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PC Trichocereus Pachanoi Echinopsis San Pedro Cactus
1x very well-rooted ~chunky little PC San Pedro pup!
It will be similar size to the red background example images in the picture gallery and sent bare-rooted wrapped well in recycled materials to avoid transit damage and rot.
On arrival just remove them from the packaging and stand upright in a pot of completely bone dry sandy soil mix, being careful not to bury it too deep.
Do NOT water for a few weeks to allow the plants to heal and form a callous, but after that you can give them a good soak once a fortnight or when the soil has dried out.
Nothing seems to get cactus enthusiasts more fired up than discussions about this fella!
I’m gonna start by saying the only botanical knowledge that I have about this guy is just the random regurgitated info of others. My main passion is fruit production.
It isn’t botany, religious use, or history, so please keep that in mind before you waste 20minutes sending me a cranky email, and if you do anyway do me a big favour and keep the caps and exclamation marks to a minimum.
Names.
There are lots, they are passionately disputed by folks far more knowledgeable than me, and I really don’t care what you call it. Call it the Magical Cucumber if it makes you happy. For me PC or San Pedro does the job fine.
Genus.
I’m told Echinopsis has been technically correct since the 70’s, but Trichocereus is still the most commonly used. Haven’t even started and it’s confusing already…
Species.
So its either “Echinopsis somethingorother” or “Trichocereus sometheingorother”. The somethingorother bit is normally pachanoi but peruvianus, bridgesii, riomizquensis and even scopulicola has all been asserted, maybe others too?
Common name.
San Pedro. Pretty much any column cactus with any history of medicinal or religious use gets tagged with this name, but none more so than this fella.
Variety/Cultivar.
PC = Predominant Cultivar. The most common form of this type of plant in this region. That said there are many different “PC San Pedro” depending on where you are in the world.
I’m told the PC(s) in USA that get a bad wrap are different to the one(s) in Australia. Actually I’m told there are about five main plants all commonly sold and traded under the same name around the world, but with seeds being easier to ship internationally than cuttings, and sexual reproduction meaning changes in the genes of the progeny, they are not all exactly the same clone despite the extreme visual similarities.
Common aspects include self-sterility, meaning it will flower, but no fruit or seed set without cross-pollination with an unrelated plant.
Rapid growth, much much faster than many other relatives.
Very small spines and super easy to handle.
Hardy and disease resistant, and very easy to propagate. Lop a piece off, wait a couple weeks for the cut surface to callous and heal, shove it in the ground. That’s all you have to do and this ease of production is why its normally the one you see in at big box garden centres and plant nurseries.
This fella makes an awesome root stock for an endless number of other much more difficult and slower growing cacti. This is why I have this fella in the collection and if you are into cactus too your gonna want a few of these guys!
Pretty much anything that fails with Dragonfruit Rootstock works great with this fella.
Don’t get me wrong, Hylocereus Dragonfruit make the best rootstock for speed of growth. It’s pretty undeniable in my opinion but ONLY if they are trimmed and prepared properly!
Unfortunately Dragonfruit are not compatible with every single cactus species out there, but that’s where the PC San Pedro comes in.
PC is compatible with pretty much anything else ime, and if you are feeling fancy you can graft a chunk of this PC to the dragonfruit rootstock, then stick the much harder to graft species to the PC.
Triple-graft sandwich with PC as the glue in the middle for maximum growth rates, but none of the negatives!
Dragonfruit rootstock > PC inner-stock > slower/rarer/weaker scion gets a massive push.
= Pup factory and/or Amazingly fast growth rates!
Early days but I gotta say, bloody hell this works well, and I highly recommend it!
Grown by me and the Mrs organically, no chems, no nasties, no problems!
