CactiGuide.com

New member here. Somewhat new to the cacti club. Started in 2020 by seed. Few columnars, tons of Lophs, and recently ario and myrio kikko.

Ill upload pictures when I figure out the attachment limit, I feel like its listed in another thread somewhere, and I will go find it soon.

early 2020
Planted a ton of Loph and Trich seeds. Various localities. Used UncleWilly for the domestic (US) loph seeds. Same with the trich seeds.
I must have planted a couple hundred LW that year. Have the majority of them outside now. (Coastal Texas).

I started all these seeds out on some seed starter mix (forgive me) and had them indoors under an LED with temps around 68 or so. Surprisingly had no issues. I used to sterilize,( as loosely put as the soil i used) and had no issues. Looking back, I believe that is because I grew indoors for the seedlings for the first year. I also run an indoor mushroom farm, with HEPA filtered environment and relatively clean area. Had some algae, no mold. Lost no seedlings to rot or anything like that indoors. Again, not sure how, but it worked.

Continued to sow seeds for the next year. Mostly trich seeds because they grow fast and I like them. Quickly realized I wouldnt have the space for all of them, so i stopped with about 100 or so yearlings. Gave some away. Neglected some during some moments where personal matters took precedence.

Fast forward to late 2021 early 2022. I moved the mushroom farm to another indoor room, added more shelving for storage, and naturally started with more seeds. For a while, I had an interest in L. Fricii asian cultivars. oiboo, variegated forms. Unique plants. These are all still young, and I will graft a few to speed up the seed process. I think I ended up with about 100 or so of these guys.

Right after that, I met a cool fella from Thailand, and he grew some really amazing myriostigma Kikko and Kohyo forms. Ended up ordering about 150 seeds from him, of various forms.

This is where things get interesting. I started really looking into substrate composition. I deal a lot with substrate for various mushroom species. Maitake, nebrodensis, king oysters. Part of that process is either pasteurization or sterilization and then aseptic growing. For obvious reason, or maybe not so obvious reasons, sterilization should really be used in an aseptic environment. Growing only what you want to grow. This works for mycelium in a poly bag, but the same principal doesn't apply well to plants.

My searches for information and anecdotal experiences bring me here. Lurked for a while reading through years of archived data and stories of other growers. What I learned is everything will work for someone somewhere. But that doesnt apply to me. So I kept digging. Stone Eaters book,Xero something. YOu name it, I was trying to read it.

I took a look at what I was growing. And realized I need to get some minerals and get to work.

I had a nice mix of turface, akadama, charcoal, granite, and a few others mixed, available locally. So i grabbed a 50lb bag and voila.

I wanted to first decide what mix I wanted my seedlings in. I knew i wanted some minerals. I wanted the microbiome that works for the plants. Cactus that eat stones love stones. But, I also wanted my seedlings to thrive. I love the hard grown look, and think they are fantastic. But I also knew they could have a nice form and be healthy plants. I chose to go that route.

Personal experiences have shown me that Lophs are pretty easy going cacti. THey take a while, but all of them do. Pretty hardy suckers in my book. But my reading also told me that astrophytum can be picky. Grain of salt type things.

So i decide on a mix. It ends up being about 60 percent mineral mix, with 40 percent or so of a nice soil mix.(FF Ocean Forest). I have had great luck with this soil, and the quality is always high. MAterial is sifted as well as I could want for a big bag of soil, leaving little work for me to put it in the mix. I made the soil, hydrated it, and then decided to pasteurize it.

Now, when I say pasteurize, I mean true pasteurization, not sterilization or halfway measures. I have a stainless 55gal (208L) atmospheric sterilizer/pasteruizer. I built it with a PID controller and 1500w element. Hooked up to water lines with a float valve. K type thermocouple inserted into the middle of the bag I was doing.

Pasteurization generally means between 160-180f for 1-2 hours to kill off a bunch of bad stuff. So that is what I did. I also chose to do the same thing to the mineral top layer I use. No reason as the minerals are fairly inert for this sake. But went ahead and did it because why not.

Results so far have been fantastic. No issues with the higher organic content in the seedling mix, no damping off, no rot. Havent seen mold or algae yet. I recently moved everything outdoors under covered patio area. COuple shelves tucked away with ambient light for the seedlings. Outside temps are swinging from high 70s to high 80s, sometimes reaching triple digits. Again, shaded area that tends to be 5-6 degrees cooler than the areas around it.

I will be updating this as I go along. I have some plans to try various things. Changing substrate recipe. Watching for growth and issues as the seedlings progress. Moving them outside has changed how I have been doing things, but I am confident I will see better growth and nicer plants as time goes on.

As it stands right now, the list is of such. All the myrio and Ario seeds are recent doings. The myrio I sowed about 3 weeks ago. The ario were this past weekend. Lophs are varying ages, but all still young.

Ariocarpus agavoides

Ariocarpus bravoanus

Ariocarpus fissuatus

Ariocarpus hintonii

Ariocarpus retusus

Ariocarpus retusus Confusus

Ariocarpus retusus Cauliflower

Ariocarpus retusus Fat Tubercles

Ariocarpus retusus x trigonus

Ariocarpus scapharostrus

Ariocarpus trigonus

Ariocarpus trigonus horacekii

Ariocarpus Godzilla

Astrophytum Myriostigma Kikko/kohyo

Lophophora Williamsii

Lophophora Fricii variegated/crested parents/oiboo

All in all, probably 7-800 seedlings, couple hundred yearlings of LW and trich, and then a few older cactus I picked up for one reason or another.

Future plans.
-Greenhouse. NOt only does the wife want one, I am going to need an area to protect these plants from the hurricanes and torrential rain we get sometimes. And if it is anything like 2021, Ill need to keep them warm in the winter going forward. Easy to do with young plants, harder in a couple years.

-Start producing all plants grown by me, from seeds grown by me.

-Eventually work on some crosses, more grafting, more growing.

I realize this board isn't super active everywhere, but I have enjoyed the pictures and reading, and figured I would contribute back.

Welcome to the Forum. Even though you posted your approximate location in your text, if you put it on your profile it will show up by your Avatar and we can have a mental reminder of your area should you ask questions later on.

Some of us add our climate information in our signature for further help.

Good luck growing, not many people in these forums are into the whole "psychonaut" aspect of growing.

jerrytheplater wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 7:13 pm Welcome to the Forum. Even though you posted your approximate location in your text, if you put it on your profile it will show up by your Avatar and we can have a mental reminder of your area should you ask questions later on.

Some of us add our climate information in our signature for further help.

Jerry

Will do. Good bit of useful info to have up there.

nes wrote: ↑Tue Jul 05, 2022 8:04 pm Good luck growing, not many people in these forums are into the whole "psychonaut" aspect of growing.

Yeah, I mean I don't think everyone growing lophophora is using it for "psychonaut" purposes. And the new seeds being popped certainly arent mescaline containing. The "FUN DMT" sticker is a sticker from a fellow friend who practices making stickers for fun. Its a play on the "RUN DMC" saying. Never mentioned anything about mescaline or active cactus though, simply a species of cacti that happens to have some things in it, if you wanted to eat it. And it seems strange to me to not recognize the historical usage of these plants by communities and groups of humans, simply because of the attached stigma associated with various drugs.

Either way, thank you for your input. Ill try to refrain from eating hundreds of peyote buttons though

Hello and welcome!
Nice write-up, I look forward to seeing your seedlings. I wonder if you can cultivate mycorrhizae like the other mushrooms. You'd probably need to provide nurse plants for the roots. I would like to dabble in growing my own mushrooms in the future. So many tasty varieties out there that you'd be lucky to find even in specialty store or farmers' markets.

MrXeric wrote: ↑Wed Jul 06, 2022 1:17 am Hello and welcome!
Nice write-up, I look forward to seeing your seedlings. I wonder if you can cultivate mycorrhizae like the other mushrooms. You'd probably need to provide nurse plants for the roots. I would like to dabble in growing my own mushrooms in the future. So many tasty varieties out there that you'd be lucky to find even in specialty store or farmers' markets.

Gracias friend.

You can cultivate different organisms. Various media and nutrient types needed, and of course a flow hood or clean room. There might be some symbiotic relationships like the case of cantharellus mushroom species and various morels.

I’ve also started doing some tissue culture work as well. As soon as the nutrients get here, I’ll start doing some seeds invitro.

Mushrooms are an amazing food. I started out growing for us, then some friends. It’s very nice to have mushrooms that you can’t go buy somewhere often. Usually the best ones are those

Myriostigma Kikko

Sow date of 6-21-22

Cool post and thanks for taking the time to do so! I hope to find time to make a post someday

105 today. Not much to do around here during the day. The garden is looking terrible. Really need a shade cloth for the vegetables.

Cacti are fine. Everything is growing. Decided to separate some trichocereus yearlings. Debating putting them in the ground out front, or containers. They theoretically have enough time before we get cold. Maybe 4-5 more months. I’ll decide in a day or two. Plus, some nice pups on some older plants. Really loving the blue they take on in the shade.


Various Ariocarpus have germinated. One week in. The only ones that haven’t so far are the cauliflower cultivar and the fat tubercle trigonus. A week is still early though so not at all worried.

I told my wife no more seeds, but I do have 100 Godzilla seeds, 100 fur. And some maruibo coming as well. And I really do think I will be done for this year on seedlings. That’s around 1000 or so total for the summer, and we have about 6-7 months of growing season left for them to get to where they can be dormant or at least less vigorous.

Also snapped some pictures of seedlings of L. Fricii. These seeds came from a friends variegated and created parents. Only planted 40 or so of them, and have about 30 at last count that germinated. Slowed growth a bit for some reason. I was lazy and tossed them into some not prime mix, but I have never had issues with Lophophora seeds in organic material for the first year or so. I did put them outside with temps ranging from 72-98 up until this last peak of 105. They are developing fine, just small. Maybe that’s the nature of these genetics. Usually grow them indoors for the first six months, but this has just become impossible with the amount as well as my mushroom farm operating at higher capacity.

Bonus picture of a fresh fruiting tent. This tent is full of Grifola Frondosa, known as maitake, as well as Pleurotus Nebrodensis, and endangered king oyster species. These are my two favorite mushrooms to eat.

Matango: Directed by Ishirô Honda. With Akira Kubo, Kumi Mizuno, Hiroshi Koizumi, Kenji Sahara. Shipwrecked survivors slowly transform into mushrooms.

Seriously nice mushroom house nice cactus too

Still chugging along here.

Everything is growing well. Tubercles popping up on most Ario. Recently planted a couple hundred more. Some really nice maruibo and godzilla. Really enjoy loooking at pictures of those, so excited to have some of my own.

I’ve started the long process of grafting seedlings. Starting with the myriostigma cv kohyo and kikko. These are making most progress, and they were started earlier in a different substrate than I switched to for seedlings.

The parents of these seedlings are some really spectacular plants, and I hope I can grow some the same. It seems as though they are on their way.

For grafting, I simply graft on newish growth, little off center because the bundles are small on both anyways. Then I throw them in a 52l clear tote, and spray them twice a day. Unroofed stock and they root by the time they come out. Think I learned that from forums here.

Anyways, ultimate goal is seeds for myself to grow and give out. I won’t graft all of these seedlings, but a good chunk. Maybe half. Hoping to have a really nice stock of these chosen plants in a couple years.

Bonus picture for those who like mushrooms.

This is grifola frondosa, or maitake. This is our favorite mushroom, and not one I normally grow during the summer. Messed up my timing when experimenting, and ended up having to run a batch of these during 105 degree temps outside. Managed to pull a really nice yield from these. Even though we aren’t attending markets or selling mushrooms to our distributor right now, it’s nice to eat them.