Pachanoi
Juul's Giant
Well documentedJuuls Giant is a fat, nearly harmless San Pedro: heavy stems with spines reduced so far that growers describe picking it up barehanded. It is also unusually consistent, reported to look the same in different pot sizes and from low ground up past six thousand feet. The complication is the name, which is used both for one specific line and for a whole group of similar Southern California , with lookalikes circulating alongside them.Reported by one source, and not corroborated anywhere else.
- fat growth
- very short spines
- easy to handle
- stable across sites
- very thick
- 6-8 ribs
At a glance
Species
Parents
No source names a mother or a father for this one.
Origin
no source says whether it is seed-grown or a cutting line
In the yard
Family line
No source in this library records a cross for Juul's Giant. Nobody names a mother or a father for it, and no other entry here names it as a parent.
The longer version
Growers often use the name for a wider family of similar Southern California pachanoi rather than for one plant.Reported, but not confirmed.
Collectors report mislabelled material sold under the name, including plants resembling crossed with Juuls.Reported, but not confirmed.
Some growers have renamed variants in their own collections — The Jones Giant is the example given — while others argue that renaming only deepens the confusion.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.
The same page records, as background on a separate , that KT was first found in a retail store's supplied by Altman Specialty Plants and was named by Mark Dimmitt of EcoGro in Tucson, Arizona, after Keeper Trout passed it to them.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.
It takes its name from Tom Juul, a San Francisco cactus collector who sourced the original plant and propagated it.Reported, but not confirmed.
The original turned up in a residential yard in that city.Reported by 2 independent sources; we have not seen it ourselves.
The wiki page adds that its deeper ancestry is believed to lie in the Andes, probably Peru or Ecuador, without giving a source for the claim.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.
Where the name comes from
Where the clone first came from is still discussed: both of our accounts of it say the origin is not settled, and the specialist reference offers a presumption rather than a record. The name Tom's Juuls Giant marks one particular, highly regarded cutting line.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.
Character
Not documented yet.
- nearly smooth to heavily spined: this one leans towards nearly smooth, read from the spines line below.
Not documented yet.
- Skin
- Rich dark green, sometimes taking a blue-green sheen in good conditions.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Dark green with a bluish cast under good light is common in the genus.
- Ribs
- Deep and rounded, usually six to eight of them.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.
- Spines
- Short and easy to miss, pale yellow to grey, often absent altogether on older growth.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Short pale spines that thin out or vanish on older growth fit the near-spineless end of the genus.
- Growth habit
- Exceptionally thick columns, considerably broader than a standard pachanoi.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Unusually broad columns occur across the genus and this is a plausible degree of thickness.
- Notes
- Comes up often on the sales subreddit, and is one of the names most consistently available there.Reported, but not confirmed.Thick, fat growth is the signature.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Thick, fat columnar growth is a normal and consistent trait in this genus.Spines are reduced far enough that the plant can be picked up without much complaint.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Short-spined, easily handled forms occur regularly across the genus. runs green to faintly blue.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Green to faintly blue skin is squarely within normal Trichocereus colouring.One grower reports it looking the same across pot sizes and at elevations from roughly 2,000 to 6,200 feet.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.Unlike some clones that shorten their spines under stress, it holds its steady.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Spine length does respond to growing conditions in this genus, so a clone that holds its spination is within normal variation.: small and felted.One source states this, and our house botanist has checked it. Small felted areoles are ordinary for Trichocereus.
What the sources say
"TJG" circulates as a label in its own right, and the specialist reference treats it as a short form of Tom Juul's Giant rather than as a second plant — while being equally clear that a great many lookalikes are sold under it.Reported, but not confirmed.The wiki page cannot settle the clone's precise origin and notes that mislabelled plants circulate under the name.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.Our own notes carry Juul's Giant and TJG only as circulating labels with no verified traits, and record it as one of the names most consistently available on the sales subreddit; this wiki page is the first real description we have for it.Reported by one source, and not corroborated anywhere else.Our own notes list TJG among names recorded only as circulating labels with no verified traits, so the wiki page is the first trait record we have for it.Reported, but not confirmed.The Verne's Juul's Giant page argues that Verne's plant is the authentic Tom Juul's Giant, which implies not everything sold under the name is. The Vanilla Flower page reports two forms of Tom Juul's Giant told apart by whether the flowers smell of vanilla. The wiki page is bot-compiled and unverified.Too little stands behind this for us to confirm it.Two wiki pages carry this name, and they do not describe quite the same thing: one is a trait record for a single very thick, near-spineless pachanoi, the other says growers apply the name to a whole family of similar Southern California plants and that mislabelled material circulates. Both readings are kept above.Reported, but not confirmed.
Related names
Keep exploring
Cultivar histories in this hobby are passed between growers; where sources disagree we say so rather than pick a side.