How long does it take to grow a nice sized cactus?

[chiko930]

SWIM is thinking about starting up their own little cactus farm... I've found lots of information on the net about how to grow it but can't find anyone saying how long it takes.

I would assume that peyote takes the longest to grow so I'm thinking about either san pedro or peruvian torch.

Can anyone tell me which would be better and how long roughly it would take to grow from seed? thanks

[Heyoka]

Peyote from seed takes much longer than 2 years. It may be possible to get them to maturity in 3-5 years if you are really methodical and devoted to them by grafting them.

From seed san pedro is slow as hell as well. Starting from cuttings is your best bet and getting a foot or more of growth (under the right conditions) per year isn't difficult.

[bananaweed]

yeah. Heyoka is right. MUCH faster way is start from the cutting. btw the year ago i bought some little Lophophora living plant. Size of the plant was like a medium strawberry. Now its 1.5-2 times bigger. So what i want to say - even the living plant of peyote is growing tooooooo sloooowwwly. i think growing from the seed to mature plant could be finished in 10-20 years. San Pedro is much faster. but anyway even in the case of Trichocereus cuttings the process will take more than 1 year.

[Heyoka]

There was a real talented cactii grower posting on edot that managed to get Loph's from seed to flowering plant in (IIRC) 3 years by grafting from the point they are a month old. This certainly takes a bit of experience and he was very persistant and spoke of loosing more seeds than he'd planted.

[fnord]

Originally Posted by Heyoka

There was a real talented cactii grower posting on edot that managed to get Loph's from seed to flowering plant in (IIRC) 3 years by grafting from the point they are a month old. This certainly takes a bit of experience and he was very persistant and spoke of loosing more seeds than he'd planted.

Yes,this fellow is talented,but grafting while under a year old is silly and a waste of cacti.

[kingspade42o]

my friends san pedro in one year from a pup about the size of a marble, to about 6 inches. but i know the bigger they are the faster they'll grow. the first year or two will be slower compaired to when its like 4 or 5