🌵 Why Cactus Seem to Grow Well In Just Charcoal- More Experiments 🌵

[@PocketFullaShrooms]

I didn't even know you had another channel definitely going to share with my friends too

[@jameswheatley9883]

😁🌵💚

[@natepowell1914]

Uhhhhh when the heck did you get into cacti? I've been working with axes for a while but growing cacti even longer, this is wicked cool

[@joshuacourtney3916]

This dood only does cool shit

[@paulyounger1190]

He has a whole other youtube and instagram account dedicated to cactus projects called Team Wachuma. If you check out some of his homestead tour/workday videos you can see some nice clips of large in ground cactuses hes got growing.

[@3FeathersFarmstead]

@@joshuacourtney3916 agreed

[@SkillCult]

I'm mostly a trichocereus/san pedro cactus dude. That's my major cactus project. It's only been a few years. But it's hard not to grow a few more cacti when there are so many of the cute little guys out therre to tempt me :) If you have trichs, lets trade!

[@brianpriest3638]

Holy crap! I didn’t know that channel existed!! Bam! Subscribed and all that stuff!

[@afjieaf80eg]

I've started to use charcoal in my citrus mix. So far it works well and I don't have to buy material like perlite or vermiculite

[@SkillCult]

Yeah, and it has properties those probably don't,l or at least likely more of some shared attributes.

[@firmamentfarms4869]

Your charcoal content is as inspiring as any.

[@olgakuchukov6981]

Super cool. Astute observation about the negative knee-jerk of the gardening know-it-all.

[@SkillCult]

yeah, I noticed that a long time ago. Everyone is afraid of so many things, but few acutally test any of those claims. It's a matter of weighing things for a risk benefit analysis. Most likely the worst thing that will go wrong is it won't work and I'll have to move them into a different mix. Everyone here thinks tan oak leaves are toxic, but I've used them by the ton in compost and for mulch for ages, because I was like "really? I don't know about that "

[@Veto2090]

Doing research on other things that sequester water but also provide drainage. this is a great video thank you!

[@hell0h0bbit]

I go to public BBQ area and dig out all the leftover charcoal

[@mistaecco]

Super interesting! Im a city dweller and have to buy my charcoal, but this gives me an opportunity to use up the remains of a bag of lump charcoal in the back of my garage. I think my biggest concern is that the charcoal itself has the potential to leave black streaks on things, so ill likely only try this soil on cacti that develop a waxy exterior and can safely be sprayed. Itd be devastating to get the delicate waxy farina of a succulent mixed with the dark charcoal streaks. Thanks for being willing to experiment! "Best practices" are all well and good, but not when they precent you from being willing to learn and discover.

[@TeamWachuma]

I've not noticed that to be a problem, but maybe I"m just not paying attention. It does get around as far as leaving marks on pots or on sidewalks and such. and it floats so it can overflow pieces of char when watering.

[@manatoa1]

Neat. I'll try using some charcoal next time I'm repotting some of my wetness intolerant plants

[@scopescaroutdoors]

Thanks for another great video! My dogs are barking while I was watching it. you might have said but have you ever tried charcoal a on dragon fruit? I might try it on a few of my plants that I started this summer. I love experimenting anyways. So why not lol.

[@debrayarde863]

Hi just see ur video ....i think what u did was brilliant....i have alot of succulents and cactuses..just searching for a gd mix i am hoping to be successful with urs...thks for sharing ur experiments ...God bless u

[@SkillCult]

Small desert cacti have done really well in straight charcoal, pretty much across the board. The bigger san pedro are more like forest cacti and they seem to do better with a good amount of organic matter, but still could be 70% char probably. Straight char is worth a try for desert cacti. You can always change it up when you repot.

[@TheGlatch]

Those crested cacti are insane, for how long have you been growing those? Ps to be safe it's best to wait with watering a freshly repotted plant for 2 weeks. Pps. Nice gloves

[@Shaun.Stephens]

Thanks Steven, great to see cactus (and char) content!

[@elkhound25]

great video ! i want to add charged bio char to my gardens for sure. i think it will just make it better.

[@SkillCult]

For gardens I've always just added extra fert when I bury it. A lot of the reason I charged this is that I had to cook it anyway to kill weed seeds. But I do prefer to use charged char in potting mix as it takes out some of the guess work.

[@lbrown002]

Can you do a follow-up on how your cacti are going?

[@SkillCult]

I should do that. they are doing great though. Growing a lot and flowering well.

[@manatoa1]

The charcoal also looks way better than the potting mix. It gives a nice stark background. What's that cactus close to the end of the video that looks like a guy with a transverse mohawk rocking out?

[@robertgraves3215]

What would you think about making charcoal out of coffee grounds? Making charcoal out of food scraps?

[@SkillCult]

You should be able to in sealed container or something. I would tend to probably prefer to use chunkier stuff. I get the food waste from a local resort every week. there is a lot of good char potential in there, avocado pits, corn cobs, pomegranate rinds, coconut shells. If you did do coffee grounds, you could mix it 50/50 with uncharred coffee grounds and probably negate most of the nitrogen drain.

[@robertgraves3215]

@@SkillCult actually have been mixing it like that. I started a redworm can, 5 gallons and it's freaking awesome. Doesn't even smell . I'm amazed how fast they devour and reproduce. Great video. Very interesting. Thanks.

[@botsbass842]

Aldi has small succulents for $2 Im going to go nuts on them next time I'm in there and try this along with you I have a handful but they are basically neglected and this reminds me that i need to do something with them

[@SkillCult]

IO have not tried to grow non cacti succulents in straight charcoal yet. I have a feeling they won't be as happy as the cactus, unless of course watering is super consistent. But all of my other succulents are in high char potting mix.

[@arnoldmmbb]

In japan Bamboo charcoal is used in bonsai soil mix, by the way you have any way to take care of the root mealybugs? They are a pain man

[@SkillCult]

I don't know that I have them. But i have waterred my cactus with tobacco tea before. I think others water with neem, which might be a cheaper, easier option.

[@arnoldmmbb]

@@SkillCult thank you my guy! Keep up the great content

[@Blueshirt38]

Great video! I put this on my watch later playlist many months ago and just now got around to it. Has there been any followup with some preliminary data on how the 100% charcoal pottings have done?

[@SkillCult]

they all look great. I think almost all are flowering this year. Most have grown a lot as well.

[@capichinola1151]

Any updates? Id love to see how the chacoal cacti have grown

[@SkillCult]

They look great, almost all flowering and a lot bigger than they were. so far, it's all good.

[@TJHutchExotics]

Love the one in bloom :)

[@lukearts2954]

Very interesting... I'm into extreme local recycling and I'm experimenting with a bunch of things. This video gave me several ideas to incorporate. I have a lot of wood and I'm making my own charcoal. The chunks that are too small (0.25"-1" chunks, either from the production or by having used them), I use to filter water that leaks into my basement. It's water that has a lot of nitrogen because it's ground water that first seeps into an old manure cellar below the former stables, then into the "dry basement" hahaha. (supposed to be dry, but has 4ft of water in the winter and about 1.5ft in the driest weeks of summer). That manure cellar has never been cleaned or emptied, so it's giving off _a LOT_ of nutrients in the water. It's been out of use for at least 30 years, but before that it was fed by cows, horses and humans. After 30 years, it's all fully fermented for sure and a great but highly concentrated fertilizer, so the water that trickles through the brick wall (baked from local clay, so also a filtering medium) will contain too much nutrients for most uses. I'm filtering that water to be able to use it for cleaning, washing, and drinking water for the animals. So far I didn't have any further use for the charcoal after that filtering process, but I suppose I will have fully preloaded it to be used for potted plants... Maybe I can try to grow some of my wild orchids in pots with this. I've successfully managed to spread them to various locations in my garden, but I haven't been able to get them in pots yet. As for cacti, with our climate getting hotter, perhaps it's not a bad idea to find some useful cactus species that I could grow for food... Any cactus knowledgeable viewers with some suggestions for me on that matter?

[@theshoemeister2582]

How cold does it get during winter where you live?

[@nigelkent2236]

So, this was 5 months ago, how are the plants in straight charcoal doing now?

[@SkillCult]

Most seemed to do better right away. They are kind of dormant right now.

[@drakeweddner]

Lacto bacillus bacteria is a great tool for using urine as fertilizer it stops it from breaking down into ammonia

[@SkillCult]

Interesting so you mean adding it before application, like as a ferment?

[@drakeweddner]

@@SkillCult most of my experience is with weed plants but I have been growing a dozen or so PC Pedro's and they seem to respond pretty much the same I add lactobacillus to every single organic material I feed to my plants unless I'm specifically using a fungus to break something down I'll throw in some stuff from Google at the end but in my own words it's a wonderful preservative it'll stop things from going bad for weeks Even In The heat of Summer it really helps buffer pH and keep it in a nice friendly zone and it makes the nutrients available to your plants much easier you know it's basically like you're feeding these bacteria and they're digesting the nutrients and converting it two more bioavailable forms and then your plant will actually absorb the bacteria through the roots and dehydrate it and spit it back out . endophytic fungus is probably better but you can grow lactobacillus from nothing but rice and Air and it reproduces so fast you can have it adapt to your environment quickly . Here's those Google links so you know I'm not fully of it In the rhizophagy cycle, microbes alternate between a root intracellular endophytic phase and a free-living soil phase. Microbes acquire soil nutrients in the free-living soil phase; nutrients are extracted through exposure to host-produced reactive oxygen in the intracellular endophytic phase. -(pubs.usgs.gov/publication/70199416) Lactic acid fermentation of human urine to improve its fertilizing value and reduce odour emissions pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28448847/ Please let me know if you want need to send you links to videos or anything like that I mean you clearly know what you're doing but I would love to help out anyway I can I think what you've got going on is freaking amazing Edit - I forgot to give credit where it's due I learned this from these awesome guys Shane and Carson up at tall tree society in Ukiah , I was building a greenhouse for them years ago and they were the first people to explain organic gardening to me .

[@lukecoppersammy]

I know this isn't related to the video. But have you thought about having a massive sale of a bunch of your mature fruit trees. Might as well make some money off of them because chances are whoever buys your property will likely neglect them anyway. I don't know your entire situation though so that was just a thought. Good luck to you man, and keep up the good work!

[@THOTHvii]

Curious if that is a Pachanoi collection to the left there? Looks like half of mine. I just put all of mine into the ground but i am in AZ. Do you do any trading/selling? I am looking for a blue.

[@SkillCult]

check out my other channel and website, teamwachuma www.teamwachuma.com I might be up for trading. I'm looking for very specific traits. I have some blue cultivars. You can contact me through that website.

[@andrewhosford7308]

Hey Steven, how do all of you cactus and succulents handle the frost/freeze? I lost a bunch that I forgot to move into the greenhouse before the winters freeze.

[@SkillCult]

I take those little desert ones inside, just in case, though some are probably hardy. the trichocereus and prickly pear can take a pretty good cold snap. I'm at 1800 feet and most of them cruise right through the freezes and snow. But I wouldn't want to leave them in the lowest, coldest air sinks. I think Ben Kamm at sacred succulents said he got down to the low 20s on year and there was a lot of damage, but few if any died.

[@nates2526]

I have a cactus in a pot that always flops over. Any tips on keeping them growing straight up?

[@lukearts2954]

I would guess it doesn't have enough to hold on to. I'd try a porous stone or another medium where your cactus can easily send hair roots into... Or just more (larger) granulate for the soil and roots to get wedged into?

[@thinkingmushrooms2943]

Charcoal VS Expanded Clay Pellets?

[@SkillCult]

Never tried those, but I'm going to say it is better for the reasons I mentioned.

[@davidtyler7208]

Whole lot of tricho!

[@homestead.design]

I use urine as a pre-charge, you'd be surprised how much it can take. But then I would be putting that char into a say 1 in 10, or 1 in 5 (char to soil) mix, so I find there is no upper limit. Today its the new Artificial Brain album. Celestial cyst is jam.

[@SkillCult]

Urine is like tailor made precharge fert. I'll check that out right now, while I cook dinner Check out BlackBraid! kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3zRhmyhlr92ebc So good!

[@manguydude287]

I am also a cactus grower and 😅 what are the odds

[@arnoldmmbb]

The one with the long name before they were called Stenocactus. I dont know why the botanist had to change it xD

[@SkillCult]

it's job security lol

[@arnoldmmbb]

@@SkillCult hahah 😂

[@genghischuan4886]

buble your compost tea in charcoal. youre welcome