garden. First I built up a mound of dirt, then compacted it. Next I threw some plastic over my mound and outlined it with large landscaping rocks; the plastic is to ensure the roots don't grow down into soil that will stay wet too long. Then I filled it with a well drained soil mix, and lastly I planted my cacti. I've only seen two other houses around here that have landscaped with cacti and they were Opuntias. I'll see how it does this winter. I got the idea from this German guys site: http://www.kakteensammlung-holzheu.de/winterharte_kakteen_bauanleitung.html

This is the day before adding my soil. The mound in the center is steeper than it appears in this picture.

This is in the middle of planting. Trying to get an idea of where to put stuff.

This is 3 months later.

This is today, 5 months. There's a few new additions and Pedro's main column got a bit top heavy and snapped.

Sorry for the ginourmous pictures. Hope this helps give you some ideas.

[kadakuda]

IM not sure about your rainfall. No trichocereus will live in our rainfall in Taiwan. Not sure if you get that much rain, but if you get close to it you are going to have troubles. You can grow them in 3" rock and they will still rot, they cant take really heavy rains like they get in SE Asia. But i have found that peruvianus hybrids are the toughest in my case. Still died of course, but they put up a 3 month fight before doing so, about double any pach or bridge did for me. hybrids are often tougher in certain ways once they reach a slightly bigger size adn the weaklings are weeded out.

[Halcyon Daze]

That's really awesome Cereuly, thanks for the good ideas!

[tedzr]

Very cool garden Cereusly. Looks like they are taking to the patch well!

[woof woof woof]

Bridge's & Pacha's succumb to rot in the tropics very fast. Peruv's are indeed much hardier like kadakuda said.

I live in a tropical region. 32C average daytime/ 26C average nighttime. 550 mm average. some years we get around 900 mm. Those 900mm years are really tough on Trichs.

BTW,... Trichocerei have never flowerd where I live. :-(

[kadakuda]

never flowered? wow, what LAT are you on, if i may ask?

and they rot with 55cm a year of rain? they are worse than i thought