Consortium of Cacti and all things spiny! - thread for Cacti lovers

[SDPirate]

Hi everybody,

Welcome to a community where us prickly nerds can discuss our passion for all things cacti related.  Inspired by the PGA thread for Psidiums and looking back on a thread I started called Top Cacti fruit, I decided this would be a great place for conversation and sharing thoughts.  While I don't have the length of experience many of you already do, I like many of you have started to put together a little collection of these low irrigation plants. 

Cacti are resilient here in Southern California, anyone that lives here knows that they require little care other than warm sunshine and a bit of water to keep growth pushing.  Pests are far and few between for these plants.  Basically, except for a select few species, they require little care and resources which is great for the environment (and wallet! ).

So how is everyone's cacti plants warming up this season? I am seeing a lot new growth emerge here as our Spring slowly kicks into warmer temperatures.

[Epiphyte]

my fav cacti are the least spiny    i have a lepismium warmingianum that just finished blooming.  i tried pollinating it with hatiora salicornioides, rhipsalis cereuscula, and lepismium houlletianum.  i'm not going to hold my breath but it sure would be entertaining if any of the seedlings look different to try and guess the father.  i didn't bother keeping track of which flower got which pollen.

i have a ton of noid epiphyllum seedlings from various "large" fruits.  the idea of selecting epiphyllums for their fruit is too much fun.  with all epiphytes there's that ridiculous gravitational limit to fruit size.  what could be better than an epiphyllum with fruit the size of a watermelon?  epiphyllum with fruit the size of dragon fruit is within reason?  actually that's just a bit larger than the size of the fruit of epiphyllum oxypetalum.  the plant itself should win an award for being so ungainly. 

i'm very happy that my disocactus aurantiacus seems to grow non-stop outside here.  the fruits are relatively large, no idea yet how they taste.  i wonder who it should be crossed with when it finally blooms.

in 2018 i sowed seeds of the 1st epiphyllum i tried with tasty fruit.  hopefully a couple of the seedlings should be blooming size next year.  i'm sure they would have bloomed this year if i had been better at potting them up.  a couple are still in their original pots.  i need so many minions.

[CeeJey]

All the opuntia are blooming in Phoenix area at the moment, including mine. The previous owners of our place planted a whole bunch of santa rosa like 15 years ago and they're gorgeous in bloom but boy howdy do I wish the fruit tasted better. I keep thinking about ripping some of them out to replace with better-tasting varieties but they look so freaking cool.

Also I *think* that I have *finally* figured out the optimal light and feeding schedule for dragonfruit out here after many, many dead plants and they are producing ridiculously thick sections. Probably going to have to mist them with chalk water again during the summer though, for a little bit of sunblock.

i have a ton of noid epiphyllum seedlings from various "large" fruits.  the idea of selecting epiphyllums for their fruit is too much fun.  with all epiphytes there's that ridiculous gravitational limit to fruit size.  what could be better than an epiphyllum with fruit the size of a watermelon?  epiphyllum with fruit the size of dragon fruit is within reason?  actually that's just a bit larger than the size of the fruit of epiphyllum oxypetalum.  the plant itself should win an award for being so ungainly. 

This sounds hilarious, let is know how the breeding experiments go.

[Tropicaltoba]

Except for a yellow dragon fruit a grew from seed I am completely unfamiliar with cacti fruits. Have you had the chance to try different species?

[Pandan]

Does anyone have stenocereus queretaroensis of different colors?

Its annoyingly hard to find the US and when you do find it the only color is usually red

[SDPirate]

What's wrong with spiny?



I rooted this Grusonia Kenzei recently, but man I wish it was easier to handle, gloves and newspaper or barbecue tongs are a must lol.  It is supposed to fruit too but there's basically no info on taste.

Is there are a large variance in different Opuntia species taste?  The ones I have had I would either label good but nothing special or just bland.  I have one "Pina Colada" Opuntia Charlestonensis that is showing off its first emerging flower.  Really incredible because it was unrooted not even 2 months ago.




Epiphyte do you just have these in pots high up with the cacti just drooping over? Definitely a strange characteristic.

[brian]

My biggest problem with thorns is that they catch on everything when moving plants around.  I have severely damaged quite a few plants when they were knocked over, limbs torn off, etc. from thorns grabbing

[CeeJey]

Is there are a large variance in different Opuntia species taste?  The ones I have had I would either label good but nothing special or just bland.  I have one "Pina Colada" Opuntia Charlestonensis that is showing off its first emerging flower.  Really incredible because it was unrooted not even 2 months ago

Ha, that's pretty rare for me for rooted opuntia pads. They usually don't pop flowers till they get a bit more height for me, maybe responding to the small pot? I grow a bunch but I still don't quite know how they work.

I've noticed a pretty large variance in opuntia taste, but not from the store bought varieties outside of mexico usually. They usually all have that "opuntia" flavor that I associate with slightly-bland pulp (whatever that stuff is, much more of a flavor in blandier species like apple cactus), but some I've had have a much bigger burst of fruit flavor. And some are so full of oxalic acid that they were almost like lemon juice and made me feel sick (looking at you, Santa Rosa).

Some of the (barely edible almost entirely ornamental) giants in the back yard plus general cactus pron:



What some opuntia look like after 60+ years, turns into a tree I guess:




The Mexican Fencepost is blooming this year and supposedly those have very flavorful fruits, I'll report back IF I can figure out how to get them off the top of the 20' thing:


Dragonfruit doing it's thing:


One of these years I'm hoping my saguaro will bloom and I can try those. It's tall enough to where it would start but just isn't there yet.

EDIT: Also re: spines, I will absolutely take big ol' spines over glochids any single day of the week. I have had to throw out so many pants, shirts and shoes because of those things.

[SDPirate]

Does anyone have stenocereus queretaroensis of different colors?

Its annoyingly hard to find the US and when you do find it the only color is usually red

Agreed on difficulty finding other color Pitaya.  I did find a seller that sold seeds of the different colors but they were all out of stock except for the red (of course).  There are sellers that have cuttings too but also believe they are red.  I started a little collection of Stenocereus since my previous thread on cacti.  S. Griseus and S. Chacalapensis are only a few inches tall so I'm years away from anything fruiting.  S. Thurberi and S. Montanus are just sprouts at this point.

[K-Rimes]

Oooh, cool thread! I will definitely have some things to add. I have a ton of dragonfruit, a blueberry cactus, several 10' tall peruvian apple cacti, and an unknown kind of "strawberry" cactus from one of the SD collectors.

This year with all the snow was absolutely mental and I lost a lot of dragonfruit "mass". This was the pile of prunings. It's just mulch now.



I was honestly pretty darn sure I'd lose my entire DF collection but somehow they made it. I had to wake up a few times this night to bang snow off the frost cloth by hand.



Edit: *SIGH* if anyone knows how to stop Imgur from rotating my images lmk.

[Epiphyte]

Epiphyte do you just have these in pots high up with the cacti just drooping over? Definitely a strange characteristic.

it should be illegal to grow opuntias anywhere but on trees.

Does anyone have stenocereus queretaroensis of different colors?

Its annoyingly hard to find the US and when you do find it the only color is usually red

maybe jorge aka manimal has some?  he's a collector in the los angeles area... instagram, youtube.

sadly i've never tasted any pitayas and i don't currently grow any, but they are definitely on my radar.

[SDPirate]

Ha, that's pretty rare for me for rooted opuntia pads. They usually don't pop flowers till they get a bit more height for me, maybe responding to the small pot? I grow a bunch but I still don't quite know how they work..

Yes I was totally surprised by that.  Even my rooted Opuntia Sunburst that I potted up a couple months prior to that one has no signs of flowering yet.  I will say the Pina Colada though is a lot more chunky and substantial than the Sunburst.

Glad your DF made it through the cold K-Rimes.  What varieties you have going on over there?  I have a yellow one that I got as a freebie from a seller and it was broken in bad shape, literally split in half and it was a small cutting already and I saved both pieces.  I have another one that has pink flesh from a nursery here but not sure of that variety.  Then I have a couple funky ones that I daringly risked rooting during the cold rainy winter and they are starting to put out new branches.

Honduran Moon Torch:



Black Afrikanis:




Both are probably a solid couple years from flowering but at least they are rooted and growing.

[K-Rimes]

Glad your DF made it through the cold K-Rimes.  What varieties you have going on over there?

I have: Cosmic Charlie, Dark Star, Purple Haze, Asunta ?, AX, Frankie's Red, Baby Cerrado, an unknown purple, and some S8 rooted cuttings that I will probably add to some pots. I had a nice S8 that spread across a big rock instead of on a trellis but I couldn't move it and it died in the snow. I up potted the Dark Star to 45g this year after it fell over, and the Cosmic Charlie is also in a 45g as of last year. I have some 65g pots to put the haze in, but it's super rusty and I don't know how much more effort I want to put into DF really. The Baby Cerrado is not doing super hot, it's co-potted with the unknown purple and it's also become super rusty. I didn't cover that one at all.

[SDPirate]

I picked up a unrooted Pitaya cutting from a seller on Etsy.  I have heard a lot of good things about the fruit but will likely be a few years at a minimum to get mine flowering.  Anybody have long term experience with these?

[nullzero]

I picked up a unrooted Pitaya cutting from a seller on Etsy.  I have heard a lot of good things about the fruit but will likely be a few years at a minimum to get mine flowering.  Anybody have long term experience with these?

The ripe fruit of good selections has taste and texture similar to raspberry jam when fully ripe. I have numberous ones I started from seed in 2018, so far no flowers. I think I may get flowers in 1 to 3 years on some of my largest ones.

[Daintree]

I spent one summer excitedly cross pollinating all my Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti, watching the juicy little fruits develop, checking for ripeness, only to discover they tasted like crap!
Oh well...

Carolyn

[CeeJey]

Holy crap y'all, my yard saguaro is blooming for the first time ever this year.  If it fruits I'ma make jam out of it like the native population does/ used to. Edit: I've heard that the flavor of the fruit generally doesn't match good opuntia but I still want to try because saguaro.

[Jaboticaba45]

Who's growing pereskia species? I think I have pereskia bleo. Looks cool, but not sure what else it does. In general, cactus fruits have not been a favorite of mine for several reasons.

[Epiphyte]

I spent one summer excitedly cross pollinating all my Christmas and Thanksgiving cacti, watching the juicy little fruits develop, checking for ripeness, only to discover they tasted like crap!
Oh well...

Carolyn

how many did you eat?  did they all taste equally crappy?  did you sow any of the seeds?  thanks for reminding me that i have 1 really late blooming christmas cactus that i want to use to pollinate a bunch of easter cactus currently in bloom.  last year i tried the reverse but it didn't work.  maybe it had to do with the christmas cactus having a much longer flower style than the easter cactus.

[Galatians522]

I had a nice S8 that spread across a big rock instead of on a trellis but I couldn't move it and it died in the snow.

How cold did you get?

[Pandan]

Does anyone know of any hardy cacti besides opuntia that survive outside out east z8 or lower?
I had a tiny hedgehog that perished last year and it made me curious if anything could take a cold, rainy winter. Most hardy cacti are only tested in arid parts out west not with both those conditions.

Doesn't have to be a species like any selections or peculiar specimens outdoors at a botanical park or such.

[SDPirate]

Pandan I would look into cacti that are hardy and thrive naturally in mountain areas like Colorado.  I am sure there are other members in cold areas that would have more insight.

[K-Rimes]

How cold did you get?

It wasn't as stabbingly cold as previous years, but we had weeks on weeks on weeks of weather in the low 30s with rain every time it was cold. The plant was already declining from being outdoors down to 26f (briefly). It was just a test honestly to see if they could survive uncovered in 9b. The answer is a big NOPE!

[Galatians522]

How cold did you get?

It wasn't as stabbingly cold as previous years, but we had weeks on weeks on weeks of weather in the low 30s with rain every time it was cold. The plant was already declining from being outdoors down to 26f (briefly). It was just a test honestly to see if they could survive uncovered in 9b. The answer is a big NOPE!

Surviving 26 for even a brief period sounds pretty good to me. I am hoping Florida 9b will be a different story (especially since we are dry in the winter). I have also toyed with the idea of frost protection sprays like kaolin clay or silicon.

[K-Rimes]

Just throw a row cover on for those cold nights and call it a day!