Small Peruvian Torch: a young Trichocereus peruvianus in a pot
What arrives is a young rooted column in a nursery pot filled with cactus soil. The skin is blue-green under a thin waxy bloom, which gives the plant its slightly grey cast in daylight. Try not to rub that bloom off, because it does not grow back on the same spot. The column usually carries six to eight ribs, with round areoles about six millimetres across set more than two and a half centimetres apart, each bearing short golden-brown spines. Those spines are the giveaway when you compare this species with the San Pedro: on the peruvianus they grow longer and heavier, and older plants put out three or four central spines of some five centimetres with darker tips.
The species comes from the high valleys of Peru and possibly from north-western Bolivia, though centuries of cultivation have blurred its original range beyond reconstruction. Current taxonomy files it under Echinopsis peruviana, in the same group as the San Pedro. In the wild a plant like this reaches two and a half to five metres, with branches six to fifteen centimetres thick, and flowers from the top of the column with pale yellow to yellow-green blooms over twenty centimetres long. This specimen is nowhere near that yet, which is rather the point: you are starting the column yourself. Every cactus grows its own way, so the plant you receive will differ from the photo.
Small or large: which one to pick
Both pot sizes arrive rooted, so the real question is how much plant you want in the house. The small size is the cheaper way in and grows on under your care; the large one already stands there as a column. Two practical notes come with the small size. Its pot holds less soil and dries out faster, so in summer you will want to check it more often. And a young plant still has thin skin: after winter, build up to full midday sun over a week or two instead of moving it there in one go. This page is the A-quality plant; the same small plant also sits in the sale section as B-quality with cosmetic flaws.
Care
Give the cactus the brightest spot you have, ideally a south-facing window, and let it stand outside in summer. Use a mineral cactus mix with a generous share of coarse sand, perlite or pumice. During the growing season water only once the pot has dried right through, roughly every ten to fourteen days, and never leave water standing in the saucer. In winter keep it cooler and drier: once every three to four weeks is plenty, and less is fine. Repot in spring as soon as roots fill the nursery pot, then keep the plant dry for a week.
More cacti at Avalon
Avalon Magic Plants also stocks the Peruvian Torch as a large potted plant, as unrooted cuttings in several lengths and as seed. Alongside it you will find the San Pedro, the Bolivian Torch, the knobbly monstrosus forms, the Cuzco, the Macrogonus and grow sets for cactus seed. Every plant is shipped in discreet packaging.
