Can you grow a Ferocactus from cuttings?

[Licespray]

As it says.. if a Ferocactus gets cut off, can it be rerooted?

Cheers,
Troy.

[cactushobbyman]

I had a mature Fero that lost all its roots from a gopher. I moved the cactus, took care of the gopher and the Fero is alive to this date. That was about 3 years ago. I have not tried to cut a larger Fero and root from a fresh cut. Most Fero's don't pup unless the growth point gets frozen.

[ElieEstephane]

If it's a big one the cut area will be very big and the risk of fungal infection grows exponentially. You need to let it dry very very very very well and then plant it. Yes it will root but the older it is, the longer it takes.

[Licespray]

Thanks guys.

Figured I’d best ask as 2 reasons.

1: I may be able to get a smallish red spines species of Ferocactus that may or may not have roots. It’s a pup on a larger plant..

And 2: I’ve heard Saguaro don’t root from cuttings (true or false??) so I thought I best ask about Feros.


As always - your help has been greatly appreciated

[DaveW]

In theory all cacti can be rooted from cuttings. The problem is as Elie says if the cut surface is large in proportion to the body volume some may dry up before rooting. However cacti or cuttings without roots can often hang around gradually dehydrating for a year or more on some occasions before rooting. It is amazing just what survivors some of our plants are, where "normal" plants would have dried up and died long before that.

[MitchellM]

Can they be reproduced by grafting aereoles and then removing the scion and rooting it once it has grown large enough?

[greenknight]

Can they be reproduced by grafting aereoles and then removing the scion and rooting it once it has grown large enough?

I can't see why that wouldn't work. They're so easy to grow from seed that no one bothers with such techniques, usually, but I suppose you could use that method to propagate something special like a variegated specimen.