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[Radium]

I have this headless cacti, which has very good developed roots, and recently popped a new head (what's the correct name for this little baby heads that pop from the fresh of a mother plant?)

The baby head is growing very fast, but I would appreciate a few more heads, at least two more.

Questions:

• What can be done to make the cacti pop more heads?
• Does the growing power divide between heads? I mean if for example 2 new heads pop, will the current head lose 2/3 of it's growth rate and share it to other heads?

[Chicsa]

I am curious about this too, the term is Pupping.

All of my well established cacti have sprouted 2-3 pups each. Most along the base. These cacti are typically about 2' tall and pup at the base near the soil. I was curious why... Its been great weather wise... we get occasional monsoons with like 2-7" in a couple of hours, then 88-95*F temp daily was wondering if that had an effect.

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[Psylover]

Try and check this thread from nexus it might answer some of your questions.
https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=43032

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[Frog Pajamas]

Ive also heard that watering with coconut water will encourage pupping, but have niried it personally. I think multiple growth points would mean slower growth per pup, since the energy is divided.

Are your cacti up on the roof?

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[Radium]

The cacti is located at the tip of the balcony, it receives around 4 hours of sun daily.

Here's a picture of the plant and her lovely pupping.
The pic is around a week old, the lil' girl has become a lot bigger now!

How about doing damage to the cacti? although even if it works, I might not consider doing it, because I will feel like a tyrant slave-holder then.

Regarding the energy required for growth:
Sometimes a lot of energy is available in a project, but fewer than needed manpower makes it to go slow.
Imagine you're building a house.
You've bought all of the materials, but you only got 1 builder, obviously the more builders you have here, the sooner your house will be ready.

The "builder" in that analogy is comparable to the "growing tip cells" of the pupping.
They can only divide at a fixed rate, no matter if there's so much excess energy/nutrients available, cell replication is so complex and takes some time.

[Bach]

Miracle-gro is good for inducing pupping in trichs. Dunno what's in it that does that but old time trich growers have used it for years, used at half-strength.

 Osmocote for growth and Miracle-gro for pupping was the standard treatment. At least for those who weren't too fussy about being 'organic'.

[Chicsa]

Miracle-gro is good for inducing pupping in trichs. Dunno what's in it that does that but old time trich growers have used it for years, used at half-strength.

 Osmocote for growth and Miracle-gro for pupping was the standard treatment. At least for those who weren't too fussy about being 'organic'.

I have been using miracle-gro cactus soil and fox farm... who woulda thought. I come from a group of "growers" who hate on miracle gro for other plants LOL

[happyconcacti]

Benzylaminopurine (6-BAP)

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[Psylover]

Have you tried it Hcc? I already posted a link to a thread that shows i guy using it, but not really sure about the results?

[happyconcacti]

I tried it once but it didn't work for me.

I think New Wisdom and a few others have had success though.

[New Wisdom]

I wouldn't try to force pupping to be honest, but you can use what HCC said. BAP works great as long as the plant has the energy to do so. Although it's not on the plants terms so you can overstress a plant by forcing pups.  I used to make cream out of anhydrous lanolin and BAP to force pupping. I've realized it's best to just let the plant pup on it's own when it has the resources to do so.

If I were you I'd just give it some sun and nutrients and let it do it's thing.

New Wisdom

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[New Wisdom]

By the way, how I would apply it was to take a sterile scalpel blade, cut a very very shallow cut just to get through the skin, then cover that cut with the BAP cream.  And a pup would usually emerge between 1-120 days after application.  You do not have to cut the skin, but I had better results this way.

Also, I believe the concentration was 1.5-3% BAP in the lanolin. I don't remember exactly though.

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[Bach]

Just to clarify a bit, Miracle grow induces basal pupping, which is how most trichs prefer to grow anyway. With BAP you can force it to pup at any areole you want it to.

And I'll second the remarks about forcing pups. The plant needs sufficient root structure to support the new growth. Better to have one or two big pups than multiple small ones that can't grow because they are trying to suck more resources than the rest of the plant can supply.

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[Radium]

Hmm, too bad, here we only have this obscure Indian powder product labelled "Root growth hormone", and no indication of the ingredients.
And lanolin is not available here.
Can I use vaseline or veggy oil instead?

[Frog Pajamas]

I bet you'd get more pups if you could just increase the amount of direct sun per day. Maybe put them up on the rooftop garden while you're still in your current apartment?

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