Tricho Notes

If you want to propagate (start new cuttings) from your cactus, just do as stated at the beginning. Take a clean knife or saw and cut off a piece/pieces and let dry and start the cycle over. You should get multiple new tips forming at the top of the cut in a few weeks! If your plant falls over and snaps, don’t stress out, just start over and turn into a new cutting!

Sometimes trichos and other cactus will get a black spot or area on the tip or along it’s side. Sometimes these are caused by bruising, being poked by other cactus, etc. Sometimes they just appear. Lots of forums discussing this, sometimes it even looks like a little drip is coming out of it which usually is dry to the touch. Don’t panic! These black spots will turn into regular little scars in a few weeks/months and will grow down as new growth grows from the top. The key here is understanding the difference between these black spots versus real black rotted sections. Rotted cactus you can push your finger into. If your cactus gets damaged on the side and doesn’t heal properly, you will need to cut the dead section out. Your Tricho should heal just fine, but the black/orange gooey flesh needs to go!

Flowers!!! Your first flowers will appear as small balls of white fur. Don’t knock them off! These balls will soon turn into giant white/yellow flowers that bees and hummingbirds will go crazy over! We feed our flowers to our tortoises. They love them too! Sometimes your Trichos will also produce fruit and seed pods, which are cool too!

Your Trichos should grow at least a foot a year! Some may grow more, others less, obviously lots of factors involved here! Different types of Trichocereus also grow differently in size and spine length, as well as color and shape. Bridgesii tend to always be on the skinnier side of San Pedros with their spines being randomly longer than the SP’s. Peruvian Torches have lots of long spines. Bic Macs are..Big and fat! San Pedros vary as well, some cuts are fat logs, others are skinnier. No two are alike! None are perfect, but that’s life!