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Tom Juul’s Giant / TJG (Trichocereus)

Tom Juul's Giant, Tom Juul’s Giant / TJG (Trichocereus), Trichocereus.net - Cactus Seeds & Books!

Tom Juul’s Giant aka TJG is a famous Trichocereus clone that goes back to the former butcher Tom Juul´s, who imported this plant into the United states and spent a lot of time to spread it around. The California based nursery Sacred Succulents played a major part in the wide distribution of this clone. It is a classic Trichocereus pachanoi clone, but VERY different to what´s making the rounds under the name PC. The latter is a unique clone with a very untypical appearance for the species Trichocereus pachanoi.

Tom Juul's Giant TJG Trichocereus Cactus Affinity

Photo: Cactusaffinity.com

Tom Juul had a giant plant in his garden and after his death, cuttings of this plant were distributed by Sacred Succulents and other cactus nurseries. K. Trout wrote a great piece on the whole history of the plant in his San Pedro book.

It is sometimes listed as a separate species, but to me it is just a regional form of Trichocereus pachanoi. Yes, there are differences in regards to the flowers but in my eyes the differences are by far not big enough to list this as another species.

Plants similar to Trichocereus Tom Juul’s Giant

There are many so called TJGoids available on the market. At least a large percentage of those are Ecuadorian Pachanois. They slightly differ from the Peruvian version, but those differences are subtle and similar to what you can see on other regional forms that have quite a wide variety. Similar plants as Tom Juul´s Giant could also be observed in Lima and Arequipa, which underlines the wide distribution that this type has
Personally, I like to call this plant TJG…and I only do that because I have a soft touch for old strains and want to keep track of those names. Otherwise, Tom Juul’s Giant is probably just another regional version of the San Pedro.
Many hybrid crosses with Tom Juul’s Giant are available. Either by Sacred Succulents or Misplant, who used his mother plant to make some exceptional crosses. The origin of this plant is not known, but it is presumed that Juul got it from one of the UC South American Cactus Collection expeditions. It is hard to spot the clone because there are so many similar plants around. Nonetheless it is a wonderful plant that is most likely of Ecuadorian origin. The similarities between some of the Ecuadorians and this plant are very strong. That all said; it doesn’t really matter because it is one of many strains related to Trichocereus pachanoi. Most people would probably simply call it a San Pedro and that´s technically correct.

Check out our main plant database pages for Trichocereus pachanoi aka Echinopsis pachanoi here:

And Trichocereus bridgesii here:

Also check out our Trichocereus Facebook group here:

https://facebook.com/groups/trichocereus