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Neptunechild's Cactus Playground


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#1 Neptunechild

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Posted 31 January 2016 - 07:46 PM

Namaste my dear friends

After cultivating cannabis for a decade and several nightshades and south american plants for a couple of years, I've found my biggest passion yet: cacti ! I've been germinating and grafting for fun over the last couple of years, but last year I've decided that I'm gonna start a big and long-term journey with these wonderful plants.

The first steps are being made right now..I'm looking for a house to rent with a handful of friends, because we all have hobbies that need lot's of space (gardening, mushroom cultivating and two painters [and 5 dogs]) and we talked about renting a house together. We are looking all around right now and I also started to sow the first seeds today. We decided to find "the right" place where we can stay for at least the next 10 years and spend our time together (we know eachother since childhood).

I've decided to make a personal topic where I will show you what I'm doing in my cactus playground.
I don't want to make an encyclopedia on how to cultivate cacti, but just show you how I do it.
I will show you techniques and tricks that can help you out a lot when you're considering to start cultivating cacti yourself.
This is my first big project (several thousand seeds) and I've been reading into this for 2 years. I've met some very successful breeders in switzerland and have some very good connections to get seeds and useful informations. I went to italy, france and germany to get to know this people personaly because I know that this will be a part of my life until the day I perish. So I gave all my energy and also spend some money to travel to these people and meet them and their lifeworks in person.
I want to share this knowledge with you, some of these people are cultivating for over 50 years.

I will keep this topic updated as my project develops. But one must be very patient with cacti seedlings so don't expect to see huge peyotes grown from seed in 2-3 years. No, we can talk in 30-50 years about big ass peyotes :). This is my journey and I want to share it with you and also help you out if you need help with your cactus.

I am not an expert and have just started doing research myself a little over a year ago, but I'm consuming this topic right now and spend several hours everyday with reading and surfing cactus forums all over the internet.

Ask anything related to cacti and I will do my best to help you.

Greetings. Blessings. Love!

---

I wrote some stuff over the last couple of years and created a very very, very simple and small guide for beginners.

Neptunechilds Cacti Guide


I. Substrate & Pots
II. Seeds & CITES I & II
III. Germination
IV. Indoor & Outdoor Cultivation
IV. Repotting
V. Grafting
VI. Breeding

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Substrate

Before you start to buy seeds, make sure you have the right substrate. Every breeder has his own mix, so do I.
Usually you work with 80-100% mineral soil. My coice would be pumice, limestone, lava and dolomite.
Young seedlings and cacti need a fine substrate, the substrate get's thicker as your cacti grow.
Starting with sand and finally using stones with a diameter of 1cm and above.

Nearly all cacti need a good drainage which is available when you work with pure mineral substrates. But if you grow a San Pedro cactus for example, you can add 50% soil to the mix. Put some rocks in your pot before you fill up with your substrate in that case.

When working with seeds many breeders sterilize their substrate. The seeds need to be kept at high humidity and warm for several months. The chances your substrate get's infected with fungi is not as big as working with soil, but it can still happen. Especially if you're working in a tent like me where you have other plants standing in soil. To sterilize can and is helpful, but I'm too lazy to do that. That's why I use biological aids but I'll come to this later. Charcoal can be used as a very cheap and useful disinfectant. My substrate contains about 10% charcoal, burnt by myself and chmicals free.

You can use any pot you want, just make sure it's not a very thin plastic pot. I work with plastic pots only because it's cheaper and I will need several 10'000 pots in the next couple of years, so it's also good because of the weight. I also want to isolate the roots as good as possible from the climate outside of the substrate. My cacti stand outside, not in a greenhouse.

---

Seeds & CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)

Some decisions made by the CITES are very controversial. There are some cacti on the list which are not endangered. And there are some cacti missing which are critically endangered. But as a cacti breeder CITES is a part of your life, especially if you want to breed 100% legal.

All cacti are on the CITES II list and nearly 80% of my cacti are on the CITES I list. For me it's very important to not harm the species and nature, so I only buy CITES I seeds from offical breeders who are allowed to breed and sell them. I also buy CITES I seeds and plants from private persons when I know that these cacti were grown by hand and not collected from the nature. The only exception that I make is with very very old specimen that have been collected over half a century ago (ONLY with a certificate). But I'm also not a huge fan of this, so I only own 3 cacti that were "illegaly" collected (there was no CITES in the 1940's).

I don't want to addvertise here were to buy CITES I seeds, so just send me a PM and I'm willing to help you out.
There are only a handful of CITES certified breeders in the world, I think all of them in europe.
You can legaly buy every other cactus (CITES II) and seeds from anywhere you want.

Fresh Seeds germinate the best but I had also 10 year old Turbinicarpus seeds that germinated (at a lower rate, but they did!).
Keep your seeds a dark and cool place, but don't put them into the refrigerator.
---

Germination

Too make this short: Cacti need high humidity (85% and above) and light to germinate and must be kept warm day and night.
You will want to take measures because there is a chance that you'll have some problems with fungi or even algae.
Equisetum arvense extracts and chinosol work great. I have no experience with other anti-fungicides...

I made a small and short turtorial where you can watch how I sow my Ariocarpus, Trichocereus and Ferocactus seeds.

---

Cultivation

There are 3 ways to cultivate cacti

Indoor under grow-lights

This is the least form that cacti are breed and is only done by beginners or by (mostly dutch) vendors.
Especially Peyotes are grown in the netherlands with a massive use of fertilizers to inflate them as fast as possible (like chickens).
That's how you sell a Peyote at 8 years of age with the size of 30 year old peyote. But not nearly as beautiful.
I have no experience myself with indoor breed cacti so I don't have much to say :)

Outdoor & windowsill with winter-dormancy

If you don't have the space or money for a greenhouse, or if you have just a handful of cacti, you can grow at your windowsill, in your garden or on your balcony. I personally grow on my balcony, it's big and facing south / south west which is the perfect spot if you're growing in your garden or elsewhere. I keep my cacti outside from when night tempratures don't fall under 10/12°C and take them inside before the first frost. Or even better, when tempratures don't rise above 10°C at night. From mid/end october until mid/end march I camp my cacti at 5-15°C with very low humidty and bright light. (Light is not necessary, you can overwinter them at a dark place as well).

Greenhouse with winter-dormancy

If you live in a place with a similar climate like the deserts of mexico or the mountains in south america, you won't need a greenhouse if you have a big garden...but nature is merciless and a hard winter can kill your lifework. Only take this risk if you live at a place were cacti grow naturally (Mexico, peruvian mountains etc..) Some loosers like me live in a place where you have -20°C in winter for several weeks and only about 33°C in the summer. So adding a greenhouse to your house will be a safe place for your cacti where you can have a very hot place with good humidity even if it's just 20°C outside. You will not have to move your cacti for winter dormancy but make sure that the night tempratures don't stay too low for long period.

---

Repotting

When your cacti are young you will have to repot your cacti all 2-5 years depending on how you grow them and how big they get. I have some seedlings which have been in the same pot for 10 years becaue they were kept at extreme conditions and stayed very small and compact. Experienced growers know how to use fertilizers the right way and can keep their mature cactus in the same pot for several years (or even decades). It is very important that you repot your cacti only when the substrate is complete dry!
Many breeders recommend to leave your cacti for a day so that the root can dry even a little more before putting into new substrate. I never lost a cacti after repotting and think that it's a good advice.

Cacti without thorns are easy to repot, but when you're repotting a motherfucker like a Echinocactus grusonii you must use some tools like gloves or even polystyrene pieces.

I personally wait until the pot bursts apart. Which takes about 2-5 years with small cacti and 10+ years with bigger ones.

---

Grafting

Some cacti grow over 10m and some of them don't get bigger then a golfball. Some cacti need nearly 30 years in nature to reach the size of a baseball, or even better, the size of a golfball (Aztekium Ritteri). If you don't want to wait e third of a lifetime for this to happen, you can graft your cacti on another cacti. Very popular example: Grafting the Peyote on a San Pedro cactus.

There are several reasons to graft a cacti.
You want a mother plant with many flowers so you can produce seeds.
You want your cacti to grow 2-4 times faster than usual.
To save the cactus, if the roots are rotten you can save the body by grafting it, if the infection didn't reach the body of the plant.
You have a special variagated cacti that will not survive on own roots and want to keep this rarity alive by grafting.

Experimental reasons, graftings etc..

Both plants must be out of dormancy and in full growth. So I don't make graftings before the end of april or even early may. If you cultivate indoors without dormancy you can do it whenever you want of course. You will need 2 cacti, a sterile knife, a pot with substrate and a good place to keep your grafted cactus (same condition as seeds).
The most popular cacti to graft on is the Pereskiopsis spathulata it grows like weed and is very easy to cultivate. You can grown them indoors all year and water then all two weeks. If you have a bigger cacti and you want to graft on a trichocereus or ferocactus for example, I recommend to start grafting on them when they are about 4-5 years of age. The age of the cactus that you want to graft does not matter. You can graft seedlings, young plants but also mature plants. You will have to change the graft stock after a couple of years. The older your cacti get, the longer they can stay on the same graft stock. Some cacti, for example the Ariocarpus genus, can be grafted once in their lifetime because they will break through the cactus they're grafted on and the roots will grow through it.

Keeping your graftings very warm and humid when you're grafting young seedlings is a must !
No extra high humidity is needed if you graft cacti that reached 2-3 cm in diameter, but it will def. be advantageous if you keep them at high humidity and I do highly recommend it. When your grafts show the first sign of new growth, you can place them to your other cacti.
Graftings need more water then seed grown cacti.
I water my grafted cacti twice as much as the other ones, and I also water some of them once a month in winter.
But be careful, even if your grafting doesn't die or rot away when you overwater it, your cactus can look weird and and unnatural.
Some breeders like this..I also have a Aricarpus Fissuratus graft that I overwater because I think that the cacti looks hilarious...
...and produces lots of seeds, so we are even hehehe =) !

I will show you guys step by step how I do it in april when I will start my first grafts for this year. There are some important techniques for a successful graft! Words are not enough to explain, you have to see it, and then later try it, to learn it !

Here is also a list of cacti that are very good for grafting, from personal experience and from inputs my friends gave me.

Especially recommended for seedlings:

Selenicereus pteranthus
Selenicereus grandiflorus
Pereskiopsis spathulatha

These three cacti are very fast growing cacti but you can only use them mostly for just a couple of years.
I had one graft on a pereskiopsis which only lasted for 2 years and died within the third year. I saved the graft by regrafting it on a trichocereus. You can also use mature pereskiopsis, but this is uncommon. I guess the main reason is that it deforms the graft, while your cacti stay very authentic and with a natural apperance on a Ferocactus for example. But this is just a guess.
There are exceptions of course, just like with nearly everything in life :)!

For bigger and mature cacti:

Harrisia jusbertii

This cacti that I just discovered seems to be a very popular graft stock for mature ariocarpus in germany! I must read more into this, as I'm a AriocarpusFreak!

Ferocactus Glaucescens

Def.the best cacti to graft Astrophytum Caput-Medusae & Ariocarpus on from my experience.

Ferocactus hamatacanthus

I've seen a Trichocereus grafted on this since 30 years. Def. something I have to check out sooner or later.

Trichocereus Pachanoi, bridgesii and peruviana

Very stable graft stocks, but don't push growth as fast as Ferocactus or Harrisia. Doesn't like cool winter months if used for grafting

Myrtillocactus geometrizans & Cereus peruvianu

Don't have personal experience with these cacti, but I've seen some beautiful Astrophytum & Lophophora graftings on them.

---

Breeding

Will update asap.

---

Well that's about it with informations and introduction..
I will post several pictures as my journey ripens and my cacti begin to bloom, get bigger or even grafted.
Hoping that you guys will enjoy this thread, I know that I will love to keep everyone updated.

This is an ongoing process and I am inviting you to take part in it with me. I also appreciate silent readers. I was reading years through mycotopia before I even joined the site :)!
Please ask anything you want about cactus cultivation and I will try my best to help you.

EXPLORE
LEARN
LOVE
CHANGE
EVOLVE

Greetings - Blessings - Love

---

Sowing cacti:
I do not sterilize my substrate but soak it with bilogical anti-fungicide. If you choose to do it the same way, this is what you need.
First, gather your pots, substrate, seeds and a big bowl with your solution and big empty bowl to let it drain.

In my case:

Seeds & Pots

San Pedro (for grafting and also for ceremonies in a couple of years)
Ferocactus glaucescens (to graft on)
Ariocarpus Retusus var. Trigonus
Ariocarpus Retusus var. Trigonus. var Confusus, Aramberri
Ariocarpus Retusus var. Scapharostroides
Ariocarpus Bravoanus var. Hintonii
Ariocarpus Agavoides
Ariocarpus Fissuratus
Aztekium Hintonii

Substrate:

Dolomite (dolostone in english) for drainage 1/4 of the pot [you can also use limestone of course, it's only for drainage]
My cacti substrate 1/4 of the pot
The rest is a mix of of very fine pumic & zeolith (you can als use just pumice)

IMG_0175.JPG IMG_0176.JPG IMG_0180.JPG IMG_0178.JPG

Water-solution: Water and 4ml of Equisetum arvense extract per 1L water.

If you have your pots ready soak them in your water solution and let them drain completely. The substrate must be moist, but not wet!
Sprickle your seeds over the substrate and do not cover it. I repeat, DO NOT, cover your seeds. They need the light to germinate!
IMG_0181.JPG IMG_0182.JPG IMG_0185.JPG IMG_0186.JPG

Find a good place for your seeds.
I put them in a heated green house, and the greenhouse is inside my tent where I have 18 hours of 300W LED lightning.
I keep my mother plants in the tent over winter.
Calea Ternifolia (Zacatechichi), Rivea Corymbosa, Banisteriopsis Caapi, Psychotria Virids, Salvia Divinorum & Solandra Maxima.
(I also have atropa belladona, mandragora officinarum, brugmansia etc... motherplants but they are not in the tent as they don't need warm climates in winter.)

You understand that my cacti have great and powerfull spirits to guard and assit them by becoming wonderful.

IMG_0184.JPG IMG_0173.JPG
---

Repotting Cacti, in this case Peyote seedlings (and 5 Turbinicarpus Flaviflorus)

These are the cacti that need a new pot.
IMG_0166.JPG

Fill up your pots with 1/4 of drainage material, in this case dolomite. And then fill it up with your substrate.
IMG_0167.JPG IMG_0176.JPG
Gently stick your seedlings into the substrate and fill it up with the rest of the substrate so that they have a good stand.
Cover them with very fine pumice, limestone or quartz-sand.
IMG_0170.JPG IMG_0168.JPG
Drum on all side of the pot a little bit with your fingers so that the sand trickles down and hardens the substrate.
Cover it once more with sand and repeat. They should look like this now:
IMG_0169.JPG IMG_0171.JPG
Done :). If you do this in the spring time, DO NOT WATER FOR AT LEAST 2 WEEKS !

I will post pictures in 2 months when I repot bigger cacti.!

Greetings

Attached Thumbnails

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Edited by coorsmikey, 10 September 2016 - 11:26 AM.
Added Archive tag

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#2 Skywatcher

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Posted 31 January 2016 - 09:29 PM

Nice tutorial Neptune. I appreciate the time you have spent putting this together with photos. Since this is intended to be an ongoing thread, I am pinning it in hopes we can construct a basic instructional thread on the basics of cactus care and cultivation. Your success in this is well shown throughout the Botanicals forum.

 

Looking forward to updates and the addition of visual and written how to's.


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#3 wharfrat

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Posted 31 January 2016 - 10:06 PM

excellent write up, brother.. I personally will bookmark this one.. my only suggestion, is to make your pics a lil smaller before you upload them.. helps with load time and having to scroll up and down to see the whole pic.. 


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#4 Neptunechild

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Posted 31 January 2016 - 11:10 PM

Thanks guys, this is the kind of motivation I was seeking for :hug:

I will def. make the pictures smaller before I post them from now on. I thought you were all nerds like me and download all the pictures on your harddrive, lol...

 

And I forgot to mention some important notes to grafting which I will edit right away.

 

Greetings!

 


Edited by Neptunechild, 31 January 2016 - 11:35 PM.

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#5 skunk

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Posted 01 February 2016 - 12:21 PM

Very well done. Definitely following this thread and will use the advice you have offered here.

This is a quality post and well deserving of a Sticky! I'm sure lots of people will be referring to this post. Very well thought out, prepared and layed out; excellent guide NeptuneChild. Thank you for sharing this knowledge and passing it along to other.

Good vibes your way while you are searching for a new place to move into. I can't wait to see your garden this spring/summer I'm really excited.

SkunK
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#6 Neptunechild

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Posted 05 February 2016 - 11:46 PM

Namaste

 

Friday morning I saw the first seeds germinated. I have still some species that didn't sprout at all like Ariocarpus Trigonus & Confusus or the Ferocactus Glaucescens but all other pots have the first few seedlings. Like usual, the Trichocereus are in a rush! Nearly over 50% of my San Pedro seeds have already cracked the seed and are growing. It can take weeks for Ariocarpus to sprout, or a couple of days. Patience :meditate:

Picture one are the Ariocarpus Bravoanus sup. Hintoni seeds, picture two are the San Pedro seedlings.

IMG_0203.JPG

IMG_0204.JPG

 

Greetings


Edited by Neptunechild, 05 February 2016 - 11:47 PM.

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#7 skunk

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Posted 05 February 2016 - 11:58 PM

Looking lovely there NeptuneChild.

Do you know how seeds you sowed in each pot?

Sending good vibes for you beans that didn't sprout.

SkunK
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#8 Neptunechild

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Posted 06 February 2016 - 12:09 AM

100     Ariocarpus Agavoides

100     A. Bravoanus

100     A. Fissuratus

100     A. Trigonus

100     A. Retusus var. Confusus

50       A. Retusus var. Scapharostroides

20-30  Aztekium Hintonii

 

...and I have no idea how many San Pedro seeds I used. I have +/- 5000 seeds and I just took a teaspoon full, might be anything from 200 to 400 seeds. No idea.

Same for the Ferocactus seeds.

 

Greetings


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#9 skunk

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Posted 06 February 2016 - 12:46 PM

Must be nice to have that many seeds to play around with... makes me jealous j/k. Looking forward to watching these progress, and develop. Good grow vibes your way.

Can I ask for a picture of your set up for sowing these seedlings?

Are all 100 (xxx) of each variety sown on the same pot?

Where are they spending the seedling stage (mini green , grow room in a window sill)?

Are they being given any lighting or is it natural lighting?

Wanna see how other growers sow their seedling, I'm planning a special setup for mine and have been spying a mini out door/indoor green house. Think CatAttack uses one of his mushroom grow.
(Kinda like this one)
428bde34576b1894f856bccc0c94d326.jpg

Just trying to get some ideas of how other growers sow their seedlings.

Skunk

Edited by skunkbudda403, 06 February 2016 - 01:19 PM.


#10 Neptunechild

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Posted 06 February 2016 - 02:31 PM

Can I ask for a picture of your set up for sowing these seedlings?

Are all 100 (xxx) of each variety sown on the same pot?

Where are they spending the seedling stage (mini green , grow room in a window sill)?
Are they being given any lighting or is it natural lighting?
 

Namaste

I already made pictures of my setup and step by step process, it's in the first post.
Your other questions are also already answered in my guide & first post. They are in a heated green house which is inside my over-wintering tent. 300W LED lights, 18 hours of light per day. I am planning to take them out of the tent & green house in about 6 months.

And yes I use 1 pot for 100 seeds. The small pot in the picture is the pot with the Aztekium Hintonii seeds, the bigger pots are Trich' and Fero.

Greetings


Edited by Neptunechild, 06 February 2016 - 04:20 PM.

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#11 meyer

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Posted 06 February 2016 - 07:35 PM

This is a great thread Neptune! Thank you for taking the time to put this together, I have a feeling I am going to have a few questions for you moving forward as you and Sky seem to be the resident experts with Skunk developing his skills quickly. In advance, I appreciate, any and all advice you or any other member can provide as I am quickly becoming an aficionado of this lifetime journey of cacti.

I am going to Arizona in 2 months, I lived there for 10 years, knowing what I now know, I might be picking up a few goodies and shipping them back to myself, especially depending on how well my San Pedro and Bridegesii end up. I doubt I come home with any peyote, but my wife has caught the cacti bug, this is great because she hasn't been too happy with me expanding my mushroom collection. Regardless, I will probably visit reservations where some of them will let you participate in a guided spiritual journey, not sure if my wife will be up for any of that, but she wants to learn, so I am excited.
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#12 Neptunechild

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Posted 06 February 2016 - 07:53 PM

This is a great thread Neptune! Thank you for taking the time to put this together, I have a feeling I am going to have a few questions for you moving forward as you and Sky seem to be the resident experts with Skunk developing his skills quickly. In advance, I appreciate, any and all advice you or any other member can provide as I am quickly becoming an aficionado of this lifetime journey of cacti.

I am going to Arizona in 2 months, I lived there for 10 years, knowing what I now know, I might be picking up a few goodies and shipping them back to myself, especially depending on how well my San Pedro and Bridegesii end up. I doubt I come home with any peyote, but my wife has caught the cacti bug, this is great because she hasn't been too happy with me expanding my mushroom collection. Regardless, I will probably visit reservations where some of them will let you participate in a guided spiritual journey, not sure if my wife will be up for any of that, but she wants to learn, so I am excited.

Thanks Meyer..I will always try my best with inputs but bear with me as I'm still a "beginner" or "advanced beginner".
I hear you and feel your addiction lol. My missions was to buy a peyote. I did. But I couldn't eat it. After that I made 2-3 grafts with friends.
And then suddenly I felt like I have to buy, germinate and cultivate as much as I can and the rest is history.

Arizona has some great and huge cacti growing. If you're lucky you might even see a Ariocarpus Fissuratus,but they are extremely rare. They grow in mexico and at some very few spots in Texas. Please be sure to not collect endangered or especially critticaly endangered species. Altough I don't even know if there are any endangered species in Arizona.
 
After a decade of psychonautics I feel that I am ready to eat san pedro. Maybe this year !

Greetings


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#13 meyer

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Posted 07 February 2016 - 04:08 AM

I have been thinking about eating a San Pedro myself, it just seems like an intense process to get to the alkaloids. How would you proceed if you were to take that journey as far as processing the San Pedro?

I would never go after anything endangered unless it was to help it out, I'm trying to get in touch with some of my old connections out there and see what I can drum up.... I think I would have to be on a guy's trip to actually trip on San Pedro in AZ, not sure the wife could handle it and I really don't want to babysit someone on my first mescaline trip.

I now really am beginning to see what you and Sky have said about not wanting to cut up one of these beautiful peyote, I just want to get them safely planted the week and enjoy having them as a part of my collection... maybe one day I will feel different, but it will have to be reasoned out or specially acquired to take a peyote trip.... it's something I can always look forward to doing even if I never actually do it.

I am part Indian, but not enough to where it will allow me to join the church, at least I have never asked... now maybe I will look into that and find out what percent you need to be.

Edited by meyer, 07 February 2016 - 04:12 AM.

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#14 Neptunechild

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Posted 07 February 2016 - 11:50 PM

Namaste

First you buy the peyote Meyer and then you realise it's not so easy to harvest it :). I know that feeling to good. My entire collection and passion was the result of a naive Neptunechild buying a big ass Peyote for consumption. The peyote still lives and has over 180 brothers now, I like to exaggerate a lot lmao...

 

I am officialy the proud owner of...I have no idea how many....San Pedro cacti. All I have to do know is keep them alive as good and long as I can! They are only a couple of days old so there is plenty of room for fucking things up. I will count them in april or later, but I guess it's more then 250. -- On the other hand, none of my Ferocactus or A. Confusus have germinated yet. I have all my seeds from the same vendor so I think it's gonna be a miss. I'm also a little worried because only 7 of 100 A. Trigonus have germinated yet. But it's only been a week and from what I have read, the peak-time for Ariocarpus to germinate is between 10 and 20 days....But I think that's it for the Ferocactus seeds. They should have been in a hury with germinating like my San Pedro seeds.

No big loss since the seeds are damn cheap. I got 1000 seeds for 10 dollars. Altough it would still suck to have wasted time & money on 1000 seeds from which not a single one will germinate :S!

Shit happens!

Left San Pedro seedlings and right the Ferocactus pot with not a single seed germinated.

IMG_0210.JPG IMG_0211.JPG

 

 

Greetings


P.s: I think the germination quote for the San Pedro is close to 90% O_______O !


Edited by Neptunechild, 07 February 2016 - 11:53 PM.

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#15 meyer

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Posted 08 February 2016 - 01:28 AM

That's awesome, congrats on the San Pedro and the peyote! Sorry to hear about the other cacti. Did you get any Bridgesii or Peruvian Torch? Sky told me Bridgesii are about 50% stronger than San Pedro.

I did some resesrch and found a church in Arizona that will let you take a "Spirit Walk", if approved. Then for a membership fee of $50 and a suggested donation of $200 to $300. I think you meet with a Sharman and he determines if you are 'ready' for the walk. It is a 3 day experience with the first day spent fasting and preparing yourself as Sky has described, the second day they give you 21 grams of Peyote as a tea and let you pick 1 of 3 locations on their 160 acres and then the third day is the end of the experience.

The church is cleverly called "The Peyote Way Church of God"

They have a website: peyoteway.org

Edited by meyer, 08 February 2016 - 01:32 AM.


#16 Neptunechild

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Posted 08 February 2016 - 01:48 AM

Namaste

I can confirm from friends review that the "Achuma" [Echinopsis Lageniformis (Trichocereus Bridgesii)] is stronger than San Pedro (Echinopsis/Trichocereus Pachanoi), especially the monstruosa variations. - 4 bridgesii and 3 peruvian torch cacti are what I own, but never bothered to harvest them.

Thank you for the link, but this is not something that I can consider mostly because it's on the other side of the world.
I will prepare my medicine and the journey myself, with the guidance of a good friend who has many years of mescaline experience.
What I can not decide, is what cacti to use. It will def. not be the Peyote cactus.

I am breeding "Trichocereus Bridgesii var. monstrose" which is a very potent and monstrous form of the Bridgesii. It grows pretty fast and it's easy to care for.
They can get very expensive, but I bought two of them when they were still very small (and cheap) and successfully made 8 clones.

Greetings


Edited by Neptunechild, 08 February 2016 - 01:49 AM.

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#17 Neptunechild

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Posted 16 February 2016 - 02:11 AM

Namaste

 

Well it's been 2 1/2 weeks already and I think germination will stop in a couple of days. I am very satisfied with the quote of nearly all my cacti.

Not a single seed out of 1000 Ferocactus have germinated. I contacted my vendor and he send me his deepest apologies for the crap he send me. I received 1000 San Pedro seeds as an excuse. I am happy. The germination rate of my san pedro seeds is out of this world. I didn't bother to count but I have at least 90% germinated.

 

Ariocarpus germination is between 50-80%.

The aztekium did not germinate yet. But I will wait 2-3 years before I give them up. So I will still keep them moist and in my mini-greenhouse for the next couple of years.

I wanted to give up on my Ariocarpus Confusus seeds but 3 days ago 2 seeds germinated. Let's see what happens...

 

Will post pictures of the seed in about 2 weeks so that you see what happens within a month.
Thank you for reading!

Also thank you too all the unregistered guests out there who read, I'm sure there are some now and then =)

 

Greetings



#18 Cybilopsin

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Posted 03 March 2016 - 01:31 PM

Substrate:

 

Dolomite (dolostone in english) for drainage 1/4 of the pot [you can also use limestone of course, it's only for drainage]

My cacti substrate 1/4 of the pot

The rest is a mix of of very fine pumic & zeolith (you can als use just pumice)

 

attachicon.gifIMG_0175.JPGattachicon.gifIMG_0176.JPGattachicon.gifIMG_0180.JPGattachicon.gifIMG_0178.JPG

 

Very helpful post Neptunechild. People have been sending me cacti seeds recently. I'll definitely be turning to this post as I begin to work on them.

 

Your use of large rocks of limestone/dolomite in the bottom quarter of the substrate is contradictory with advice I've heard from other reputable indoor-potting gardeners.  :unsure:

 

 I've heard that putting large rocks at the bottom of a pot (counterintuitively) reduces drainage, instead of increasing it. The stated reason is that water has this thing about crossing boundaries between a fine medium and coarse medium. It won't cross the barrier, I'm told, until the finer medium is completely saturated. This advice was not about cacti specifically.  Then again, maybe that is the effect you are trying to accomplish anyway.

 

This is the same reason, I'm told (I'm a newbie to it all myself) that you want to avoid heavily amending the soil in the hole for a newly-planted tree (sharp differences and distinct boundaries between different fineness of soil can result in water behaving in unexpected ways, possibly creating waterlogged or droughty conditions).

 

Has anyone also heard this claim? Confused.


Edited by Cybilopsin, 03 March 2016 - 01:34 PM.


#19 Neptunechild

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Posted 04 March 2016 - 11:43 AM

The only negative effect it has from my experience is that you can't water your cacti from the bottom because it won't suck the water into the pot. Except for that, never have I heard of the claims you've heard and I can't agree at all. My seedlings have a fantastic drainage, when I put the pot into a bowl with water and take them out after the substrate is moist, it runs out like mad.

 

When the cacti get bigger I use coco instead of rocks, reason being that it's still fantastic drainage but holds water for the taproot to establish a good root-work.

 

I got this trick from very experienced cultivators (same for the coco) and it works exactly the way I want it, so I can not agree.



#20 Neptunechild

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Posted 26 March 2016 - 06:51 AM

It's been 8 weeks since germination and I have several hundrets of seeds growing and already hardening them off, how I do that?

They receive lot's of light, nearly 50% of my ariocarpus seedlings are red. Some would panic because this does mean stress.

BUT, if you have the perfect conditions (humidity and warm tempreatures) it won't do a lot's of damage, just mist 1-2 times a week.

 

I will mist them the first time with fertilzers within the next month and hope to see even more performance.

 

Look at my sea of green San Pedro style!

Pedro1.JPG Pedro2.JPG Pedro3.JPG

And here are my Ariocarpus seedlings:

Agavoides

Agavoides.JPG

Bravoanus var. Hintoni

 

Bravo Hinto.JPG

 

Retusus var. Scapharostroides

 

Retusus var. Scapharostroides.JPG

 

Fissuratus

 

Fissu.JPG

 

Trigonus

 

Trigonus.JPG

 

 

And my single Aztekium seed, 1mm in size, 2 months old.

 

It's a Aztekium Hintonii.

 

Aztekium.JPG

 

Greetings

Blessings

Love


Edited by Neptunechild, 26 March 2016 - 06:53 AM.

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