Rooting cuttings of Oreocereus

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tumamoc
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Rooting cuttings of Oreocereus

Post by tumamoc »

Has anyone on this forum tried growing an Oreocereus from a cutting? Are they a difficult species to root? I had a really nice clump (O. celsianus, I think) that started to rot, one stem at a time. I managed to salvage a couple pieces. It would be a shame to loose this plant completely. Thanks.
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ElieEstephane
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Re: Rooting cuttings of Oreocereus

Post by ElieEstephane »

tumamoc wrote:Has anyone on this forum tried growing an Oreocereus from a cutting? Are they a difficult species to root? I had a really nice clump (O. celsianus, I think) that started to rot, one stem at a time. I managed to salvage a couple pieces. It would be a shame to loose this plant completely. Thanks.
I had some plants that i wanted to branch so i cut off the top. I took top cuttings of O. Trollii and O. Celsianus and both still haven't rooted. It has been a little over a month so im giving them a little more time. However, if yours are rotting you have no option other than trying to root them.
There are more cacti in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
One of the few cactus lovers in Lebanon (zone 11a) :mrgreen:
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cactushobbyman
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Re: Rooting cuttings of Oreocereus

Post by cactushobbyman »

I had an 8 foot long branch leaning towards the sun and decided to cut it out so the whole plant won't fall over. I cut the stem into 3 pieces and rooted them in 5 gallon containers. One year later they were rooted well enough to be planted out in the yard. Each were trimmed about 24 inches each.
DaveW
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Re: Rooting cuttings of Oreocereus

Post by DaveW »

Cacti can stand unrooted for over a year in some cases. It depends how big the cutting is since it simply depends how much it dehydrates before rooting. Occasionally some will dry up before rooting, but most do root eventually provided you do not rot them by keeping them too wet. It helps to callous over the cut for a week or so before placing them on the soil.

https://www.dbg.org/sites/dbg.dd/files/ ... utting.pdf
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tumamoc
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Re: Rooting cuttings of Oreocereus

Post by tumamoc »

Thanks for the encouraging replies everybody. The main stem is a fatty, at least 15 cm in diameter. If they don't continue rotting, I'll just leave them in the carport until spring and try to root them once the warm weather comes back.
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