I got the Old Man in mid-late 1980s, he was 3 inches tall. He lived in a pot, growing to a foot tall
In 1993 I move to the High Desert of Arizona, exactly 3300 ft above sea level. I transplanted him in the fall of 1993.
He's 31 years in the ground. He has full sun, survived 24 inches of snow, 60+mph straight line wind and from 20° F to over 130° F. He thrives.
I hadn't really looked, but today the original arm is feet tall. His tallest arm is well over 4 feet.
The pictures are as he stands today. A few arms are shedding and appear to be wooding. He's healthy as he can be. He began blooming last month and one arm has a full bloom as taken last night, Friday 18 May, '24. They're dying back today.
If you grow them I've attached mature seed pod photos. They're not ready to harvest until the are 12-20mm in diameter and black. The Pod is open so, tilt the bloom down to harvest.
The needles are strong enough to sew with. They have went through the sidewall of a new tire. The hair was harvested by indigenous of his home area and woven into clothes and hats. It gives silk a good run in tensil strength.
I have seen them in their natural habitat. My Old Man looks just like the cactus I saw in the foothills of the Andes.

It is a stunning plant, really true to the name age-wise, with lots of character. I also like the back story, kind of makes it almost a member of the family.

I put one of these plants in the public garden here about 15 years ago. It gets by on rainfall alone (10" in a good year, bone dry summers) and strikes me as a real survivor given extremely rocky soil without much amendment. Don't have access to that one for a picture at the moment, but here are a few younger old men (middle aged men?) on the patio.

This one has been with me ~15 years and will go in the ground at some point soon.



These 3 are seedling offspring of the plant in the public garden, now in 10 inch pots



More old men on the patio





In theory all these plants will end up in the garden, at least that would be a best case scenario. Your pictures give me inspiration for how this might turn out. I also have other "old man" genera, including Cephalocereus and Espostoa, headed out there.

to the forum!