Stephanocereus luetzelburgii (sensu lato) -- commonly referred to as the bottle cactus.
While on the subject of 4" (10cm) square plastic pots for the windowsill I want to take the opportunity to relate my experiences growing this unique, bizarre and fascinating species. I think it was from Hildegard Nase that I obtained some seeds many years ago, of which only a few germinated, and I lost all but one of the resultant seedlings. This survivor grew into a mature flowering and fruiting plant that never did attain the distinctive bottle shape that this species frequently assumes. I did recover some seeds from the fruit of this plant a few of which germinated but only one seedling survived and developed into a mature plant. I gave this second plant to my old friend Don Vitko in North Dakota to add to his magnificent collection of Brazilian cereoid cacti. Then the unthinkable happened: my surviving plant died the following winter! But the story has a happy ending -- numerous seeds from his plant germinated and the seedlings flourished. Don sent me several seedlings this year (nice payback gesture) and they are all now growing well on my bench at Dan Bach's Nursery.
But I wanted to grow and enjoy a couple as windowsill plants at our townhome -- and grow them on to maturity in 4" (10cm) square plastic pots -- hoping that at least one of them would have the distinctive bottle shape characteristic of this species. I think I can maintain the plant heights at approx, 12 inches (30 cm) tall in 4" (10cm) square plastic pots -- at least I hope so.
You can view several photos of mature
Stephanocereus luetzelburgii (plus photos of numerous other Brazilian cacti) on Marlon Machado's great web page
Images of Brazilian Cacti in habitat
Cultivation Notes:
Seedlings start out life as small globes, here growing in a 2¾" (7cm)
square plastic pot, which are reminiscent of seedling echinopsis
The seedlings soon elongate somewhat and become
ovoid, here growing in a 2¾" (7cm) square plastic pot
They develop into cylindrical columns that resemble juvenile
Trichocereus spachianus, here growing in a 3¼" (8cm) square plastic pot
Preparation for repotting:
One of the virtues of using plastic pots is that, after a little gentle
squeezing, plants can be easily slid out of them in order to examine
the root ball -- I think that robust root systems are very important
indicators of plant health.
Juvenile plant re-potted in 4" (10cm) square plastic pot where I hope it will
develop the mature, but much thinner, stem growth (almost as it were etiolated)
with coarser spination and, eventually, a flower and fruit bearing apical cephalium.
Here are a few photos I took of the flowering zone of my original plant -- I cannot find the pics I took of the overall plant, flowers and fruit,
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