Tr. pachanoi (San Pedro) ‘Matawai’ Seedlings

Germination

The gold standard of seed germination would be the takeaway tek, it’s easy and relatively foolproof as long as you sterilise the tub and don’t drown your seeds.

Here is a link to the most up-to-date Takeaway Tek: Takeaway Tek

It is always recommended to clean the seeds before sowing as bacteria and/or mould could attach to the seeds in transit. What I do is wash the seeds in h2o2 for 20 seconds and then sow, you can use a coffee filter to hold the seeds.

Another way would be to soak the seeds for 24 hours in spring water with a splash of h2o2 3%, this is supposed to increase the germination rate but I have not tried this method before.

NOTE: The addon substrate option is quite expensive, the reason I do this is that I have to send the order as a small parcel instead of a large letter.

Synonyms

• Echinopsis pachanoi
• San Pedro Cactus
• Wachuma

Some Additional Info

Trichocereus (except for bridgesii / Bolivian Torch) are very hardy and weather tolerant. Trichocereus pachanoi can handle temps as low as -9c for very short periods.

Native to South America, the earliest evidence of San Pedro was found in Peru, specifically, the Guitarrero cave of the Callejón de Huaylas valley. They are natively found in the Andes Mountains at altitude levels around 2000m – 3000m. San Pedro (the class of Trichocereus) is also found in regions like Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela.

Trichocereus pachanoi are night bloomers with these gorgeous flowers doing their thing at night, you have to be quick or you will miss the event :-). A flower event is a special event as it can take anywhere from 5 years to 8 years for an adult plant to produce a flower. When they do, you do your happy dance, thank the cactus Gods, snap a million pics, harvest the pollen, and wait for the next event.

Growing Tips

Please see the tab called "Steps for Rooting" for rooting instructions where relevant. I have also created a few blog posts with some helpful guides that work for me personally:

• Cactus Substrate 101
• Trichocereus Cactus Care Sheet
• Cactus Pests & Treatment
• Common Cactus Terms

Care sheets and instructions are also sent via email after purchasing to make your journey as easy and fluid as possible. As always, if you have any questions, please use our Contact form or FB Messenger (bottom right) to get in touch.