Dead man's fingers -- it's alive! Advice, please!

[Steve Johnson]

Back in December I purchased a Puna clavarioides from C and D Plants, and here's what arrived on my doorstep:



I've been keeping the plant in the same pumice-DG mix I use for the vast majority of my other cacti. Nice thing about the soil-less mineral aggregate is that I can easily pop it out and check to see if there's any sign of activity coming from the taproot. After periodic checks since the beginning of March, here's what I saw today:





Oh yeah, that's a new root! Since this is the case, I'll leave the Puna alone and let it continue rooting. I have zero experience with the species, so I don't know what the normal root growth rate should be. For those of you who know more about P. clavarioides, I'd appreciate any advice you can offer on how long I should wait until mine will be ready to accept water. Even then my guess is that it should be light watering at first, followed by proper soaks after the roots have grown in more. Thoughts, anyone?

[DaveW]

Puna clavaroides is a tuberous rooted species Steve. Therefore when you first plant it it may appear to stand still for a year or so with virtually no top growth because all the growth will be taking place below the ground in forming a tuber, therefore don't worry it will eventually grow. My plant below originally came to me as an unrooted cutting about the same size as yours.

Opuntia clavaroides.jpg (72.25 KiB) Viewed 2054 times

[Steve Johnson]

Puna clavaroides is a tuberous rooted species Steve. Therefore when you first plant it it may appear to stand still for a year or so with virtually no top growth because all the growth will be taking place below the ground in forming a tuber, therefore don't worry it will eventually grow.

Obviously there's no point in watering until my Puna has something of a fibrous root system growing out of the tuber. If the appearance of new growth above-ground should be the time when I start watering the plant, I can certainly wait. Dave, if that's your advice, please confirm. Perhaps there will be different opinions here, but in the meantime -- many thanks!

By the way -- I have the clavarioides in a 2" waterproofed terracotta pot. They tend to have fairly long taproots, so it'll need to go into a deeper pot at some point. Probably not this year, but a year from now perhaps? Should be interesting to see what the roots will look like when it's repotting time, and I have the perfect glazed ceramic pot for the plant.

[BRC]

Ah, one of my dream cacti ...

I was lucky enough to have been given a couple of cutting from DaveW almost two years ago, and the key word is patience!! Received them around mid 2014, and only this year have they started growing. For a while i didn't know what to think, they just stood there, and i fought my curiosity time and time again, and avoided digging them up, and taking a look...Finally this year, after seeing the first signs of growth, I was curious and took a little peek, and with glee i found some nice and robust root systems!!

So yeah Steve, patience

Ps. mine are in approx. 3 inch high pots and the root systems so far, don't go that deep

[Steve Johnson]

Ah, one of my dream cacti ...

I was lucky enough to have been given a couple of cutting from DaveW almost two years ago, and the key word is patience!! Received them around mid 2014, and only this year have they started growing. For a while i didn't know what to think, they just stood there, and i fought my curiosity time and time again, and avoided digging them up, and taking a look...Finally this year, after seeing the first signs of growth, I was curious and took a little peek, and with glee i found some nice and robust root systems!!

So yeah Steve, patience

Ps. mine are in approx. 3 inch high pots and the root systems so far, don't go that deep

Okay, and thanks for confirming that I read Dave's advice correctly! I also appreciate your feedback on root depth, so your experience will come in handy when I have a well-established Puna ready for the move into a properly-sized glazed ceramic pot. Just seeing that new root was enough to encourage me toward being patient about the "watch and wait" process. Thanks, my friend!

[DaveW]

Many of the tuberous rooted plants seem to "hang" from cuttings for a while with little above ground growth until at least a rudimentary tuber is produced (Pterocactus etc). Watering as normal once roots start.

Glad the plants survived Bruno.

[BRC]

So am i Dave, and all thanks to you, your insight and kindness

[C And D]

My advice
Water now and regularly from now on
You need water to get those roots to grow

The dormancy is over with new root formation