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CounterCulturest
-Positive Mental Attitude-

Registered: 01/18/10
Posts: 3,662
Loc: Nesting on modems
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Conditioning cacti to resist rot.
#19142941 - 11/15/13 09:24 PM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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I have a big pot of about 20 separate pereskiopsis plants growing. The soil is almost always very wet, just like my lady. I like to keep things nice and hydrated Not sure if this is ideal but I have always had really good looking and fast growing spathula's so I just keep it soaked w/ partial sun. Anyways. My roommates cat attacked a pot of small Achuma seedlings and damaged the bases of 3 of them. She snapped the bottoms so I just docked them off and I was in a hurry for some reason or another and I tossed them into the pot of pereskiopsis. They were a little bit hidden because of all the foliage so I didn't notice them much. So I have 3 achuma (top cut) cuttings that are about 3" long that are just laying horizontally on top of the soil in the pereskopsis pot. I continue heavy watering forgetting all about the achuma cutting. I did some investigating one day and noticed that they had spawned some roots and had a sliver/sign or new growth. So I uprooted it and buried about half of them so they could grow upright.
I honestly figured that even just sitting on top of completely wet soil and having water thrown on them basically every day and with all the foliage and high sides of the pot it makes for a very humid environment, they would sure rot. But they didn't. They appear to be as healthy as cacti can be.
So now they have been planted upright for a few months now (1"of the achuma is underground) and I continued to keep the soil saturated with water and the whole situation is just way wet.
So how come these haven't rotted out ? I'm going to take some pictures even though it's nothing special and pointless as far as the question goes. But maybe someone will dig it.
Has anyone else had any experience like this where you could keep your trich's as wet as you wanted with no repercussions or rot ?
It makes me wonder if you could train or condition your cactus to lessen it's sensitivity to rot and over watering. I think they answer is obviously yes. But it's a question of time, how long ? I'm definitely going to try this with larger specimens and start doing this with a lot of my seedlings.
This would be nice. I doubt you could get cacti to grow faster by growing them in wet conditions but it would be nice to forget about the worries of overwatering and just water them with the rest of the garden
Anyone ever had a water resistant trich ? sorry in advance for all the typo's, my ride is on it's way and they just pulled up. Tell me what you think about my little water tough guys !
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GoOnThen
Stranger


Registered: 02/06/09
Posts: 1,046
Loc: Australia
Last seen: 9 years, 9 months
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You will find that most Trichs will handle well draining soil that is damp all of the time. but if the mix they are in is heavy and stays sodden then they will rot. We grow our Trichs out side all year round and our winters a reasonably wet. We get around 850mm rain per year and 600mm to 700mm of it falls in 5 months. I have planted many Trich cuttings and pups that I have cut of graft stock without callusing with very few problems but I would never plant a valuable cutting without following the rules of callusing and withholding water for a few weeks.
Cheers Got
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Tangich


Registered: 10/28/09
Posts: 8,723
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Re: Conditioning cacti to resist rot. [Re: GoOnThen]
#19143852 - 11/16/13 01:39 AM (10 years, 3 months ago) |
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 Also, young seedlings are far more resistant to damp conditions, even in cold weather. During the summer, Trichocereus cacti can withstand absolutely enormous amounts of water, if in the proper substrate as GOT said, they even seem to like it. I had to water the bridgesii more often than pepper plants!
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