These two trichocereus pachanoi cacti have been through quite a bit, there not my healthiest, or best looking, but there's something about them that's always drawn me to them, I've always thought of wabi-sabi as where things are perfectly flawed...

And often when it comes to things I own, like say glass pipes, every glass pipe will have a few minor flaws, it's these minor flaws that make the pipe unique, and it's this uniqueness that I ultimately become drawn to...and not just with glass pipes, most the things I have are handmade, I think it's because these things are unique, it's these one of a kind traits that these things have that draws me to them...wabi-sabi...(which is a much shorter and more fun way to say this)



Any way, like I said, these are in no way prize cacti, they have been through a good deal, but they have wabi-sabi, and they actually ended up growing in a very beautiful cross pattern.



-eg

Love the wallpaper

Wabi-sabi, I'll have to remember that, I totally see your point.

Oftentimes when I have a plant looking so far from its natural environment, indoors, warped from various stressors... I feel pretty bad about it and want to get it outside and fending for itself, even if it means death ultimately for the plant

I'm happy to see the wabi-sabi in that setup, and happy you're cool with it hah

You can provide plants with environments that are actually better than their natural environments, in this case, I can only provide what I have available.

I'm doing the best with what I have, and I'm happy knowing that they have the best soil, lighting, nutrients, water, pest control, and so on, as I can possibly provide for them.

Out door cultivation is not an option where I live. And would mean certain death for these plants.

Like I said, these cacti have been through a good deal, but they still receive optimal soil, pest control, Sun light and a T-5 box for light, scheduled watering, basic care and so on.

Judging by all other gauges of health aside from visual appearence, I'd say they are doing fine. There's no pests, no molds, no fungi, very little etiolation, there's nothing to indicate nutrient deficiency and they are rapidly producing healthy New growths...like I said, they are beat up, they have been through a lot, but they are happy.

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Here's a piece of conjecture one must also consider:

As a means of stress response, humans have a compound called "cortisol" which is produced and released as a means of activating the stress response system.

In a similar manner, mescaline production in these cacti may be as a reaction to activation of their stress response system...

Meaning they are producing mescaline in relation to stress.

...Though this is just conjecture, not fact.


But it would lead one to feel that older cacti, that have been stressed, and have recovered would thus contain higher mescaline levels.

Once the mescaline is produced it really doesn't seem to degrade*, so once it's produced its stored....

I would love to know if anybody has ever taken 10 healthy T. Pachanoi or L. Williamsii plants, where first a test is done to determine mescaline content, then 5 cacti would be kept in stressed conditions and 5 would be kept in optimal conditions, testing content throughout the time of observation to determine if stressed cacti do in fact produce more mescaline...

Again, I'm not growing these cacti to raise prize specimens, or because I'm a great botanist, or anything like that, I grow them simply because I like them, I like having them around me.

(*in "the shumla cave" texas, ancient dried peyote buttons were discovered, these carbon dated from around 5,000 BC and still contained 2% mescaline)

-eg

*in the picture you will see a window next to the cacti, generally it's opened and is their key source of Sun-light, which is also supplemented with a T-5 box...

The arm resting on the t-5 box is about 4.5 feet long, the stalk it's connected with is about 4 feet long, it's not warping from stress so much as it is to large to be supported...

I was going to get to the task of making several clones from it, but as I said, there's a certain aesthetic quality to it that I enjoy, and have not wanted to tamper with it.

-eg