Navigation

Back to Kada's garden

The Growth Rates of the 4 Lophophora species.

Lophophora diffusa, Lophophora fricii, Lophophora koehresii, and Lophophora williamsii

We have begun a study to determine what the growth rates of the different Lophophora species are, in cultivation. Different growing peramenters will be used, however each method will be used as close to possible among all the plants in that test to try and get as close to accurate results as possible!

When looking at these results, one should always keep in mind that results WILL vary from climate to climate, method to method and even plant to plant. This is just a general idea of what has grown here and at what speeds. Your local climate, you local treatments and your individual plants will almost certainly grow at different rates than our own. But if this study shows anything, it can at least relate the relative rates between Lophophora species grown in the same situations.

A note on our climate: These experiments are conducted in Taiwan, a sub tropical and tropical island in SE Asia. The location here is in the tropical zone, near the southern tip. Temps here never reach below 7 Celsius, and are almost always 10+. a summary of the temps/rainfall per month is below. This information is from the Central Weather Bureau's website.

Please be aware that the rainfall records are an average from 1971-2000 and is just the nearest city to us, we are little wetter than that city. Also keep in mind, there are typhoons here, so sometimes we see a meter of rain in a few days, then it slows down. The point is, weather is more variable than peyote growth, this is just an average.

The temperature averages are from 2008, except August we used 2007 because the site had no records for August 2008.

Method guidlines for all experiments.

We will call each experiment a "Group" (Group A, Group B etc.). Each experiment group will contain at least 2 non related plants of each species. This means a minimum of 8 plants per "group". Each plant in the group will be grown in as close as possible to the same conditions. This means each plant will have the same substrate composition/amount, fertilizers, watering times/amount, sun exposure etc. To do this we will be measuring most things by wieght and/or volume, and also be placing them all together and not shading each other to try and give them equal exposure to the same intensity of light for the same period of time each day.

Group A: Seed Grown

Propagation method: Seed.

Pot size/arrangment:

Substrate medium:

Watering schedule:

Feeding Schedule:

Temperatures:

Light type:

Light hours:

Group B: Myrtillocactus geometrizans Grafts (from 5mm seedlings)

Propagation method:

Pot size/arrangment:

Substrate medium:

Watering schedule:

Feeding Schedule:

Temperatures:

Light type:

Light hours:

Group C: Pereskiopsis Grafts (from 2mm seedlings

Propagation method:

Pot size/arrangment:

Substrate medium:

Watering schedule:

Feeding Schedule:

Temperatures:

Light type:

Light hours:

Group D: Cuttings to root.

Propagation method: Cutting.

Pot size/arrangment: N/A

Substrate medium:

Watering schedule:

Feeding Schedule: N/a

Temperatures:

Light type:

Light hours:

[Lophophora Grafting Comparison | Seedling Grafting | Cacti Grafting]