Xundra Snowpaw based the XS Cactus system on the inspiration from Seid Mushrooms. I love cacti and growing plants within Second Life, so snapped up an XS Cactus Starter Kit to try it out.
I was so quick I caught Xundra still setting up the small stall at The Farm a week or so ago. Since then my starter cactus has given me a quickly enlarging cacti garden, and some quick gratification in growing some cute plants.
Xundra Snowpaw setting up the XS Cactus stall at The Farm a week ago.
This is part ii of my series on breedable or growing plants within SL. This series started with a review of the Seid Mushroom system, which provided inspiration towards the XS Cactus system also.
Starter Kit
The XS Cactus store display.
The starter kit has everything you need to start off with – a cactus, an optional pot, a watering can and a crate of empty seed bags, necessary to gather your baby cactus seeds once they come along. There is also a hand shovel for decoration. All for L$150.
Included is an affiliate vendor board – you can purchase the watering cans and everything else you need from this yourself, saving yourself 10% off the market price. Or put it out at your own stalls to sell XS Cactus from. This vendor updates nightly, so keep it updated to find further accessories as they are added to the XS Cactus product range. For instance, as I am writing this, Xundra has just created a golden watering can which is available through this vendor.
The Cactus
Initially the seedling cacti are really tiny.
But less than 24 hours later I found the cactus had grown overnight (the same cactus as above, just moved to a new location)
And at two days old, the cactus will bloom...
...resulting in a cactus seed to bag up.
Initially the cactus is very tiny – you may need to zoom in with your camera to find it. It’s helpful to use the pot just to locate the cacti, but the pot is optional – you can plant the actual plant anywhere, and this will allow you to create a nice desert garden of different varieties, or a stoned cacti garden of different varieties.
Once I had five cacti growing, I myself did away with the two prim pots and created a big trough to arrange a cacti garden within, saving on prims plus allowing for some plant landscaping.
You can rename your cactus, and clicking it will bring up hover text stats – name, level, how many days old and water level percentage. Watering is simple – either wear or rez the watering can nearby and click it to give 10% water. A cactus which gets to 0% water will die. Click again if you want to water another 10%. The watering can will locate all cacti around it needing water.
Cactus can be taken into inventory quite safely also. This puts them into a suspension of growth and reproduction, but is an ideal way to stop the need for watering while you are away on holiday.
The seeds which are produced by cacti rezzed out, however, can’t be inventorised without first putting them into a seed bag – these are available free in bulk crates.
Once the cactus is grown up, it will begin a breeding cycle of every two days – on the second day a flower is produced which later disappears to provide a seed. This seed can then be put into a seed bag to give away or sell, or clicking it will provide a new cactus plant to grow. This new baby cactus plant is delivered from a server, and you will need to rez it to start growth.
My Quick Experiments
True to promises, within two days of planting my starter cactus – a white club cactus – it had grown to a huge proportion and had a ring of flowers around it. When I returned to this cactus I found the flowers gone. Puzzled, I looked up the help notecard again, which suggested this meant the cactus had dropped a seed. I searched high and low but couldn’t see this seed – later I was to find that once the flower showing disappears this is the indication that a cactus seed is ready to be bagged up. It wasn’t until my fifth flowering that I realised my cacti seeds were being poofed out of the greenhouse window and onto the ground outside. They are quite large, once you do realise where they are.
So, I rezzed out a seed bag and clicked it. The seed bag collected my seed, which I was informed was an Orange Night Baton Cactus. I decided to grow this one on also, and clicked the bag to plant it. A new seed / plant was sent down from the server and I potted this up to grow it up for more baby cactus. These new baby cacti come at 100 percent watered, saving you a bit of watering for a day or so.
Within a week I had five cacti, and one of these was a level two. With each I potted it up into the basic pot which comes in the starter kit – however as suggested above, by my fifth one of this morning, I have now created a cacti garden bed to save prims, and plant these all out into.
What You Can Buy
Pricing is at the time of this post, and may change. Please consult the vendors for more up to date information. The affiliate vendors – of which you get one in your starter kit – are updated daily with any new products or pricing changes etc.
Starter Kit – L$150
Watering can – L$25
Bulk water – 5 watering cans for the price of 4 – L$100
Bulk Crate of Seed Bags – free.
[Update] Golden Watering Can – this comes with 2500% automatic water* – L$200
As I was writing this up I was contacted by the creator of XS Cactus, Xundra Snowpaw, to tell me that she has since increased the capacity of all the watering cans, from 100% to 250%, meaning each can will last much longer and water more cactus plants. As it is currently, I find that I only need to get out a watering can every couple of days, as they don’t use that much, certainly in comparison to some other growing and breeding plant brands I am also trialling.
[Update] – * There is now a golden watering can which waters all your cacti in bulk automatically – just set this out and any cacti nearby will be watered automatically until the golden water runs out. And the affiliate vendor also has a special Easter pot to purchase.
Types of Cactus
You start off with a white club cactus. Seeds from this may give you different levels of cactus – the small stand at The Farm demos three different varieties – a Blue Night Baton cactus, a Purple Jungle Cactus and a Voodoo Red Cactus.
I have a Purple and an Orange Night Baton Cactus (the colour difference is found in the flowers) and my latest is a purple ball cactus. Discovering the different varieties is certainly part of the fun of this particular game.
What I Think
As with Seid Mushrooms – which provided inspiration behind the XS Cactus game, these growing and breeding cacti are easily maintained and entirely encouraging in the quick time it takes to go from newborn seedling to a productive breeding plant. XS Cactus are really fast growers – you can have a sizable cactus within a day of planting a seedling – hours, really. At two prims each you can afford to keep a large collection, and the system allows for a secondary market in bagged seeds or cacti also.
Along with the mushrooms, XS Cactus are definitely a stayer on my own estate, and bring a smile to my face every day when I find one or more of them blooming with a cherry ring of flowers around the bulbous body of the cactus plants. For only L$150 for the starter pack currently, XS Cactus are an excellent growing game, and would also make great gifts for housewarmings and weddings.
SLurl : Xundra’s Little Pet Store
SLurl : Market Stall at The Farm – just across from the Auction spot at the Farm
URL : XSCactus.com – this provides a forum for questions and answers. Just created by Xundra today.
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hmm. perhaps i should have made the watering can purple. golden water just doesn’t sound right lol