New growth on Selenicereus?

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ohugal
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New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by ohugal »

Hi Everyone,

At ELK 2019 I bought a Selenicereus Grandiflorus. At that time (according to the owner) it was a 1 year old cutting from a larger plant. Last winter the tip of the plant went brown because of underwatering (I think). I trimmed the brown part to be certain. It was dry and not soft. I noticed it was not really growing (perhaps because of the later summer) and was a bit worried. While inspecting my plants a few days ago I saw the following (see below for images). Is this new growth or something else? My girlfriend is extatic knowing the beautiful flowers this species produces. Eitherway, it will become clear eventually, but still wanted to post the question. Tips on how to proceed with watering etc... are welcome. It was very sunny and warm (27-30°C) the last 2 weeks. The forecast for the upcoming weeks will be 'wisselvallig' (as we say in Dutch) and temperatures wil drop to 21°C in a week or so. Although you never know here.
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Antwerp, Belgium
temperate, maritime climate with mild winters and cool summers
hardiness zone 8a
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greenknight
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by greenknight »

Hard to be sure, but it looks a a lot like a flower bud - I would expect new growth more at the base, or at the point where it was cut back. I have no personal experience with this species, though (I don't have room for something like that). Take a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-lzfaMKaj0
Spence :mrgreen:
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anttisepp
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by anttisepp »

Buds have more hair.
But time will show exactly. :)
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ohugal
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by ohugal »

Indeed, time will tell! I hope it's a flower bud and doesn't bloom when I'm on holiday. Does it flower as soon at it is dark or should I expect to stay up (very) late to observe?
@greenknight, thank you for the video. I used to watch a lot of her video's. The guy I bought it from had a larger specimen which was all tangled up around a structure of bamboo sticks. Mine has a single stem and measures approximately 1,5 meters. He told me tangling and tying it up aids in getting flowers. Though, as soon as I have a more permanent place for it, I will let it go wild.
I grown mine in a mixture of 1 part soil, 1 part pumice, 1 part coir and 2 parts orchid bark. I repotted it last year and changed the top soil in 2021. I've heard of some experiments with banana peel as a fertilizer, anyone acquainted with that?
If a flower appears, I'll post a picture.
Location
Antwerp, Belgium
temperate, maritime climate with mild winters and cool summers
hardiness zone 8a
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greenknight
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by greenknight »

It should become clear before long whether that's new growth or a flower bud. I tried to find pictures of buds in intermediate stages of development, but people are more interested in showing them blooming. The best I could find was this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY5AiUwSo8w

Early in the video you can catch a couple glimpses of a smaller bud <fixed typo> if you watch closely.

Banana peels are not a balanced fertilizer, very heavy to potassium, and various other nutrients in lesser amounts. Good to use around roses and tomatoes to promote flowering/fruiting if the soil needs potash, but I don't know if your cactus could use that. When you're making compost, they help balance the high nitrogen in coffee grounds - but it's hard to make compost in an apartment :). Here's a page that summarizes it pretty well: https://gardender.com/growing-tips/bana ... it-useful/
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ohugal
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by ohugal »

I've attached another image of the progress of the new growth for those who are interested.

@greenknight, thanks again for the advice. Organizing anything plant related in a small apartment without a balcony is a challenge. I've been able to use the shared basement for storage of soil, pots, etc... We live on the second floor, so when it's repotting season I always get a good workout. The other tenants are used to it by now. Because the Selenicereus wasn't growing, I carefully removed some of the soil to check on the roots and replaced it with fresh potting medium. I won't fertilize it anytime soon. I usually fertilize my succulents with a water soluble 7:17:35 fertilizer. It also contains magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe) and trace elements.
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Location
Antwerp, Belgium
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hardiness zone 8a
LateBloomer
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by LateBloomer »

Doesn’t look like a flower bud to me
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ohugal
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by ohugal »

I will keep photographing the new growth (bud or not) at regular intervals for educational purposes. Before the new growth was forming there was a darkish discoloration at the node. I observed other discolorations at other nodes as well. So hopefully new growth will sprout from there too.
Location
Antwerp, Belgium
temperate, maritime climate with mild winters and cool summers
hardiness zone 8a
DaveW
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by DaveW »

Looks like a bud to me?
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ohugal
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by ohugal »

I'm accepting bets. :wink:
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Location
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Mrs.Green
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by Mrs.Green »

ohugal wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:19 pm I'm accepting bets. :wink:

IMG_0084web.jpg
:lol: I’m on but you should know that I don’t have any possibility of paying you! :D I’m pretty sure that’s new growth, having a Selenicereus myself.
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ohugal
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Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by ohugal »

Mrs.Green wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 5:17 pm
ohugal wrote: Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:19 pm I'm accepting bets. :wink:

IMG_0084web.jpg
:lol: I’m on but you should know that I don’t have any possibility of paying you! :D I’m pretty sure that’s new growth, having a Selenicereus myself.
Thanks! I'm beginning to suspect it's new growth as well. It had a slow start, so I'm happy it's branching out. Now it is a single stem. I hope yours is growing too! Did it ever flower?
This would be a good question on the cacti and succulents exam.
Location
Antwerp, Belgium
temperate, maritime climate with mild winters and cool summers
hardiness zone 8a
Mrs.Green
Posts: 1083
Joined: Fri Oct 23, 2020 5:59 pm

Re: New growth on Selenicereus?

Post by Mrs.Green »

ohugal wrote: Tue Jun 22, 2021 7:08 pm
Thanks! I'm beginning to suspect it's new growth as well. It had a slow start, so I'm happy it's branching out. Now it is a single stem. I hope yours is growing too! Did it ever flower?
This would be a good question on the cacti and succulents exam.
Good morning :D Thank you, its growing very well at the moment, not just because it gets more water than before but I suspect that repotting it helped a lot too. It is placed in a window that isn’t easy to access, it is entangled in a Hoya growing in the same window and it had also rooted itself in a neighbouring pot. I have had this cactus for several years and the two main stems are more than a meter long each, with branches growing from these two stems. I should have repotted it a long time ago but the mentioned factors kept me from doing it, or rather they were discouraging factors..

This spring I went ahead and repotted it and I was a bit surprised of the strength of its roots! It wasn’t possible to just pull the ‘invasive’ roots apart, the whole root that had grown in a neighbours pot had to be pulled out whole and it was big!

It haven’t flowered yet and I am not that surprised, as mentioned in another post, in fear of overwatering my cacti, I think I have been to frugal with the water..and on top of that it haven’t been repotted for years.

Since it is growing on the windowsill it gets a bit of sun in summer and on the rare occasions its sunny for a long period of time, it takes on a slight reddish hue but this disappears quite fast when the weather changes. In winter the windowsill can get quite cold, as it leans against the window itself and temperatures can easily get as low as -20 degrees celsius .
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