The Peruvian Torch Cactus grows in the native land of Peruvian Shamans. High up in the Andean mountain deserts in Peru and Ecuador, this entheogenic variety thrives. It's very closely related to the San Pedro species The shamanic use of different cacti among humans dates back thousands of years to the northern most coast located in Peru and the monks of a culture known as Chavin (900 BC to 200 BC) The bible is very clear about divination as well as familiar spirits, and idolatry and false god worship and covenants with false gods. Many shamanic doctrines engage in such practices. Any time you see "entheogen" or "entheogenic" or "ethnobotanical", you're most likely looking at forbidden "new age", "occultic", "shamanic" practices.
These are very hearty. This is not a shop by the way, nor do I link to anyone who sells this nor do I sell it myself.Online vendors around 2012 were big time into what I call "shamanic doctrine marketing", related to cacti like this and other plants most people had never heard of. The problem is, they were encouraging people to engage in practices condemned by the holy bible...Ignoring the rules in scripture is a very dangerous thing to do, period. It may seem like cactus and plants have nothing to do with religion, but religious or shamanic doctrine is very often tied to the use of plants in unusual ways. This field of study is called ethnobotany. I am bringing biblical ethnobotany to the plate.
Cultivation
Cultivation of the Trichocereus peruvianus ( and other various cacti species mentioned on this website ) is not that difficult at all, and anyone can grow them, even from seed. Organic soil or compost is highly recommended as it provides healthy food for your plants. When it comes to these unique plants, they require much different growing mediums than typical other species. You'll want to mix 30% regular fertilizer(soil, or compost), with 30% sand, and 30% perlite. Some prefer not to use perlite at all, and other things can take their place like certain types of rocks, etc.
Some argue that adding up to 50% perlite to your compost helps. You'll notice after reading around that the methods use for preparing your pots for growing these does vary. Many prefer to use perlite, others do not. Perlite is a white, porous volcanic glass that is used in soil mixtures to increase drainage. In this case it's used to create air pockets and allow for good drainage. You don't want a growing medium that stays wet with any type of cactus. They are used to dry, dessert like climantes.
When germinating, mist the top layer before adding the seeds. After misting , press your seeds gently into the surface of the soil, or you can sprinkle a very light layer over them. Some suggest not doing either and just literally sitting them on top of the dirt. Crowding is fine because later on you can separate them. Do not cover the seeds with too much soil because they do need some light to germinate. Take a clear plastic wrap and cover the whole container.
This is not a shop. This page is just for cultural and botanical research. There was some confusion in a lot of emails. I link to my own shops but I don't sell 99% of what is on this website. For certain Items like this one, I am removing links to my site. I put up information to reduce harm caused from vendors who fail to warn customers about things that I feel they should be warned about. I am here undoing wrongs and making rights. Please share my pages on your social media. Yes this cactus is legal in the USA. No I do not sell it nor its seeds nor know anyone who does sorry, but you should be able to find it in the us pretty easy.