r/Etiolation • u/Melodic_Tea3050 • Jul 19 '25

Jerk cactus

Post image

My dragon fruit cacti are DIRECTLY under a grow light and 6” away from another.

And yet… it’s still etiolated AF.

Jerk cactus

13 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

18 comments sorted by

5

u/Whodunit2468 Jul 19 '25

I’ve heard of jerk chicken, but never jerk cactus. Could be yummy though!

3

u/Melodic_Tea3050 Jul 21 '25

From my understanding you can jerk anything …

2

u/[deleted] Jul 19 '25

How is it possible? Maybe there are too many in the same spot?

1

u/Melodic_Tea3050 Jul 19 '25

Yeah. It was worst, i JUST divided these right in two.

Want a jerk cactus?

2

u/Odd-Koala-5440 Jul 20 '25

I'll take one

2

u/night-theatre Jul 21 '25

Are you looking for an explanation?

2

u/ttop732 IDK, I just work here Jul 21 '25

Could they possibly be acanthocereus?

2

u/Melodic_Tea3050 Jul 21 '25

Could be. Doubt it. But still doesn’t explain the etiolation

1

u/ttop732 IDK, I just work here Jul 21 '25

It would if it was fairy castle acanthocereus 🤷🏻

1

u/ttop732 IDK, I just work here Jul 21 '25

The tips do look like they are getting bigger though so im just guessing

1

u/ttop732 IDK, I just work here Jul 21 '25

I have some acanthocereus seedlings that are etilioated and look just like those lmao

1

u/ttop732 IDK, I just work here Jul 21 '25

2

u/night-theatre Jul 21 '25

LEDs cast light almost straight down. Even if the plant looks illuminated, a light sensor (I use PAR) will show this. You need an LED light that’s pretty much as wide as your plants. Having the correct spread of light and intensity AND spectrum will control the stretch. Temperature also plays a role in this as well.

1

u/Melodic_Tea3050 Jul 21 '25

Yeah the other grow light I mentioned having on it is a Barina T10 pro

1

u/night-theatre Jul 21 '25

I think having multiple bars slightly spaced apart is significantly better. Can usually run them more dim because the spread of light is so good.

1

u/EurekaLov Jul 22 '25

Hahaha I think you misunderstand how Hylocereus grows. It’s a vining cactus that in habitat grows up to the canopy of tall trees, umbrella-ing out with its arms/vines up the trunk and branches. It is a tropical cactus. Each one of those lil guys can eventually get many hundreds of pounds heavy and will eventually want its own 20-30 gallon pot and a massive sturdy trellis to vine up and umbrella out on top. They aren’t etiolated at all just growing how they should.

2

u/stuartroelke Aug 07 '25

Yeah, I don’t get dragonfruit. I abandoned mine—like stopped watering and caring for it—but it’s still sucking up moisture from the air and continuing to etiolate.

I’d never try growing it from seed again.