From Baby To Adult: Stenocereus Pruinosus

Does Size Matters? 
Stenocereus pruinosus

Have you ever wondered what your baby sized cactus would look like when they mature?

Are they going to be the same but a bit fat and tall?

Are they going to be agressively full of spikes?

Such question is normal, and to answer it you either need to spend the time to grow them which would be from few years up to more than 3 or human generation to find it out or...do a bit of study before buying and growing. Your call.

Today, I would like to share what Lemaireocereus or now known as Stenocereus pruinosus look like when mature. Luckily both stages are in my collection.

Mature Stenocereus pruinosus.

Sitting at 7 feet tall this, guy is very large and heavy. Was bought from a nearly  closed down cactus nursery a year ago, this guy has grown 2 feet additional length and resuming another growth session now.

Next to it is a Pachycereus marginatus or also known as Mexican fence post cactus. I need both palms to cover both P. marginatus circumference. The S. pruinosus is obviously on a different level of thickness!

Been eyeing this guy for more than 4 years whenever I visit the nursery, my luck maybe. I'm sure if was left over there, it would have rot and struggling with fungus or scales 

I love the sheer size, rib or cross sectional shape and the skin pattern. Simple but majestic, at least to me that way.

Look at the tip resuming growth. I find that it can grow for 2 to 3 round a year, but looking at the mid  stem growth stripes; it may be growing very slow under previous care.

Seedling size Stenocereus pruinosus.

They are 10 to 15 cm tall. In early growth stage, it tends to spiralise with very thin spikes. But retains growth pattern by leaving white marks at every end of seasonal growth. 

The ribs are also slimmer and not as fleshy, plus their areoles  are pointy outwards.

So, are there much differences?

Not all people recognizes young and older S. pruinosus. In my opinion,  they are different looking and behave differently just like other cactus when they are old, it just a matter of to what degree the differences are.

In addition, with bad labeling in my country; you may get mistaken between Stenocereus pruinosus and Stenocereus griseus.

Here what S. griseus looks like.

Stenocereus griseus have more ribs and darker green color. They share similar spikes color and similar size during both young and mature stage. Might be just a guess but S. griseus seems to be a faster grower and resist fungus attack in my country climate. S. pruinosus is a bit more susceptible to fungus attack especially from rainfall.

Bloopers

Hope that clears up the differences.

Thanks for reading guys.

Grafting Cactus: The Dilemma Of Having Too Many Rootstocks

To Graft or Not To Graft yet

Despite having a lot of Cereus hildmannianus / peruvianus in collection, I am really not that obsessed with Cereus. Probably.

Less than 2 months ago, I hauled a load of Cereus cuttings from my working site. My staffs over there would like to trim down their Cereus. It was tree-like big, maybe a 15 footer Cereus.

Now it was history, all cut up to 2 to 4 feet long cuttings. I got myself around 20 to 25 tip cuttings, they are really thick and big. Around 35 mid cuttings, the biggest cutting is more than 20kg. 

Cereus stockpile under mango tree shade

Selection on today rooting session. Some of it going to be send to a friend.

Two tip cuttings was grafted with Echinopsis variegata. They put out some roots already, so why not.

Coconut for scale. For a 2 feet cuttings, they are very thick.

Long story short, now I have tons of Cereus, tip cuttings for immediate graft (rooted and in 4 weeks ready for grafting) and mid cuttings for future stocks. I have rooted almost all top cuttings and currently spending my weekend relocating the rest into my in law's coconut farm.

Too many rootstocks ?

Depending on my personal point of view, you can never have too many rootstocks. It just that you might not have enough time or scion to do all of it at once.

At the moment, I have 2 pots full of Echinopsis variegata scions and and two newly acquired cactus species namely Lemaireocereus pruinosus / Stenocereus pruinosus and Neoraimondia herzogiana.

You can view my post about them here:

Neoraimondia herzogiana

Lemaireocereus pruinosus / Stenocereus pruinosus

These guys are more than enough to be grafted for a month or two. My plan for Echinopsis is to grow them big and increase their number mainly from offsets. 

Stenocereus pruinosus might be for different purposes. I want to graft them on Hylocereus or Acanthocereus to fasten their growth and eventually will be used as rootstock for Ariocarpus / Astrophytum.

For now, I will wait for them to be ready for another round of grafting. They are pretty quick to resume growth.

Good thing about rooting Cereus is they love to pop some blooms especially from mature cuttings. Cereus produce shortliving flowers that bloom during the night. But if lucky enough, you can  observe their outstanding 15 to 20cm inflorescence.

In conclusion, other than as grafting stock, Cereus could serve well as garden fence. They are fastgrower and produce beautiful flowers. If I do  not use them for grafting, they will be very useful for blocking pest in the farm.

That's it for today, happy growing guys!