big cactus

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cactuslee
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big cactus

Post by cactuslee »

this is a saguaro on ray road in chandler, az that i saw while there this week.Image
Image
Image
thought i would throw in some wierd shots od the big boy.
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John C
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Post by John C »

That's a nice one! 8)
John In Fort Worth, Texas
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cactuslee
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Post by cactuslee »

those pipes in it i think they used to hold it up when they planted it there.
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hoven5th
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Post by hoven5th »

Man, what a beaut. 8) Though the older saguaros do start looking a little chewed up.
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Lachy
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Post by Lachy »

How old (roughly) would such a plant be?

I understand that Carnegia is considered to be somewhat slow-growing (well, compared to Cereus or Trichocereus anyway). Just how slow are we talking here? A couple of inches per year? I'd love to have a crack at growing a saguaro, one day...
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hoven5th
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Post by hoven5th »

Lachy wrote:How old (roughly) would such a plant be?

I understand that Carnegia is considered to be somewhat slow-growing (well, compared to Cereus or Trichocereus anyway). Just how slow are we talking here? A couple of inches per year? I'd love to have a crack at growing a saguaro, one day...
My guess would be somewhere between 100 and 150 years.
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TimN
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Post by TimN »

That's a big old one with "character"! I didn't notice the person standing at the bottom in the first picture for scale. What a monster!
Disclaimer: I'm in sunny Arizona, so any advice I give may not apply in your circumstances.

Tim
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Ocotillo
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Post by Ocotillo »

Just how slow are we talking here? A couple of inches per year?

In cultivation, a foot a year is not unusual.

In habitat, there are good years with lots of growth and bad years with almost none.

I've noticed that many of the plants neglected on freeway medians or neighborhood common areas are dead within 5 to 10 years.
daiv
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Post by daiv »

cactuslee wrote:those pipes in it i think they used to hold it up when they planted it there.
I didn't notice that at first, but it does seem to have been transplanted a while ago. Seems to be making it so far.
All Cacti are succulents, but not all succulents are Cacti
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cactuslee
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Post by cactuslee »

they say that these cacti don't branch till they are 65 to 75 years old. i'm just guessing that this one is about 200 years old. up close it has a lot of holes in it. when i walked up to it a lot of different kinds of birds flew away.
iann
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Post by iann »

The standard rule of thumb for wild ones is an inch a year. No doubt they can exceed this occasionally but its somewhere to start guessing. Some estimates for larger plants are as high as four inches a year.
--ian
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Ocotillo
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Post by Ocotillo »

One thing I've noticed about habitat Saguaros is that the ones growing on hillsides are often plumper and healthier than the ones growing on the plain below.

--Unless there is a wash cutting through, and then the ones nearer the wash resemble those on the hillsides.

I guess it must have something to do with the subsurface movement of water in the soil (?)
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cactuspolecat
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Post by cactuspolecat »

Sure is a giant cactuslee, your shots taken looking up the plant are excellent.

CP
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G'day from down under in Devonport, Taz, the HEART of Oz.
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hoven5th
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Post by hoven5th »

cactuslee wrote: this one is about 200 years old.
Your probably right. I guessed 150 because I wasn't sure how long they live. 200 years? At what point do Saguaros die of old age?
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peterb
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Post by peterb »

I have seen quite small saguaros in very harsh habitats that I imagine are quite old. Some only seem to grow about an inch every 5 years or so. On the other hand, very lush and healthy looking ones put on as much as 5-6" a year, especially, as Tom pointed out, if they are in washes.

This one I'd say is about 200-250 years old, depending on the habitat.

peterb
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