|
San Pedro for the Masses: A Scratch on the Surface of the Marvelous Trichocereus |
|
|
Written by Gnosis
|
|
Monday, 21 December 1998 |
|
Page 3 of 3
All you ever wanted to know about cuttings
Propagating the San Pedro from cuttings is also quite easy. All you need is a sharp knife and some soil. First, be sure that your cactus is big enough. 10” or more above the soil is a good starting point, as you want at least a 6” cutting and a 4” base. As to width, it really doesn't matter, but remember, the thinner the cacti, the quicker it will lose water. If you keep your cacti indoors, you can make a more straight cut. If you leave your cacti where they can get rained on, be sure to cut at a slant, so the rain water doesn't pool in the cut. After you have made the cut, you'll want to let both the base and the cutting heal and callous over. This should take about 2 weeks. In that time, you'll want to keep the cutting out of sunlight, and the base in lower light. After that, you can slowly reacclimate the cactus to the level of light it was previously at. As for the cutting, it's now time to plant. You should have a pot of dry soil ready. If you wish, you can dust the callous and the bottom inch or so of the plant LIGHTLY with rooting hormone. Put the cutting about 2” deep in the soil. Wait about a week or so until you water the cutting, and then do so as normal. Soon they will put out roots, and voila, you now have two healthy, happy San Pedros.
Things to try
Some of these things are rumors I've heard, others are just things I've been speculating on and plan on trying. Making a polyploid trichocereus: Something I've just thought about trying. All you need are some good seeds and some colchine. All you should have to do is soak the seeds in colchine (somebody PLEASE tell me how to spell this word) for about 24 hours. Any seeds that survive this harsh treatment may be polyploid, and might grow much faster. Of course, I don't even know if it's possible to make cacti polyploid, so you might just end up killing a lot of good seeds.
Branching: Supposedly, if you feed a trichocereus Miracle Grow after you've cut it, more branches are supposed to form. I tried this without success. Also, if you plant a cutting sideways it's supposed to put out quite a few branches. I also tried this without success. I plan on trying both again using slightly different methods. Another thing to try is destroying the apical meristem. This is a tiny area at the very top of the cactus where the ribs meet and new growth comes from. It could be done with something like a heated pin. Doing this should force the cactus to put out branches. Experiments like this are planned.
Grafting: Another musing of mine. What would happen if you grafted a trichocereus onto another trichocereus? Might it continue to grow at the scion and also put out branches from the base? Once again, experiments to this effect are scheduled a little later on.
Germination rates: Gibberellic acid increases the germination rate of most cactus seed, so a soak in it should increase the number of cacti you end up with.
Growth: Another use of gibberellic acid is stimulating enormous growth in plants. In a biology class a while back, we took gibberellic acid in a lanolin base and spread it around the stems of pea seedlings. These plants showed phenomenal growth rates. I also saw a picture in a bio book of 11' (yes, 11') cabbages that had been treated in this way. The only problem with this is that it causes “bolting.”" The plant grows so fast that it cannot support its own weight and will topple over. Still, with support you could end up with some mighty big cacti.
|
