Hi all,

Just wanted to report a strong cactus experience. The plant was a 5 year old Trichocereus peruvianus 'Icaros DNA', a well known seedline distributed from the Matucana Valley, Peru. This report will include the info about plant, the conditions it was grown under as well as the preparation and trip. I put this post together because decent genetics are becoming more and more available but many people do not know how much to trust in the strength of homegrown cacti, especially the much doubted T. peruvianus. In a nutshell, be rest assured that you can reach immense heights of psychedelia, healing, euphoria and even the uncomfortable extremes of these states with this species if it was true to type, raised under ripe conditions and prepared properly.


The plant

This Icaros was sourced from a trusted local supplier as an approximately 10cm seedling in 2016. As a seedling it had brown spines and a decent amount of blue on it for its age. Most likely it was 1 to 1.5 years old back then and seen at least 2 growing seasons. Not the most disease resistant plant as it was covered with orange fungal spots at the base and had black rot at its collar so it had to be cut, rooted and planted again. It quickly outgrew the fungal spots with age and decreasing nitrogen application.As it aged it grew an intense, almost whitish blue epicuticular wax and spines as long as 5 cm. The mature spines had brown tips and yellow bases. Also there were usually one dominant medial spine and 5-6 shorter (around or less than 1cm in length) radial spines per areole. Rib count varies with each pup so far and ranges between 6 to 8. This particular cut was 8 ribbed at the bottom half, which gave a 6 ribbed pup after losing its tip to a snail attack. Both parts summed up to 45cm in length and were not separated until the day of preparation. The plant had a maximum diamter at around 8cm and its girth averaged around 7cm.


The growing conditions

All plants were potted in a mix of 15 % sand, 15 % perlite and 10 % dry coco peat and 35 % sieved potting mix and 30 % soil dug up from the garden. Many people add way too much drainage material and cacti may have difficulty stabilizing themselves in pots if soil is too light or most of the nutrients can just wash through before the plant roots can absorb them. The diameter of the pots were 4 times larger than the diameter of the cacti they were going to hold since trichocereus grow a lot faster with large root space. All the cacti were exposed to full sun throughout all growth seasons and watered weekly during active growth. As soon as the growth stopped in colder months plants were witheld water until the next growing season. In this region plants can noticably grow for 8 months a year and are moved under a cover to keep them dry and dormant for the remaining 4 months. Summer temperatures average around 26 degrees, frequently going above 30 degrees Celcius, while it averages around 9-16 but never drops below 0 in winter. The altitude of this neighbourhood is 45 meters, no where near the elevation of the natural habitat of these cacti. Fertilizers were used weekly in the hottest monts and fortnightly during any other time in the growing season. All fertilizers were mixed in a 9L watering can using tap water for the final concentrations given below:

-Synthetic all purpose garden fertilizer at 1/9 strength (1gr/L) (N: P:K 25:5: 8. 8 ) + S 4.6 / Mg 0.5 / Fe 0.18 / B 0.005 / Cu 0.005 / Zn 0.004 / Mo 0.001

-Osmocote slow release all purpose fertilizers with trace elements was sprinkled onto the potting mix at half recommended dose.

-Liquid Cal/Mag (5% / 1.4% respectively) at 1 ml/L

- Trace element mixture in powder form. 25g/9L was used since the recommended dose (25g/L=225g/9L !!) seemed unrealistically high for fortnightly applications. Ingredients: (% W/W) sulphur 6.29, Ca carbonate 10.00, Mg sulphate 3.62, manganese sulphate 2.88, iron chelate 2.73, copper sulphate 1.25, zinc sulphate 1.00, boron 0.09 and molybdenum 0.09

-Liquid potash (P 2.0: K 14.0) at 20 ml/9 L

-Liquid compost mixture containing fish and seaweed solution, humate and trace elements (50ml/9L)

-Great White micorrhizae mixture in powder form (1 teaspoon/9L). These bacteria were used much less frequently, around 3 times per growing season.

-Organic phosphorus granules (N: P:K 0:12:0). This one was eyeballed unfortunately. Sprinkled over the soil sparingly each year.

Only 2 types of fungicides were used against black and orange spots with little success. Those were a solution of copper ammonium complex (93g/L) at 5ml/L and myclobutanyl at 0.05g/L.


Stressing

This particular Icaros peruvianus was witheld water for 1.5 month under full sun and another 2 months under shade. Shade caused some 4cm long etiolation even though the plant was water stressed but the new growth was not drastically skinny. Then the plant was moved under full sun for a month where it received occasional rainfall and 2 applications of fertilizers. At the end of this period the 45cm long arm described above was cut. The cutting was prodded with cactus spikes and slashed vertically with a small blade to stimulate the damage done by predators and bystanding cactus columns. Then the cut was left laying on its side in a cool indoor closet for 3 weeks. If the opportunity of an empty house didn't present itself the cut would wait in the dark for at least 2 months.


Preperation

The cut weighed exactly 1000g on a kitchen scale. Unusable parts were removed and their weights were mesured with a sensitive scale:

-Dominant spines: 2.19 grams
-Areoles with radial spines and skin: 32.19 grams (turns out peruvianus skin is very thick and heavy)
-Vascular bundle and pith (the inner core): 80 grams
-Total: 114.38 grams

The remaining cortex and chlorenchyma weighed 880 grams on the kitchen scale which is apparently somewhat inaccurate. Then the chunks of cactus flesh were diced down to roughly the same size as sugar cubes and were frozen in a ziplock bag at -20 degrees Celcius overnight, until all pieces were solid. Then the frozen chunks were thrown into 4 liters of reverse osmosis water and half a lemon was squeezed into this mixture. Once the cactus pieces lost their firmness after couple of hours of boiling and the slime reduced, the chunks were blended to fine pieces. Then once the mixture was concentrated down to a sludge, it was filtered through a densely folded cheese cloth on a strainer. The same cooking procedure was repeated 3 times, except in the last 2 repeat, 2 liters of water was used to reduce the final amount. 4 liters of filtered cactus extract was boiled down to 500 mL of concentrate. At any point in preparation the green crust left at the corners of the pot was washed down with bare hands and minimal amount of water to be included in the final brew. The concentrate was kept in the fridge for a day before the experience.


The set, the setting and the trip

Mentally speaking, the tripper was in a comfortable place. Since it was during the quarantine period there wasn't really much to do except for sending lengthy application mails. He actually managed to get a positive response for a mail and was invited for an interview which put him into ease regarding his responsibilities. He unexpectedly managed to get a good looking girlfriend recently and this eliminated one of the major factors of self-doubt. Only glooming danger was the axniety of having a trip since he lost hearing and acquired tinnitus in left ear possibly because of a 'toxic' lophophora experience during which he also acquired TMJ.

He was alone in the house all day and he knew his flatmate would not come back until 9pm. Even if he did he would be in his room all the time so it was not a problem. Both the house and his room were tidy and clean, and the house had a large backyard with no nosy neighbours around. He had a 6 hour sleep woke up at 10:30, ate a light meal of grapes, bread and avocado, and went back to sleep. Woke up again at 1:40 and got ready for the trip.

-2:08 Chewed on a gram of fresh ginger root and downed half of the 500ml extract. Taste is very bitter and very sour probably because of one and a half lemon added during extraction. Ate a slice of orange as chaser. Been taking magnesium pills (250 mg) for the last 2 days in preparation for muscle spasms and took another one while drinking the first part.

-2:52 Already feeling the effects. Things look sharper and brighter. Getting the feeling that things would start to move around if looked at for long enough, though nothing happens yet. Music is much more enjoyable and immersive. It triggers vivid imagination but no concrete hallucinations yet. Significant nausea and stomach churning at this point. Thinking about drinking the rest or not.

-3:15 Definately receiving mild visions and weak CEVs when listening to music. With eyes open textures are fuzzy and colors are intensitifed, and both can trigger very unique and specific sensations and thoughts that are interlinked. For instance the white color of the ceiling reminds of those big white jawbreakers with blue, yellow and red splatters on them, which then evokes memories of 90s abstract art, a sense of childhood and eating vanilla ice cream.

-3:30 Decided to drink the half of the rest. Should correspond to 125 mL.

-3:42 Feeling a decent effect now. While lost in music, the sound stage feels larger and fresher. This clarity hits when the music is about to turn into CEVs. When eyes closed Incan horse-serpents(?) appear on a faint Escheresque background made of arcs and corners. These Incan creatures resembled the horror versions of Adam and Barbara Maitland from Beetlejuice but they were not scary or intimidating. Their presence felt incredibly important and mystical. 3-D patterns raising from and hovering over the ceiling surface. They are also made of arcs, corners and circles, arranged as a circle. Euphoria with a sense of love and gratitute is growing. Offered love and gratitude to the mother plant and visited it in the garden. Might have drunk the other part too early afterall since it is already on par with a good dose of acid.

-5:07 to 8:50 Stunned by the potency of this plant. Only getting higher during this bit of the trip. No coming down. Nope, just a relentless but enjoyable up. Nausea has almost completely disappeared but a very mild heartburn remains possibly because of lemon juice. Ate some grapes, the rest of the orange, some bread and cheese. Also drank some water since mescaline makes one urinate frequently. Now realizing bodyload is not just stomach feelings but a tactile component of the trip probably inherent to mescaline regardless of the extra substances introduced by the cactus. Can feel the source/ground zero of the trip, changing location in the body and evoking muscle twitches, sensations, emotions, visuals, smells and sounds as it walks within me. OEVs pop up from surfaces and the wood is melting. Colors are massively enhanced and there are rainbow hues over objects and at the corners of visual field. Anything begins to change shape when looked at for a few seconds max. Walked outside and sat on the stairs at the side of the house. The passageway opening to garden was breathing, shrinking to a hole and ballooning up to the size of a highway road. One looks like the older version of himself when looks at the mirror or at his hands. Every imperfection ,like wrinkles and eyebags , is exaggorated. CEVs take the form of storylines, factals and those patterns that are basically the colorful versions of the optical illusions made of fine black and white stripes. These alternating neon stripes sometimes form 3-D spherical, cuboid and irregular objects and turn into paradoxical geometric patterns like Escher drawings. Sometimes branching hallucination flames similar to those in the paintings of Alex Gret surround these objects. There are also runic alphabets etched around these visuals occasionally. Music directly turns into CEVs and different combinations of each aspect of sound perception, (each square that makes up the final mosaic so to say, such as timber, frequency and waveform of the sound) corresponds to a different kind of visual. For instance a pure tone was more likely to give rise to simple neon stripes or geometric shapes while complex sounds like human vocals or guitar chords showed more life-like and intricate visuals, such as a stupidly realistic piece of fabric with green,red and yellow checkers on it, much like a Scottish skirt. There were intermediates of those of course. The same thing happens to ideas, notions, historical and mythical characters or events due to the effect of music. For instance listening to Sympathy for the Devil brought the realization that The Devil should be sympathized with because it is an incarnation, a face we put on the human selfishess and the disregard we have for one another. It exists in all of us and one can only counteract this after facing it. Meanwhile, The Devil as well as the historical events the song was referring to were appearing as CEVs and they were hybridized with geometric patterns. Things quickly turned into a rapid chase of connotations and ideas. This was explaning all kinds of notions and the meanings behind various modalities of perception. After each wave the chase ended with a feeling of understanding the 'essence of all things' or 'everything there has been and will ever be'. True psychedelia indeed. The immersion and depth of this down-the-rabbit-hole period increased with time. The auditory distortions began to settle around 8pm as trailing/echoing sounds, pitch shifts and very strange manipulation of directionality. Was hearing some tunes upside down if thatt is even possible. Tinnitus was getting sneaky, jumping from left to right, changing tone and texture and sometimes even disappearing. Mescaline is more commandable at this point. One knows what he wants and can steer the trip with input he desires such as looking at something he wants and manipulating it or playing a piece of music to evoke certain themes and feelings. Though if lost in visions it was very easy to forget one's physical existance and even mental identity. Notions such as time, language and the ability to describe things disappeared occasionally.

-10:21 STILL getting higher. Drinking the second part so early was a bad call. Time goes by very fast and this also affects perception. The music sounds like it is paced up by x1.15 and the bubbles in the toilet burst much faster. OEVs are so strong that it is difficult to write with a pen. Hard to size the phone screen by touch. Gets big as a mountain and as small as a pinhead. Texting is difficult too since the keyboard shrinkgs and gets bigger visually and the letters turn into alien symbols. The harmony and feeling of complexity is crumbling. Different types of CEVs are playing on a fragmented field of vision as if the brain is glitching. Sound echoes get longer and deeper with increasing distortion. Sometimes random tunes reverberate and tinnitus is intensely present as a pure tone like the one you hear after picking an old phone. Muscle tension is very high, especially around neck and jaw area. The flow of the experience is interrupted and there is an overall lack of interest. No desire to look at something or play a particular piece of music. Wandering outside to the kitchen was very beneficial against this apathy as if with movement came another form of stimualtion that rekindled the trip. Wished very hard to be able to just wander outside but the corona restrictions does not allow that (bad timing) and cops are a bit freaky around this part of the world anyway. After returning to the room there were moments of brain zaps and this was the most annoying, frustrating and terrifying aspect of the whole experience. A strong one built up to a panic attack in 15 seconds. With no previous experience and some perseverance one can easily call for help thinking that he is having a stroke or a hear attack since there was also some pretty nasty pain and vibrations in the chest area. The chest and head sensations are most likely connected. The exact same thing had happened during a bridgesii trip 2 and a half years ago. Plus many report the two occurring at the same time. Zaps started around 9:21 and began to get less and less intense from 10 onwards. Wished the trip to end at this point but was not in despair. It was possible to stand against the trip and curb the effects by willpower, unlike with DMT which would scorch you to crisps instead. Although it felt like the resistance was building up to the zaps somehow. This was a very interesting idea though cannot be sure if the zaps were meant to happen or resistance triggered them. (EDIT: Read about a phenomenon called 'Adrenergic storm' where a sudden release of adrenaline and noradrenaline may create a hypertensive crisis. In the case of mescaline, it may act as a sympathomimetic by stimulating the alpha 1 adrenergic receptors in blood vessels and increase blood pressure. There is also a possibility of seizures occurring due to central nervous system stimulation. Natural vasodilators such as ginger and ceylon cinnamon may be used to combat hypertension while CBD might be useful against seizure-like states. Will definately look into this aspect in depth in the future posts.)

-2:21am Finally coming down a little. Sleep is nowhere near but trying to lay down since there is nothing better to do. Zaps are much less frequent now and it is still possible to have vivid visions with music. Some calmness and joy returned but there is still a lot of apathy and the harmony of the visuals is still distorted. Not able to follow through a seamless interconnected storyline. One abruptly ends into nothing and you start anew instead of immediately picking up the trails of the last vision.

-4:14-5:16 Might have had the shallowest sleep ever. Not sure. Regardlessly the last hour was gone in a snap. Still tripping with half the peak intensity and feeling drained. Zaps are gone and muscle aches are now quite obvious. Tinnitus is the biggest problem at this point because it does not back down. Had managed to get it down to a tiny hiss before this experience. Do not want to lose that progress after couple of years of effort.

-10:46am Woke up feeling quite well actually. Emotionally feeling quite refreshed and has a feeling that the inner self is not damaged but actually healed by this experience. Reminesced the beginning of trip with fondness and a sense of joy. The afterglow feels a lot like an antidepressant with added benefits of sharpness in mind. Retrieving memories and forming more complex sentences were definately easier though jumbled words and letters occasionally. Also there was a slight loss of focus. Was getting distracted easily.

-12:41am (NEXT DAY) After doing some pilates exercises and stretches targeting the neck and back muscles tinnitus was gone below the baseline! It was likely the tension built up by the neck muscles that made it worse. Will see if this gets better or worse in the following days. Still feelig in awe with all the beauty the trip unveiled. Keept thinking that shamans actually knew about the use of mescaline and other psychedelics as editing tools of neural connectivity, and they developed an oral record to use it to achieve consistent results. They probably tuned peoples brains during a state of trance where the user could reflect back on his mental and perceptual constitutents and somehow correct the malfunctioning aspects by being able to realize what those mean to him and find a subjective reason for this incorrect reaction of the brain. Sleep came reasonably late after 2 hours in bed but had a deep refreshing sleep with crazy dreams.

Overall, this was probably the most intense and euphoric experience when compared to all previous pachanoi and bridgesii trips. Possibly too much was consumed due to bad judgement and redosing way earlier. Shouldda remembered good mescaline comes on late and strong. Was expecting the entire 1 kg cut to yield a relatively easy going experience. Some people who work with their own homegrown Icaros suggest that 1400g is a good dose. If an equivalent amount of this plant was consumed it could easily send someone to the ER. Even at 750g it basically kikcs your nuts off. 400-500g was probably the dose for a standard trip with this particular specimen. Therefore it would be wise to approach the true perivianus type with care. These are the plants with deep blue skin, large areoles, long brown/red spines with ,sometimes, yellow bases and are a lot thicker when compared to most pachanoi and almost all bridgesii out there. When grown under full sun, fed a good spectrum of fertilizer and stressed adequately this type will blow the top of your head off with a trip full of love and joy. Do not listen to the bridgesii fanatics out there. True bridgesii might be much more consistent in potency when compared to all those other plants who are wrongfully sold as peruvianus and true pachanoi, but if you are starting your own garden and have access to some known, decent genetics, a peruvianus grown and prepared adequately will give you a much more healing and affectionate experience.

All the best and stay safe

P.S. This is my first post so if there is anything I should reword or not say just let me know.

Thanks for sharing this report with us Ahubaba!

Do you have a photo of the cactus that you used? It would be great to see it, especially since there is quite a bit of variation in terms of how an Icaros DNA Peruvianus can look.

Personally I love Bridgesii and believe that it has an important place in anyone's collection who is interested in these cacti. But I agree with you that a Bridgesii trip is not always very "affectionate" or welcoming in character. I'm glad to hear that you've found a cactus that really meshes well with you and provides what you're looking for. Thanks again for sharing!

Thanks Grey Fox. I rarely share experiences bu this one felt special. Also I love everything about peruvianus so felt the need to pay some sort of tribute. Also many people may think that peruvianus is weak based on a lot of previously shared reports which may be dangerous. Here are the pics of the mother plant. I am sorry for the low quality but I dont have decent pics at the moment unfortunately. Maybe can take a few more tomorrow. The top and side shots show the uncut branch and the really low res one shows the branch the report is about.

Your report is really impressive, thank for that, Ahubaba very good start here
I especially like that you stated the weight of cactus used, not just its size.
Seems very high dose, half of it, even less, could be enough probably.

Thanks also for photo, one of my cacti is almost identical to yours and was quite rich in mescaline when extracted.

Could you please comment more on fertilizers?
Seems to me you have used too much of it, but I am no expert.

Its a beauty Ahubaba!

I have an Icaros DNA Peruvianus with a very similar look that has been growing for a few years now. Its not that tall but its a fat one!

My experience with Peruvianus is very limited. I only ever tried a Peruvianus one time, and it was on the weak side, about as strong as PC. And so I never tried Peruvianus again. But I have that Icaros cactus and also a real fat blue cactus that is supposed to be Macrogonus (but it looks Peruvianus to me!). I need to give this class of cactus some more attention. Thanks for the info!

Thanks doubledog. Do you remember how much was yield per kg? Regarding fertilizers I may have used a bit more than necessary especially with liqiud compost. When I was writing this report I noticed they suggest applying it every 3 to 6 months not 2 weeks. Whoops But all these ferts I give are rich in essential elements and other macronutrients like calcium and magnesium. I control how much NPK I give very well especially nitrogen since it causes bloating and splitting of the plant. Bloating also makes the cell wall thinner and increases susceptibility to fungal infections. My main goal is to mimic the nutrients in the soil of Matucana valley which is said to be very rich in minerals since it is a rocky mountain area. Some even report that there are visible copper crystals in the soil.



Grey Fox do you remember what the weak one looked like? My guess is it could be one of those skinnier plants with a dark or lime green skin with little epicuticular blue wax. I am also guessing that the spines were denser and skinnier and the areoles were smaller. I keep seeing this type labelled as peru especially in US but no idea what it really is tbh. The macrogonus/peruvianus discrimination is a lost cause in my opinion. Even 'the experts' don't know how to tell them apart with 100% confidence and many decided to treat them as the same species which is a good call for practical purposes. Take a good look at your icaro and use it as a textbook definition of how they should look. Most importantly give it lots of love and care There are very few and unconvincing reports of true peruvianus being weak

Great report and first post! This gives me high hopes (pun intended) for the Icaro that i'm currently growing.

Mine is has been growing very slowly though so I appreciate the info on the nutrients, might try some of what you have used.

Good on you for putting the weight that you used to dose, and not the length.. Lots of misinformation gets spread around dosing cactus due to this.

Thanks Miso, your Icaros looks gorgeous! My second Icaros has red spines like yours and they grow up to be stunners.

Yeah definately try those nutes. I especially recommend liquid compost or if you cannot find that try seaweed solution. They work wonders. I also read in another forum that some growers believe calcium is essential for alkaloid production. They detailed their reasoning though I can't remember it right now unfortunately. If you bloated your plant with nitrogen you might want to try potash to increase the thickness of cell wall and disease resistance.

I never understood the logic behind length. It just doesn't make sense. Take my biggest plant with 12cm of diameter which is the same age as and planted around the same time with my skinniest bridgesii with 4 cm of diameter. Using the volume calculation formula for a cylinder for a rough estimation the same height (h) would give you a massive difference in volume: h x pi × r^2

"r" is half the diameter and the only variable since pi is a fixed number. So in this example the same height yields a 36/4=9 fold difference in volume and in mass assuming the flesh is equally dense between these 2 plants. Now imagine dosing more than 9 times you are shooting for when a kitchen scale costs 5 bucks

It was the same plant that these columns came from.

Grey Fox yes this is what I have been trying to describe more or less. I cannot call this a true to type plant. There are 2 giveaways to me. First notice that the spines get whitish quickly as you go down. Cuzcoensis does that often. This plant has just a dark green epidermis with almost no epicuticular wax. Can't say this is a cuzco 100% but definately shows some traits of it. There are also other details such as the spines at the tip bundling together like in cuzcoensis or the tip being angled with a torpedo shape instead of appearing flatter and fatter, but these are subject to variability and my eyes are not trained well enough yet to discriminate based on these. Also I cant tell without a scale but it also looks skinnier than the macrogonus/peruvianus type. I would say go for a plant you can't tell whether its a peru or macro in the future and look at a lot of pictures of the macro/peru type. You need pics of mature ones from the wild as well as the small seedlings grown by collectors. Trichocereus.net has a good explanation regarding the definition of peruvianus and macrogonus too if you are interested.

Thank you for sharing.
I hope you get rid of the things that toxic cactus gave you.

Have a gud one

Ahubaba this plant is the standard form of Peruvianus that is sold in my area. I have seen this clone at several nurseries. I have also seen pure Cuzcoensis, and it is a greener, spinier plant. But I agree with you that this Peruvianus may well have some Cuzcoensis genetics in it. Unfortunately, that is the case for much of the Peruvianus that is available out there.

But I do have those 2 plants which are more true-to-type for pure Peruvianus. I have to give them a try one day. Thanks for giving me something to look forward to! All the best brother.

Yes, it was 0.75g per kg of weight. Cactus was stored 2 months after harvesting.

Go for online ethnobotanical nurseries man. They know what they are selling. All the best to you as well!



Considering that is fresh weight with core and all that is some impressive number! Wish someone did an analysis on the dried chlorenchyma of this peruvianus type so that we could get the weight by weight ratio for the dry tissue and compare it to other varieties.


Thank you so much bro. I am getting better slowly and hope the effects will cease sometime. Never will go around peyote or all those sinister look alikes ever.

I think that the local nurseries in my area know what they are selling as well. Some very knowledgeable old timers who have been in the business for a long time and seen a lot of cacti.

As I understand it, Peruvianus exists on a spectrum. On one end of the spectrum you have the very fat, very blue, lightly spined Matucana types. On the other end of the spectrum you have the green, thin, very spiny Cuzcoensis types. And then there is everything in between, existing somewhere within the range of that spectrum. In my view, its all Peruvianus. Its all a big spectrum.

The Icaros DNA type that you are describing is really a sub-type of Peruvianus, one that is reliably potent. But many of the other sub-types, existing elsewhere on the spectrum, are not reliably potent at all.

But I'm glad that you've found a cactus that is really good. Thanks for sharing that with us.

I hear you man. Did not mean to disrespect the experienced folks out there by the way. I am just used to assume the worst since I saw a lot of people just selling stuff they have no knowledge about. It's still fair so to say since 99% of the time you wouldn't sell a cactus expecting it would get the chop. As far as peruvianus classification goes I think different expeditions caused a few species or very distinct subspecies to get dumped into the same category so it is up to botanists/ethnobotanists to clear that up and just above my league. The least I can do is to make notes of the ones that rock meanwhile

No worries. Its a great trip report. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I definitely need to try more Peruvianus.

Got some icaros seedlings started, but also got a load of cacti from peruvian seeds gifted a few years back. Some are very blue and fat, but still only about 6 inches tall after 3 years. Never used fertilizer. Got a good local source of seaweed, would this be worth rotting down and using the liquid? What about garden lime for calcium? Urine (nitrogen)? Or is it better to get a ready made npk fert?

6 inches in 3 years sure sounds slow but it also depends on your location and climate. Here I am luck that we have 7-8 months of growth and A LOT of direct sun. I am not sure how you would manage to make a seaweed extract or if composting it would be enough. I would advise against it since the residual salts on the seaweed might mess up your soil salinity. I heard that nitrogen as urea is the most ideal form for vegetative growth which you are after. But I would go for a nice, well-rounded organic or synthetic NPK including trace elements and calcium. Garden lyme will not only increase calcium content but also the pH of the soil, which can decrease availability of some trace elements. You may wanna buy some calmag or grind some eggshells onto the soil. The eggshell method will increase calcium content on the long run though and will likely act very slowly. What I would recommend is what I use minus the beneficial bacteria. Not that they are harmful or anything but not sure if they are necessary for the cacti.

Thanks Ahubaba, Ill try some all round fertilizer with minerals. There are lots of eggshells already in the home made compost I use (along with soil, sand and perlite). The very slow growth is probably due to poor location. Theyre in a conservatory on the east side of the house. It's warm in there but only gets a couple of hours direct sunshine. Theyre also pretty much dormant for 5/6 months of the year. Gonna farm some out to friends with greenhouses and south facing gardens to see if that improves growth.

I was 45 when I planted them, hoping for a harvest for my 50th, 2 years to go!