modern.shaman Posted March 9, 2016 What traits make a cactus 'mature'?; besides flowering. Flowering maturity would be the end all trait to this question.Is it spacing between areoles, size of areoles, thickness of stem, age, length of stem? Trichocereus is pretty varied but I mean pedro, peru, bridgesii, and others; not smaller flowering trichocereus like grandiflorus or hybrids for colored flowers.Post pictures of cacti if that helps. I ask because I would like to try inducing flowering on some cacti but they need to be 'mature' enough. Nitrogen mentioned that 4-6 year old from seed seems to be the age they first start to bloom but is it just an internal timer rather then visual traits? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zelly Posted March 9, 2016 imho there are a whole range of factors that can come into play that triggers flowering, with age playing a minor, yet important part. consider a plant 10-12 yrs old with many branches yet never flowering. then cutting off a half dozen 18-24" branches and placing them in a pot, no soil, in full sun.6 months later they start to flower, whereas the mama in the ground never does flower. what triggered the cuts to flower but not the mama? where did the cutting laying on its side in full sun summon up the energy to grow a bud & then flower? consider 10-12' tall san pedro stems, producing flowers at their tips, & looky here, a new three foot new branch also deciding to flower. What triggered flowering in the new three footer? Why dont some of my really old & mature trichs never flower & yet 4-6 yr olds that Nitrogen grew decide its time to flower? In the life cycle of a plant, what is the significance of flowering? If you want your 4-6 yr olds to start flowering, grow them in un-glazed clay pots in as much sun as you can give them, allow them to get totally root bound, & minimize watering & no feeding. Convince the plant it has one path to survival of its species.....flower or perish. 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sagiXsagi Posted March 9, 2016 (edited) in no way I have nearly as much experience as some of the old fucks here, but yeah that must be the case ^^^^^^ All of the trichocerei that have flowered for me were stressed and rootbound in pots they had long been insufficient for them, often rootbound for a for a couple of years superpedro, kk339, bridgesii, PC's, scop and what not all flowering plants were totally rootbound to the point only few new growth for each years I even had a bridgesii flower at a very small pot , and I have had much larger bridgesii than this with no blooms.. Another factor must be the hight.. I think they usually want 1.5 meters or something... Edited March 9, 2016 by sagiXsagi Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
