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All are least 20 yrs old Sadly this on has started to shed arms.
All 5 arms on the left in picture have died. I has been able to save 4 of them. I think its a combination of rain and cold. Since we have had below 40 degree nights.
When I pull an arm off this is what you see on the base and the grey on the arm where it attached.

My oldest cactus is an Echinocactus grusonii.
I sowed seeds in 2000 and the current size is about 60 cm in diameter.

Hanazono wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2020 8:58 pm My oldest cactus is an Echinocactus grusonii.
I sowed seeds in 2000 and the current size is about 60 cm in diameter.

Wow. My 2003 sown plants are still about 8 centimeters wide...

G'morning Aiko,

My 2003 sown plants are still about 8 centimeters wide...

Grusoniis on the photo are sown seeds on a same day in year 2000.
I moved them out from greenhouse to outdoor when they were around 15 cm in diameter.
The climate in here meets well for their growing, I think.

My oldest seedlings from 1980 are Astrophytum myriostigma, Gymnocalycium saglionis, G. spegazzinii.
I was a 15 year old boy then.

Some plants never age though like metheuselah

It's like if you take a cutting from a mother plant ad infinitum then that plant is still the same plant isn't it?

Food for thought for today

Newton wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2020 6:22 am Some plants never age though like metheuselah

It's like if you take a cutting from a mother plant ad infinitum then that plant is still the same plant isn't it?

Food for thought for today

Yes, it can be thought of that way. I like to count "age" of a cutting grown plant as time passes since the cutting was made. This doesn't work as well with large cuttings

Some of our plants are clones that have been propagated for hundreds of years. I have one hybrid succulent that's been propagated by cutting since the late 1800s and there are some much older than that. The Smooth Cayenne pineapple cultivar has been around since ancient times. And Epipremnum aureum (commonly called pothos) lost the ability to flower as a species and has been growing as a clone of a single individual since its inception

I suppose that because some plants can continually clone themselves. Only their DNA can show their true age. Whilst an individual growth may be only so many years old some of the rootstock could be dated back millennia...

The big Echinocactus horizonthalonius are probably the oldest cacti I own , I've had them since I lived in AZ that was 10 years ago and they were old when I bought them.

My Cereus jamacaru is 44 Years old that i got as a kid it reach a hight of 10 feet before i had to painfully cut it to move it... It wouldn't fit in the U-haul. My second oldest is a Euphorbia lactea cristata that's10 years old.

Cactus76 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 05, 2020 4:57 am My Cereus jamacaru is 44 Years old that i got as a kid it reach a hight of 10 feet before i had to painfully cut it to move it... It wouldn't fit in the U-haul. My second oldest is a Euphorbia lactea cristata that's10 years old.

I've seen several other old E. lactea crests on the internet. They seem do well in cultivation. Very cool Cereus too. It's much older than I am

A bit late to the game but this gasteria armstrongii is at least 20 years old. I went through a phase in high school where I was obsessed with cacti and succulents, especially lithops, but knew nothing about caring for them. I ordered many plants from this mail order company (don't remember the name) in Arizona and this tiny armstrongii came as a freebie in an order with a bunch of other plants. This is the only plant that survived my care from that time . The original plant is now the large central plant on the right, and all the other plants in the pot are pups from the mother plant. I revived my interest in succulents and cacti a few years ago (I have a better survival rate now lol) and have added more astrongii to the collection but this one will always be my favorite.

This is the oldest (cactus ?) plant in my collection. Ironically when I first bought it in 2006 I thought it was a cactus. As I later found out it's not a cactus. Perhaps someone can shed light on what it is. Speaking of light. When I first got this plant I set it outside in hot April weather and it scorched. Yes it can get very hot in Germany. All the growth you see happended after 2007. In fact, for the last 7 years or so I've purposely restricted it's growth.

I know this post has not been active for a year, but I have a Mammillaria bocasana that was planted in 1972. I can take a.photo if anyone is interested.
On a similar topic, one of my mates has an Ariocarpus that was site collected as an already ancient plant in the 1950's. They believe this one is as old as 120 years.

Traveller wrote: ↑Tue Aug 17, 2021 3:04 pm I have a Mammillaria bocasana that was planted in 1972. I can take a.photo if anyone is interested

I'd definitely be interested is seeing a photo. Did you plant it yourself?