growing Brachycereus nesioticus

[art west co]

I have Brachycereus nesioticus. Currently I'm misting them every day and just introduced them to the outside. They had been in under artificial light inside since January 2015. I was wondering if I should repot them right now or wait a few more weeks since they have just been introduced to outside air and natural light. Here are some umages

[DaveW]

No need to re-pot seedlings too quickly unless they have stopped growing due to the soil becoming exhausted or algae or disease spreading over the pot. They always transplant better the larger they are. Unless overcrowded you can leave them in that pot for a year if needs be.

Brachycereus is an unusual plant inhabiting lava flows in the Galapagos. It is now illegal to collect and bring material out of the Galapagos, even seed, since Ecuador who they belong to will not allow it since they are worried about tourists doing a tour of the islands may unwittingly transfer endemics from one island to another since the plants on each island in the past developed in isolation from each other. Luckily for cactophiles plants and seed are now in cultivation and obtainable, but not that common.

http://www.arkive.org/lava-cactus/brach ... 31980.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://blog.nature.org/science/2015/05/ ... -wildlife/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Each of the Galapagos islands has it's own species, variety or form of Opuntia which ev0lved in isolation from the other island forms and they do not want tourists picking up pads, fruit etc and so transferring material in their round the islands tours from one island to another. Even the Darwin Scientific Institute there is not allowed to send out material as I once enquired if they could send seed abroad.

[iann]

Wait a few more months! I think you will be surprised how slowly they grow. They look a little stressed right now, but it is hard to tell from the blurry photo. I've never grown this species or anything in the genus, but I'm happiest when my seedlings are more green than yellow or brown.

[art west co]

Here is another picture. I havee been leaving them outside in 45 F.night time temperature and I don't think they liked it. The day time temperature here is 79 F. I think I will bring them inside in the night to mimic galapagos temperature. The little one is yellow and might not make it. I have them outside but not in direct sunlight. I was going to wait until they turn green to give them unfiltered direct sunlight. I planted these on 01/18/2015.

[art west co]

Here is another image. Let me know what your experience growing these or anything similar has been.

[DaveW]

They look OK but just give them a little more shade. Cactus seedlings usually germinate in habitat in cracks in rocks or under nurse plants out of full sun until they are a little larger, therefore often prefer filtered rather than direct sunlight initially, which is why they turn red in full sun.

http://www.cactus-art.biz/note-book/Dic ... _plant.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.azplantlady.com/2009/09/nurs ... actus.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;