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

[Pandan]

Please keep us updated on the cipocereus minensis. Id love a prop of that down the line though it looks like itll be awhile lol.

[Sharq]

Do dragonfruit drop before rotting? I have a 30+ ft tall plant and most of the fruit are in the upper area. I can probably get two more off of it, but the 10 or so at the top there is no way I can pick.

[Galatians522]

Do dragonfruit drop before rotting? I have a 30+ ft tall plant and most of the fruit are in the upper area. I can probably get two more off of it, but the 10 or so at the top there is no way I can pick.

Not usually. My dad has a similar problem with one that grew up a pine tree.

[SDPirate]

Please keep us updated on the cipocereus minensis. Id love a prop of that down the line though it looks like itll be awhile lol.

Yes, going to be a while for that lol.  It seems to be another slow growing columnar type.  Probably will pick up speed when it gets to the size to take full sun, may even try it out with morning sun in winter time to see how it handles.  For now I keep it under shadecloth.

[K-Rimes]

Sad to not have pollen for this Cosmic Charlie, which has been going berserk


Last week it was looking like this

AX DF flowers loading up. The purple flower types have been only so so for me.


Queretaroensis have actually put on quite a bit of weight. I will probably keep these potted. I did plant some in the soil but they're not looking even half as good as these.

[nullzero]

I took out my Queretaroensis seedlings from in ground back to pots. I noticed they grow faster in containers for me. I have my largest one in a 20 gal clay pot.

I'm using a soil mix of like 20% peat moss, 20% clay hydro pellets, 20% crushed granite, 15% vermiculite, 5% biochar, goat manure, and osmocote. Native soil is gritty like crushed granite with a short monsoon season starting usually in July lasting 1 to 2 months.

So far so good, my seedlings are 6 years old. I am just hoping my largest flowers in the next 2 years.

[K-Rimes]

They barely grow at all in ground for me. I don't water this area very much though.


This one has done "ok" at best, but better than the above.


This selected opuntia is doing well this year though, I chucked some paddles here maybe 2 or 3 years ago. That's been my experience in general. You will see almost no growth for 3 years then kaboom! At least in my area. They are probably busy rooting.


Planted this "apricot glory" opuntia this year, no activity so far.


St. Rita pink pad opuntia


AX flower


My dragonfruit "graveyard" always amuses me. All the sickly, frost bitten, flacid, or ugly branches that I prune in Spring after winter, I just throw them in a pile here. I don't water them, but they are putting on a good show this year! That flower came in clutch last night for some pollen.

[SDPirate]

Queretaroensis have actually put on quite a bit of weight. I will probably keep these potted. I did plant some in the soil but they're not looking even half as good as these.

These the same ones that guy from florida on the forum here was selling? I have like 7 of those they are all really filling out now, some are have nearly doubled their mass. 

Generally speaking, I keep smaller Stenos potted, they can get grounded later on.  Hopefully we can all maybe trade extras around at a later point to ensure pollen variation.  I am finding that just about almost all the Stenos are self sterile so I need to double up on some species that I have only one or I can hybridize.

Took a picture yesterday of some others.  Here is Stenocereus Aragonii and Stenocereus Fimbriatus.  They are both propogated from cutting, Aragonii already looks very thick it could be too late to flower right now but maybe next year.  At least for Stenocereus, size doesn't matter it is the maturity of the plant itself that does.



Selenicereus Hondurensis "Honduran Moon Torch" is about to flower this season.  It flowered last year but I was out of town and missed it.  Really incredible funky dragonfruit cousin.  Stays small, has a somewhat cyndrical shape as opposed to the typical triangular or square shaped DF.  Also, the flowers are really different and emerge from this bunch of white hairy stuff.

[Alippincott]

They barely grow at all in ground for me. I don't water this area very much though.


This one has done "ok" at best, but better than the above.


This selected opuntia is doing well this year though, I chucked some paddles here maybe 2 or 3 years ago. That's been my experience in general. You will see almost no growth for 3 years then kaboom! At least in my area. They are probably busy rooting.


Planted this "apricot glory" opuntia this year, no activity so far.


St. Rita pink pad opuntia


AX flower


My dragonfruit "graveyard" always amuses me. All the sickly, frost bitten, flacid, or ugly branches that I prune in Spring after winter, I just throw them in a pile here. I don't water them, but they are putting on a good show this year! That flower came in clutch last night for some pollen.

I have a super old Opuntia in my yard, but its eating its fruit is like chewing on mildly sweet gravel. I was thinking I could just graft onto it some different opuntia varieties.

Do you have any recommendations or connections where I can get some opuntia pads that actually give good fruit (no rock hard seeds please)?

[K-Rimes]

Do you have any recommendations or connections where I can get some opuntia pads that actually give good fruit (no rock hard seeds please)?

I think all of them have hard seeds?

I got these paddles from Bush2Beach years ago and neglected to mark them, but they were PCH (1? 2? 3? idk, I remember another variety too). For a year I had given up on them and let the rain cover them with mud, then all of a sudden they popped up and are growing well now.

The St Rita and Apricot Glory were from Reallygoodplants Marta. I do not know anything of their fruit quality.

My neighbors have a pretty good green fruit one, big fruit, pretty sweet. We make margaritas with it, blend it all up then strain out the seeds.

[nullzero]

PCH #1 was selection I saw off PCH in Torrance. The fruit is large red and has lower amount of softer seeds than your average pricky pear.

I grow PCH#1, Parl 254, Parl 342, Carson spineless (Nopales type), also the desert green, desert apple, and desert dream (which I believe are lost tagged PARL selections).

[Jabba The Hutt]

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.

Wow, did your Saguaro fruit yet CeeJay?!!!

[Sharq]

Has anyone had the fruit of the Queen of the Night/Night-blooming Cereus before?(not sure what the scientific name is, apperently every cactus in he world is called Night-blooming cereus) I see it ornamental alot (and ours was considered an ornamental) but it has like tennis ball sized fruits this year for the first time. Red with tons of spines.

[pineflatwoods]

I still have a small collection of cacti that have been with me for a long time. When I moved to FL I switched the growing media to pure pumice and they grow great. 
The spination is much smaller at a low elevation, but the cacti flower easily year after year and fruit.

Echinocereus, mammillaria, ferocacti, parodia, etc.
Still havent tried growing dragonfruit

[SDPirate]

Pumice is fantastic stuff.  I use that with a combination of regular cacti soil and some paver sand for most of my cacti.  I need to repot some more cacti once the weather cools a little, some of my cacti were in a old mix that stays wet too long and they cracked a little last winter.

[Pandan]

I grow in a mix of:
~turface (well another brand like it because turface became hard to find in my area)
~coco-coir
~and sometimes whatever soil or soilish substance I have standing by lol

[Pandan]

Has anyone had the fruit of the Queen of the Night/Night-blooming Cereus before?(not sure what the scientific name is, apperently every cactus in he world is called Night-blooming cereus) I see it ornamental alot (and ours was considered an ornamental) but it has like tennis ball sized fruits this year for the first time. Red with tons of spines.

I have, if you're wondering if you can eat it there's a higher* chance of not being CHOICE eating but so far as I know all cacti are edible.

It could be a epiphyllum or selenicereus but harrisia and peniocereus also have 'queen of the night'. The royal family is huge lmao  https://spicyexotics.com/product-category/selenicereus/

[Sharq]

It could be a epiphyllum or selenicereus but harrisia and peniocereus also have 'queen of the night'. The royal family is huge lmao  https://spicyexotics.com/product-category/selenicereus/

I'm pretty sure its the selnicereus grandiflorus. Skinny stems, climber, giant flower. Plus the fruit look the same. Thanks for your imput!

Edit: Now that I know the name, it says they are self-sterile. That would explain why this is the first year we have gotten fruit from it despite it profusely flowering every year. I have a dragonfruit that is about 30 yards away that maybe flowered at the same time (I was out of town when it happened). Is it likely that they pollinated it, or more likely there just happened to be a couple of flowers that weren't self-sterile? What are there pollinators? Bats, ants, moths?