This is my first post and I apologize if this question has been asked, but I have been searching for some time now all over the internet and have yet to find a similar question or an answer to my question.

First off I'll add that I am currently only interested in two types of cacti, San Pedro and Peruvian Torch. I can only assume that the cacti that I have are true specimens. I'm very confident that they are because I have done quite a bit of research and reading on both varieties. I ordered my first San Pedro with the intention of trying it out to see what the effects were like, but when I received it in the mail I couldn't bring myself to destroy this thing, so I planted it and ordered another with the same intention as the first and ended up planting the second one. I'm glad I planted both of them because it's been a pretty cool experience watching them grow and do their thing. I have pretty much just used soil that I already had which is some type of miracle grow potting soil, I know this isn't an ideal soil for growing cacti, but it's what I had and it has been working just fine. Shortly after I purchased these two cacti a friend of mine showed me some photos of a Peruvian Torch that he had been growing. This triggered me to do a bit of research on them and decided to try to buy one. I found a seller that was selling 5 very small PT cacti for I think 10$ for all 5, so I took the gamble and ordered them. When I received my package I found that I had indeed received the 5 intended cacti which were about 2.5 to 3 inches tall and they threw in one very tiny lil guy about an inch tall. I planted them and watched them slowly grow. About six months ago I'm not sure what happened, but I had a serious problem with rot and lost 2 of the torch cacti, due to the fact that I didn't catch it in time and most of another, but I did manage to save the tip of one of them. It was a very small portion, but I planted it and it has been alive and well ever since. When my problem with rot occurred I lost a couple of my Pedro's as well. I guess I should add that after purchasing all of these and just before I was getting ready to move I found a very big San Pedro growing wild on the outskirts of Las Vegas, nv. I was a little nervous about just going up to the cactus and cutting branches off, but one night I built up the courage and drove out to it and ended up taking 6 branches ranging from about 6" to 18". This plant that I found was very, very big and looked like no one had touched it at all. It was probably 15 ft. Tall and probably 5 ft across, just full of branches, new and old. I didn't cut any of the branches I just grabbed them and removed them where they were connected to the rest of the plant. I had 6 and currently have 3 left. Some of it I chopped up and dried just to have and a couple died due to the rot problem. I have no clue what happened and why so many of the cacti were affected by this rot issue. None of them were growing in the same pots, they just seemed to all get sick at the same time. So now I have my first two, that were about 12" when I first got them and about 1.5 years later are well over 2 ft tall. They have grown tall, but rather skinny and I assume it's because I've over watered them and given them too much direct sunlight. I don't mind though, they seem to like the direct sunlight, I just have to be careful of how much water I give them. I have a bad habit of over watering. I like to feed them and just get to excited about it. So I have 5 Pedro's and 3.25 torches. I add the .25 because of the tip that I saved. I count it as a fraction of a cactus because it's so small. I cut the tip off one of my purchased Pedro's just to see what would happen and it sprouted one pup that's about 10" right now and let the other one just grow. About a month ago I came out in the morning to drink a cup of coffee and have my morning smoke, I like to sit with them. It gives me a nice calm vibe, anyway I noticed that over night my first purchased Pedro had sprouted a pup from the base. My first natural pup, needless to say I was pretty excited about this. It has a little black spot on it, but other than that it's growing nicely. Now this is where my question comes in.

I was wondering if These cacti will give any signs that it is about to sprout a pup? I felt around the base of my second purchased Pedro and noticed that one of the spines, I do believe they are called, felt like it had something inside of it. None of the other ones feel this way. I had my girlfriend feel it and she said that it most definitely feels like something is in there. It has yet to sprout a pup though. By looking at it, it looks a litter fatter than the rest as well. So my question, again is, is there any way to tell if my cactus is about to push a pup out? Are there any signs that this is about to happen? Or do I just have to wait until it pops out?

I appreciate any responses and I'm sorry if my post was a little long. I read that I should write a little essay introducing myself, but since I'm here only concerning my cacti I figured I would introduce them a little bit. Thanks again. Have a great day.