The best things I did for myself when first starting out were:

a) Buying rooted plants

b) Sticking with Bridgesii for the most part until I had a clue about which strains of Pachanoi to buy

c) Buying multiples of the largest cuttings of any strain, one for brewing up, and the rest for the garden

d) Being willing to pay premium prices for the good stuff. Three or 4 years later, when the cactus is much larger the price you paid initially won't seem so high. I nursed some little 3 inch cuttings of Lumberjack Bridgesii, which cost me what seemed like way too much, but by now I've re-rooted cuttings from them several times.

Thanks for the answers again.

So especially buying "premium and potent cacti" is still somewhat of a mystery to me ... see: If I browse online I just find regular botanic vendors for *every-day-people* and all they have is:

- Trichocereus Panachoi (5x in stock)
- Trichocereus Bridgesii (3x in stock)
...

etc.

So never came across ANY site that is selling specific strains like Juul's Giant etc.

I just know that PC-Pachanoi are somewhat lacking in terms of medicine and I always have the V-shape which means it is the 'real' Pachanoi and not PC.

So no idea where I could even try to peak on a "more wealthy" strain. Is there a way to distinguish those strains at least from the vendos pictures or will it be close to impossible if the information is not given by vendor?
So far as I see the situation, there was exactly never any info about any strain from all the sources I got my small friends now.

The other part of the answer is strive to meet and make friends with cactus people irl somehow. Also to go to on-the-ground cactus nurseries wherever you can find them.

Reddit has at least one sub dedicated to buying and selling named clones. If you want to pay an arm, a leg, and an organ.

You could maybe pick up one for your more long term plans. Use that one for propagation only for a while. Then use the ones you have to get your feet wet in the nearer term. You do have bridgesii which is supposed to be dependable.

I haven´t tested all the cuttings i got from there but so far yields with cact I purchased from http://www.peyote-paradise.nl/ have been great!

Cact seem like a cheat code, they grow so easy, so little maintenance, so sturdy, and when you want to harvest, cut a part from the middle, while letting the rooted part repup and putting the top in sand to grow roots.. It just keeps multiplying

So with many joy I observed 2 of my 5 cuttings start rooting!

But now this ultimately leads me to a new question:

All sources just tell me to only plant them when they have rooted. But even now after they have 2-3 roots of 3 mm length they obviously *still have basically 0 roots*. So with those roots they barely can drink and probably will still rot if I put them into soil and start watering. So obviously there must be a minimum amount/length of roots and prior to that they still count as root-less I guess?

Now I placed them into the garden, but still without pot. Just leaning towards the wall. But therefore now they get all rainy times to times, I guess it's no problem because the water just drips off.

So now waiting for more roots to arrive and others to grow longer.

How long should the roots be and how many should there be?

I dont want to kill my babies by start regular growing too early.

Cheers

Congratulations! And, patience...

When rooting I wait for the tip to go the light lime-green color which indicates new growth. Until this point they are in 90%+ sand and a little regular potting soil. Water drains very fast through those pots in case of rain.

My test for ready to go is a fresh green tip growing and when I pick up the cactus itself the pot comes with

Thanks for the tipp, but now originally I asked HOW LONG the roots should be prior to start the final potting.

Now your way is to not even wait for micro roots, the first new green growth is the starting factor. So if that is successfull in your case, then translated to my case I would be also fine just put them into the final pot with final growth soil, even when roots are probably not even functional yet?

I was simply thinking if they will rot in regular soil and regular watering if they dont have real roots, then they will do the same with just micro roots, as they still hardly drink any water.

That's why I asked which is the sweet point when roots are big enough so they cant drown anymore.

Based on your experience there is no such sweet spot and I can just start the real potting right away?

I'm just nervous as of drowning when not rooted seems to be the only bad thing you can do to them, so trying to be really cautious as I'm not sure if I surpassed this state already.

Cheers

Cactus / succulents like well draining soil, not soil that holds moisture. Also good to let the soil dry completely before watering then again. My experience is putting them in new well draining soil with nutrients they like is always a good idea, no matter how long the roots are. Once they know food is available they should start rooting.

Now I am facing the next problem:

Some cacti should go out soon. But just out of curiousity some are still in that grow lights of a friend. I came now and saw they seem quite etiolated. At least the biggest Bridgesii.

Picture is attached.

So that is etiolation right? Why did it happen? The cacti is getting regular water and has some really strong LED lights on its head. I'm pretty convinced it cant have too less light - and that's what I thought is the reason for etiolation?

Now how can I go back to normal, some answer has already been if I put it in stronger light (will as soon as possible try to bring him outside) it will grow back normal?

Just looks like normal top growth to me, not etiolation, but I'm no cacti expert. While under light are they getting cycles of 12 hrs on 12 hrs off or are they 24 hrs on with no dark? Cacti need light cycles. It will probably do just fine once brought out into natural light again. You should probably give it plenty of shade outside so it can adapt to the natural light spectrum and temp changes accordingly, don't just go from indoors to full outdoor light.

This makes me so excited to start my garden.