OUR AUDIENCE IS GOING TO WANT ME TO ASK ABOUT THIS... SO HOW DO YOU KILL A CACTUS - OR IN OTHER WORDS NOT KILL IT? HA!
I think a lot of it is over caring. Cacti do need care and they do need love but you kinda gotta know how much love, and I’m talking about watering. A lot of people think they are caring for the plant if they are watering it. Water is good and its nutrients and it’s a drink for them but these guys can go for months on end without water. Especially through winter. You could probably almost not water some varieties at all through winter. If the cacti are outside I just let mother nature tend to them. Whatever rain is coming down they cop it all, they can cop 2 weeks of rain and still be ok because I know the soil is really refined and I know it’s going to drain that rain water away.
How much you water them is by how much light they are getting, if the cacti are living inside and still watering once a fortnight or once a month. The cacti in my garden beds are getting a fair bit of light and a fair bit of heat and I’m still only watering them once a fortnight. Whereas the ones in pots are a little bit different as they are shallower, and whatever water I’m giving them will drain away quickly, whereas these beds do hold it a bit more, same as with the garden beds actually outside.
So that’s a huge factor, how much light they are getting, if they are in all day sun, all year round, especially summer then you water them once a week, but if they are in doors like a bathroom they just barely need any water at all.
I’ve had ones where they are dying and I’m like I don’t know what to do I’ve tried everything and I literally put it down the side of the house down the back of the shed and go whatever, I’m just going to leave you there to die and a lot of the time, 90% of the time it just comes back. So it’s like, you kind let mother nature do it. Whatever rain is coming down its going to collect that. It’ll adapt to its environment. They have amazing survival mechanisms so that they can adapt to whatever environment they are put into.
YOU MENTIONED BATHROOMS, YEAH BATHROOMS PROBABLY AREN'T GOOD FOR CACTI. DOES EVERYONE WANT TO PUT THEM IN THEIR BATHROOMS?
In their bathrooms, living rooms and it’s just like, ah man you’re not going to get the best out of it. I sold this cacti to a friend of mine about a year ago, it’s a San Pedro and super healthy when I sold it, they kept the cactus in a corner of the lounge room. I got a call the other week from my friend telling me to come and take a look at it, it’s got a bug called a mealy bug or scale which you commonly get for these column cactus when they don’t have enough light these bugs are kind of attracted to them. The cactus was screaming out for light, needs more sunlight being in the lounge room for a year was just torturous to it.
I GOT TOLD BY THE GUY ACROSS THE ROAD HE SAID THEY TRY AND GET TO THE LIGHT, STRETCH UP, AND THEN YOU PUT THEM OUTSIDE AND THEN THEY START TO GROW FAT AGAIN, AND THEN THE MIDDLE IS TOO WEAK TO HOLD THE TOP AND THEY FLOP OVER.
Yeah and that’s the thing, I have placed it in a spot first that gets about 2-3 hours of morning light, I couldn’t put it in full sun when I first got it and now I’ve noticed it’s kinda given me a bit of a signal that it’s happy in this soil and light it’s gotten a bit fatter. So now I’ll move it to a bit more light and slowly introduce it to a bit more, and then cut it. I won’t cut it until next Spring. Will just cut it to about half way down then repot the top and from there hopefully it will be healthy enough to continue growing.
San Pedro are a really nice cactus once they really get going. My brother has a 15-year-old San Pedro. It’s huge and has 3 or 4 off shoots coming off it. Its mature enough to have flowers, unlike other cacti that flower all the time San Pedro only flower once they are mature enough.
THESE ARE THE ONES YOU GET HIGH OFF HEY?
Yes this is a spineless San Pedro. The San Pedro is the Grandfather of medicine, and Oaxaca is the Grandmother of medicine. These guys have some very sacred qualities about them. I have a spiritual friend who comes over and she is drawn to these cacti she can pick them out and feel a connection.