Help please!
I have a 6-7ft cutting of trichocereus (similar to San Pedro but unsure which variety) which I have been drying for over a month. It is beginning to feel soft and limp at the tip and the pup growing off the side.
Is my cutting too large to root as one specimen? Do I need to cut it into smaller sections?
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Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7415
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
San Pedro is slow to root. This is also a hard plant to grow. It is not a true cactus. It took my San Pedro 3 months just to start making roots. Rooting powder some times speeds things up a bit I sometimes got roots in 2 months. San Pedro is very sensitive to direct sun light, sensitive to too much water, sensitive the temperature. Soil needs to be 70% child play sand from Lowes or Home Depot mixed with 30% dirt. If you live in the desert use desert soil. San Pedro does terrible in pots I had 28 pots 3 sprouted roots the rest rotted. My suggestion is to put rooting powder on your 6 foot long San Pedro then lay it on well drained soil then cover it over with well drained soil so the plant is barely below the surface. Once a week pour 1 quart of water on your plant. Plant it in 75 degree weather on the north side of the house so it gets lots of sun light all day but no direct sun light. If the temperature is too hot or too cold it will not grow roots 75 to 80 is perfect. If the plant develops dark spots that turn to rooted places that stuff is like cancer cut it out. Cut a section of the cactus in half cut out 1" both sides of the rot. Plant that 6 foot long section of cactus it will grow probably a dozen new plants of of the side. Once you get it rooted and doing good it gets easier. Water once a week, well drained soil, no direct sun, let it grow. It grows fastest in 70 to 85 degree weather. It slows down in hot and cold weather. It will tolerate 115 degree weather and 21 degree weather. It grows about 6" per month is 75 to 80 degree weather. You won't notice much growth below 50 or above 95 degrees. Once you have several new segments growing up from your plant scoop dirty up around each segment that will encourage each segment to grow roots where they are covered with soil. Inspect for roots after 3 months. Once segments grow their own roots break off the segments move them to another location to grow more plants.
When I lived in Arizona there was a large 15 foot tall San Pedro in someones front yard near ASU that is where I got my first cuttings about 20 pieces 2 ft to 7 ft long each. Most of that died while I learned how to grow it. My best information came from a nursery on highway 93 north/west of Phoenix where it intersects with highway 71. I managed to save 3 pieces 8" long. One day while doing yard sales I found about 70 pieces of San Pedro 10 feet long laying in the street someone cut down a large cactus for city to pick up. I had it all rooted and growing in 3 months. I decided I had too much cactus so I sold most of it on ebay $5 for 8" pieces. When I sold the house and moved away there were 30 well established San Pedro in the back yard about 4 to 7 feet tall. San Pedro will grow about 15 to 20 feet tall before it starts to get too heavy and arms start to break off.
Spanish people eat cactus it tastes about like avocado mixed with kale. Slice and dice saute with onion and scrambled eggs salt and pepper it is good. Do not eat San Pedro you will suffer the worse anxiety you can imaging like your whole family was killed and your the only one that survived 2 days of the worse anxiety torture ever.
When I lived in Arizona there was a large 15 foot tall San Pedro in someones front yard near ASU that is where I got my first cuttings about 20 pieces 2 ft to 7 ft long each. Most of that died while I learned how to grow it. My best information came from a nursery on highway 93 north/west of Phoenix where it intersects with highway 71. I managed to save 3 pieces 8" long. One day while doing yard sales I found about 70 pieces of San Pedro 10 feet long laying in the street someone cut down a large cactus for city to pick up. I had it all rooted and growing in 3 months. I decided I had too much cactus so I sold most of it on ebay $5 for 8" pieces. When I sold the house and moved away there were 30 well established San Pedro in the back yard about 4 to 7 feet tall. San Pedro will grow about 15 to 20 feet tall before it starts to get too heavy and arms start to break off.
Spanish people eat cactus it tastes about like avocado mixed with kale. Slice and dice saute with onion and scrambled eggs salt and pepper it is good. Do not eat San Pedro you will suffer the worse anxiety you can imaging like your whole family was killed and your the only one that survived 2 days of the worse anxiety torture ever.
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Gary350
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 7415
- Joined: Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:59 pm
- Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.
Here are some San Pedro that I rooted from 8" cuttings then they growing new tops. Plants were ok in this location until hot weather came. When it was 100 degrees and full sun all day plants turned yellow from too much sun. The plants did not like this soil either, it was potting soil mixed with sand. San Pedro likes a very stable moisture in the soil, not too dry, not too wet, no fluctuation in moisture, no flower pots. I moved the plants to a location that was morning sun from about 9am to 11:45am then full shade until dark and they did very well. Plants were 3ft to 5ft tall in about 1 year. I had about 30 plants that grew about 50 tops. Each 8" long cutting grew 1 top or 2 tops, if I planted the cutting on its side then they would grow 3 to 4 new plants sometimes 5 plants per cutting. Crazy thing about all cactus you can plant cuttings upside down they still grow.
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