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trichocereus growers guide

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http://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/drugs/nansnook3c/tek/TrichocereusGrowersGuidemod.html

Some excerpts :

Trichocereus cacti grow in an area not that far from the equator and consequently are not used to the duration of light found in more temperate summers. The seedlings will respond well to 12-14 hours of light. It is important to remember that cacti breath at night and then store the Co2 in the form of acids for use in photosynthesis during the day, they do not do well with the longer periods of light that other plants thrive in. The dark period must be somewhat cool as well being in the mid 60’s for an ideal. Trichocereus cacti may receive too much light in temperate zones when placed in a full sun position particularly at high elevations, in these cases they should be placed in partial sun locations.

In nature the Trichocereus cacti grow in a soil rich in trace elements such as calcium, copper, iron, manganese and magnesium many of which play key roles in enzymatic pathways and function, thus these trace elements can be important factors in alkaloid biosynthesis. Excellent sources of trace minerals include seaweed preparations, chelated compounds and complete fertilizers such as the aforementioned Peters 20:20:20. Dolomite limestone is rich in both Ca and Mg and is a good ingredient in cactus mixes. Hard water will provide enough Ca for growth but more calcium may be needed for optimum growth. Bone meal is is great organic fertilizer for cacti that provides Ca, P and often N as well.

Some work has been done recently with foliar feeding of cacti, in particular Trichocereus. Their CAM mode of respiration and photosynthesis means that the stomata of the cacti are open at night and closed during the day. Low dilutions of peters 20:20:20 (1/4 tsp per gal) may be sprayed onto the cacti around midnight or so. The plants do well being foliar fed twice weekly when stomata are open, remember to rinse them if they have had no overhead water. The result is a cactus that almost glows, the glaucous coating becomes more prominent and the trace elements of the fertilizer (peters) help the cacti produce its defensive alkaloids. A hormone rich seaweed extract may be of use in foliar feeding as well. Indoors or in the greenhouse Co2 enrichment would also be done at night. An ideal Trichocereus indoor grow would have hot day temperatures in the 90’s or so and cool nights in the 50-60’s, the cool nights would have Co2 enrichment and an overhead spray system for foliar feeding being cautious to avoid an excess of moisture that may promote rot.

Trichocereus like to have somewhat cool roots, which can be a problem in containers in sunny locations. One method of providing a favorable environment for the roots is the double pot system. The system is to simply obtain some black plastic nursery style containers, two for each plant; one is buried in the ground and the cactus is planted in the other pot, which is then set inside the first one shielding it from the hot sun. The rims of the pots can be hidden by landscape bark or stone for a neat look and the cacti are easily removed from the yard for over-wintering. When using plastic containers the mix must be very well drained, I like to use lava rock as 1/3 to ½ of my mix in larger containers and I make sure that none of the holes are obstructed with regards to draining. Limestone gravel, expanded clay products and pumice are all good amendments for drainage and have been reported to be preferable to lava rock and perlite. Large wooden planters can also be ideal containers if they can be carried are well drained and are large enough to allow cool moist soil. It should be noted that some Trichocereus like T. bridgsii are less tolerant of constantly moist conditions than T. pachanoi thus the cultivator must be mindful of the water requirments of the species being grown.

Long nights, cool temperatures, low N and low water seem to be central to flowering in containers. Root bound plants may flower better. It is important that the plants stay in a single location during the flowering fruiting period, this may require some careful planning as that dormant locations are often different than growth locations. A HPS light in a dark cool basement might be used as the light source, while the temperatures can get fairly warm during the day it is important that they be quite cool at night, weeks of lows around 35 F should be ideal.

Document and label your cacti to ensure that different genotypes are used for pollination. Hybrids should be easily made between T bridgsii, T. pachanoi, and T. Peruvianus though playing with fertilizing other cacti genera with Trichocereus pollen should be done for the sake of experimentation. Genera that might be crossed with Trichocereus include Cereus, Matucana and Selenicereus


Breeding ideas for Trichocereus

Selenicereus grandiflorus X Trichocereus pachanoi

Selenicereus grandiflorus is a climbing epiphyte with a large white sweet scented nocturnal flower. The morphology of the flower is fairly similar to that of T. pachanoi, likewise it opens but once. Selenicereus grandiflorus is widely known for its chemical properties, it is known to have a digitalis like effect. Hallucinations, mental confusion and delirium have also been associated with the ingestion of large amounts. Synonyms for this cactus include Cereus grandiflorus and the common name “Queen of the Night”. Selenicereus is used for grafting younger and smaller scions, and seems to flower more freely than T. pachanoi. Hybrids between the two cacti should be good for grafting and have superb flowers.


Pollen from T. pachanoi should be dusted upon the stamen of S. grandiflorus and S. grandiflorus pollen may be collected and used to fertilized T. pachanoi. The Selenicereus is likely to have many more flowers per plant than T. pachanoi so the cultivator should employ this by attempting to fertilize every flower with the Pedro pollen. The two cacti may not interbreed freely so by using every flower the chances of success are better and if they do cross easily the cultivator is ensured enough seed to look for desirable phenotypes in the F1 generation.


If the F1 seeds make fertile plants then the most desirable phenotypes may be crossed again or used to fertilize other genera. If the F1 plants are sterile they maybe reproduced via cuttings.
The slender climbing floriferous Selenicereus and the columnar nearly spineless Trichocereus might have some interesting hybrids. Phenotypes to look for might include a prostrate cactus with adventitious roots, a more freely flowering slender columnar cacti, a stout epiphyte requiring less humidity than Selenicereus, and anything with hybrid vigor. The chemistry of potential hybrids might prove to favor entheogenic virtues, holistic virtues or both.


( plus some other very interesting tipz B) )

Enjoy

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Good info ! thanks for that.

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worth pinning to the start of the section i reckon , cheers for the read tipz

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Great lil bit of info, something to keep in mind.

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Actually the main page is quite a read in itself.....

http://preterhuman.net/

Higher Intellect is a World Wide Web server hosting a searchable database of over 500,000 text files on a variety of subjects.

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Thats interesting that they state Trichocereus and cereus and Selenicereus can hybridise, from the flowers its definitely appears possible. If any of my trichos ever flower I'll give that a try.

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Not sure if people have realised but that's written by Archaea/Gunter who used to post here, maybe still does?

He's got a 28page pdf which is pretty much the same as the linked site, but with a few bits of other information I think. I've tried to figure out where I got it from but am not getting anywhere.

It's titled 'Archaea's Trichocereus Guide' in the pdf, but i've it saved as 'Archaea Trichocereus GuideV5', not sure if I renamed it or d/l it as that, it may have even been updated since the v5. He's quite humble about it and wasn't overly happy with it from memory, so possibly won't like me mentioning it.

Kadakuda's site is also excellent, Kada's Garden.

http://www.kadasgarden.com/

With the sister site, Cactus Culture

http://kadasgarden.com/Cindex.html

Lots of sections are down since mid Jan 2013 for streamlining/updating, but well worth waiting for.

Edited by gerbil
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nice thread, I would love the pdf version!

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Genera that might be crossed with Trichocereus include Cereus, Matucana and Selenicereus


Breeding ideas for Trichocereus

Selenicereus grandiflorus X Trichocereus pachanoi

Ha ha ha ha ha.

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Can you elaborate? I figure you believe they cannot hybridise? I tend to agree with you however.

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It should be noted that the trichocereus growers guide was synthesized (not written) by Archaea, collected from his personal experience, the internet and other sources. Which is to say, not necessarily everything you read is entirely factual.

nice thread, I would love the pdf version!

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Not sure if i ever heard about a successfull cross of selinicereus with Trichocereus but i rather think not. Gotta check my old posts. :) Its definately possible to cross Epiphyllum and Trichocereus tho.

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Its definately possible to cross Epiphyllum and Trichocereus tho.

I think I'll give it a go, as I got both flowering right now.

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Yeah one of my Epi´s is flowering right now too. Its crazy...put a cutting in a glass of water few months ago and now its putting out flowers. The motherplants in the cellar arent ready yet.

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hylocereus x trichocereus.......or selinicereus (megalanthus) x trichocerues. = 2 birds 1 stone.....,..... sweet fruits....... what do we call it........... dragon pedro fruit cactus

Edited by Mod: Please dont discuss bitterness and such. Its ingestion.

Edited by Evil Genius

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