Taller Cacti and More Pups

We’re enjoying the notable growth in height, thickness, pups and arms on the seed-stock plants in Cactus Island’s permanent collection this summer. The fastest growing of the Key tree cactus batch put growth into roots after I up-potted to 1gal pots, then resumed skyward growth. The rest of them are catching up since spring. The most vigorous of the Pilosocereus polygonus are going one-by-one into 7gal pots. The Cuban organpipe are blowing my mind with all of the arms and pups still forming as others from a year or two ago grow even bigger on their main stems. Specimen and project plants aside, most everything at Cactus Island Nursery is available for sale and can be purchased by visiting the shop on this blog. Native FL cactus species only for sale and shipped to destinations in Florida.

It was high time to up-pot the blueberry Myrtillocactus geometrizans and wooly blue Pilosocereus by the hundreds, making me nearly as sessile at the downhill summer potting station as my spiky wards. The effort is paying off with fatter, greener and puppier plants after a month of going into 3gal pots. Winterizing will be a serious workout as I’ll have to put most into greenhouses again, but I don’t mind the fitness benefits going into January.

I’m slowly increasing stock of Consolea and Opuntia while better managing Cactoblastis cactorum using a spray mix of Baccillus thuringiensis kurstakii and Spinosad which does seem to kill out egg sticks and hatchlings on the target cacti where I apply, as promised. Even better, a parasitic wasp scheduled to be released by UF next year is portended to put the hurt on this destructive invasive moth that decimates Opuntioid cacti in the Southeastern U.S.