i have two small peyote buttons that someone gave me as a present. please give me some tips on what i should do to take good care of these! n___n
Give 'em to me Other than that I'm not much help, sorry.. unless they've been picked already - then freeze them and save em for whenever you're gonna munch them. Have stumbled across this when looking for San Pedro help though.. http://www.earthalchemy.net/cultivation-sacred-cacti.html
Take good care of them and give them lots of love and they will prosper.Dont over water in winter when they are prone to rotting and keep out of full sun untill they get bigger.Only water if they are shrilling up as the overwatering in the winter is most common way of killing them.
If they are buttons without the carrot-like root then they will be difficult to re-establish without grafting. I usually wait for a button to sit after cutting it to callouse then possibly it will start to shoot out root nubs in a few weks. The ones that do shoot roots I replant in coir/playsand/limestone/ mixes and water regulary. The ones that don't have to either be grafted or used as medicine. Dont have extremely high hopes for those. Peyote despite being such a tough plant are notriously fickle and sometimes despite the novice's best efforts they go south. That would be my biggest piece of advice.
If the are buttons without roots I find filling a pot with soil to about 1/2 of the top and then filling the rest of the way with sand or coarse gravel and then placing the buttons on top is the best way to coax roots. Water by bottom soaking the pot.... this will allow the soil to get moist and will allow for moisture to seep up through the sand but keeps the buttons from coming in contact with the moist soil and rotting. This has worked for me everytime. If it has roots the put in a pot with 50/50 aquarium quartz sand and garden soil. ( it is recommended to pasturize this soil in a sealed baking pan in the oven for 4 hours at 180F to kill any mold or soil insects in the soil that could harm your buttons. It is very very important you use aquarium sand from a pet shop and not builders sand or play sand. Aquarium sand is pure quartz and is inert so it doesnt throw off the pH. Builders sand is a mix of different stones including limestone which can raise the pH to much and burn your buttons roots.
In any case, I think they should be set in a dry place (not sunny I think) for several weeks so that the cut area develops a "callous" or hard surface. Then when you set them in the medium they won't rot. This based on starting San Pedro from cuttings 5-6 times.
they do have the roots. they were nearly dried out, but i managed to bring em back. i haven't been overwatering either. i check the soil. also, i have a multitude of general plant care experience, since its been my job multiple times in greenhouses and such. however, cacti have never been a focus of mine, so this is some new-ish territory. i will take what you guys have said and do my best! i'll post a picture later, when my phone is more charged.
