It just... happens

Mine never flower, they're too busy trying to figure out how to grow non herpy derpy. I hear a lot of deeerrrr's from my garden daily.

Looks like you got a monstruose form there. Nice, quite unusual. Should have a high alkaloid content as a result.

bigger and bigger

Ah, the pleasures of a nice (cactus) garden!

A nice cactus forest!

At this stage I'd plant some in the ground. They grow even better when their roots can spread freely.

Here's how I started 4 years ago, with 11 cuttings:





And here's how it's looking now, having only added 3 new cuttings and one (now flowering) caespitosa peyote, all the others are those original ones which have grown a lot and I made more cuttings from, now totalling almost 40 cuttings:

Nice collection! They have a way of multiplying, dont they? I really like that tall, fat, blue Peruvianus looking one in the 2nd photo. Do you have a favorite?

Yeah they grow like crazy and every time I make a cutting, they get many pups. I want to have them get really tall too but I was afraid during winter with some days of frost they would die, so I always kept them in smaller pots and smaller cuttings to be able to move them to a more protected back porch next to the house where it is slightly warmer and protected from the rain. Last winter I left a few cuttings outside in their normal place to test if they died and they seemed to suffer no damage, so this year I'm transplanting the bigger cuttings to large pots and will now let them grow tall.

The blue peruvianus is a Matucana peruvianus, it is actually my favorite In the first pic, it is the second cutting from left to right on the back row. The one right next to it to the right, is also a matucana peruvianus, which you can see in the second pic as the cutting that is growing diagonally. Interesting that they both have that blueish tone but they are quite different looking, very different spacing between spines and all.

I'm in the middle of a test with that favorite matucana, I had a cutting outside in the pot and another one I kept in the dark for 4 months, I brewed an equivalent amount of each and will send to analysis to add further evidence (or evidence against) to the tests that so far have shown keeping cuttings in the dark will significantly increase mescaline amounts.

I'm in zone 9b so the coldest it gets here is the upper 20's Fahrenheit. None of my Trichos have ever suffered any frost damage. I think they're pretty safe down to around 25F, as long as it gets back up above freezing during the day.

I have a few different Peruvianus types. But I've only ever tried one of them, and it was on the weak side, so I haven't tried any of the others yet. But I think they're beautiful plants, especially the fat, blue classic looking Peruvianus, which is supposed to have good activity. Maybe one day I'll give Peruvianus another try.

I'm looking forward to hear how the results come back for those two samples you submitted. After 4 months in the dark I imagine that the cutting must have been very stressed. Did it still look healthy and viable? I've never stored cuttings in the dark, but I have stored them for up to 6 weeks where they receive some indirect sunlight, so that they would stay healthy. The potency has always seemed good with my stored cuttings, but never drastically beyond the baseline of fresh cuttings. Perhaps darkness is necessary to drastically boost the potency? I'll be interested to hear the results!

Frost-wise, it seems worth repeating here that -6°C wrecked some of my peruvianus and bridgesii but a largely inactive pachanoi breezed through without batting a stoma. The good news is some viable pieces from the damaged types have survived the ordeal including a handsome chunk of blue peruvianus which has overcome orange rot and recently shot out a pup. More on this to follow in the frost damage thread, methinks.

Your pics get me stoked, I just received a (long-awaited) new cut in exchange with a friend.

Wow this thread is sorta like a time capsule. I like those peruvians, haven’t got one yet though.

A few years back I lost a bunch of cacti to frost and have come to the decision that slightly above freezing is where I call it and bring them inside. It seems like with enough mass they can handle a night that hits freezing but it gets too risky so, 38-40F.

So I just moved to a new place and was finally able to put them on the ground.

To move I had to make them all into smaller cuttings, but this means the collection multiplied again.

As you can see in the first post I started with like 11 cuttings five years ago, and now I have 80 cuttings

Give it a couple of years and this will be amazing to look at !

It already is!

Congrats brother!! Love to see that!

What zone do you live in?

I remember pics of your first cacti few years ago. It's nice to see how you did well with them.

Man, my last two year's of outdoor mushroom beds have crapped out, maybe I should try my hands at something else. Y'all are awesome, keep growing!

Beautiful! All the best with growing them in the ground.

You've come a long way baby!!

Thanks friends

The zone in this new house is 8b, before was 9a, I haven't spent winter in this new place yet so let's see.. I have some months to think this over, but Im considering building some kind of greenhouse structure for the cact at least this first winter, let's see..

What a wonderful garden you got there. Congratulations
It looks like they don't get full sun all they day but grow fast nevertheless.