FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

For the first time in my life, I started baby cacti from seeds this past week! I bought some Echinopsis peruviana Sharxx Blue seeds on eBay and sowed them at home one week ago on the evening of June 10th. Today I see over a dozen babies germinating!! So excited
Here's what the parent plant looks like. I think the photos are a little oversaturated but hopefully, there is some bluish coloration to the flesh of these baby cacti: My interest in this species was piqued when I visited my friend down on the coast in Coos Bay over the winter. They had a Peruvian torch cactus inside their house that they had cut the top off of because their son had poked a hole in the side of it and it had begun to rot.

They offered me the top of the cacti and told me to just leave it in a cool, dry place until late spring, so that's what I did. I finally potted it up about two weeks ago and it is growing great out in the greenhouse! I don't think it is rooted yet, but it appears to be quite healthy and growing well.

Freshly potted on June 2: Today, June 17: Anyone else grow this species? Reportedly it is very easy to grow and can grow up to nearly 20 feet tall!!

Wow, looks amazing.

If you make tea with it, let me know how it goes lol

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murrkywaters wrote:If you make tea with it, let me know how it goes lol

OK, will do!!

Are you still out in MO? I tried growing some from seed when I lived outside of stl, but I could never get them going. I had limited success with other torch cacti, but never that one.

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murrkywaters wrote:Are you still out in MO?

No. I grew up in Festus, just south of St. Louis, but moved away in 1999 and have never moved back. My parents still live in the house I grew up in though and my dad grows a lot of things there, but none of the torch cacti just yet.

murrkywaters wrote:I had limited success with other torch cacti, but never that one.

So far it is an easy grower. I've started a lot from seed this year as well and they seem easy to grow from seed too.

Idk where I read you were in MO, must've been an old post. I did my undergrad in Edwardsville. Great camping and hiking if you know where to look.

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Growing a cactus from seed sounds interesting lol. I'd enjoy having a host of blue cacti around the house.

Apollyon wrote:Growing a cactus from seed sounds interesting lol.

It is super fun! I've never grown them at all before so it's neat to see what they look like as teeny tiny baby cacti. I have some seeds here on my desk that are very fresh. I put some in tissue culture the other day and I think I got 100% germination. If you'd like, I can send you 5 or so of them so you can try?

Apollyon wrote:I'd enjoy having a host of blue cacti around the house.

Me too! These babies are looking pretty green right now. We will have to see how they look when they grow up. They're approaching about an inch tall now.

Have you ever grown pereskiopsis? Super weird plant. It's almost like a cactus sprout stayed as a sprout, but only kinda.

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murrkywaters wrote:Have you ever grown pereskiopsis?

No, I haven't. I've never really grown any succulents until recently. Just dabbled in orchids for a while and only really got into growing CPs and gardening most of my life.

That pereskiopsis is certainly an odd plant! Looks kinda like a jade plant in some ways...

The fact that it is a true cactus is what really wows me.

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Matt wrote:

Apollyon wrote:Growing a cactus from seed sounds interesting lol.

it is super fun! I've never grown them at all before so it's neat to see what they look like as teeny tiny baby cacti. I have some seeds here on my desk that are very fresh. I put some in tissue culture the other day and I think I got 100% germination. If you'd like, I can send you 5 or so of them so you can try?

Apollyon wrote:I'd enjoy having a host of blue cacti around the house.

Me too! These babies are looking pretty green right now. We will have to see how they look when they grow up. They're approaching about an inch tall now.

That's wild man, you'd think they'd grow terribly slow but these plants appear to be growing like weeds with fast germination and growth. I'd love to try a couple of seeds man. Who'd pass up the opportunity to have a blue cactus? You should follow up on that TC experiment though because I'd love to see how it turns out in a couple of months. I hear TC can ramp up growth to insane levels, like Nepenthes.

Some species take really well to grafting. Done right you can breeze past the seedling stage in no time.

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