Royen's Tree Cactus - Pilosocereus royenii - Three Years from Seed

This year Cactus Island Nursery is proud to bring Royen's tree cactus - Pilosocereus royenii - into cultivation for the first time on a substantial scale. Known as "sebucán" in Puerto Rico, it is a Caribbean dry forest cactus that branches and can reach 24ft tall. It is under serious threat in habitat there by the Harrisia mealybug - Hypogeoccocus pungens - which causes deformed growth “tumors”, stunts reproductive capacity and eventually kills the cactus. This is easily preventable in cultivation but not in habitat. My seedlings were grown from self-pollinated clone seeds germinated in late 2020 from the mother stem pictured, which originates from Puerto Rico. There are over 8000 roughly 5"-9" cacti available from this planting at a wholesale price of $5 with a 100 plant minimum order. Royen's tree cactus is a hardy and underutilized columnar cactus of striking and mysterious beauty, featuring dark pine-green waxy skin, white wooly tips and evening blooms the color of beach sunsets at maturity. It thrives in central and south Florida gardens with a well-drained mix of organic cactus soil and fine grain black basalt, and could be grown into a great living fence. It has been enthusiastically received by collectors throughout the country since I first offered them for sale in early 2022. If you are interested in wholesale purchase of a quantity of these or other plants from Cactus Island, please contact me and I'll be happy to answer your questions, set up a time to visit or put together an order. Cactus Island is certified nematode/pest-free for all states except California. See our blog at www.cactusislandacres.com for what's going on at the farm and homestead.
My background music, used with permission granted by Harmonia Mundi, is "La Jota" by early 18th Century Spanish composer Santiago de Murcia, from the album "!Xacaras!" featuring musicians Paul O'Dette, Andrew Lawrence-King, Steve Player, Pedro Estevan & Pat O'Brien.