"Jai_Ganesha "

In cacti, is the only goal to make the plant grow faster? That's what I've deduced but I have never seen that stated explicitly. In other plants, there are additional goals such as pH toleration, cold hardiness, resistance to disease, etc. But in cacti, it appears the only goal is to make them grow faster?

If that's the case I think that's where my reluctance probably comes from. In my view cacti are supposed to be slow.

1. Speeding up the evaluation process for new seedlings
2. What's graft compatible with what.
3. Saving plants having terminal problems. i.e. RIP(Rot In Peace)
4. Aesthetically pleasing have a range of scions flowering either simultaneously or in sequence.
5. Ease of cultivation where plants would not normally grown in the ground but will as a scion on a rootstock adapted to the soil conditions.
6. Curiosity and the opportunity for serendipity to provide differences in the plant by the influence of the rootstock on it.

Some of the advantages there are no doubt others.

Cheers

I find that most of what you've stated in my case can be rephrased as "laziness." But I totally understand why it's appealing! lol

From:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/g...

"I'm happy to report that I have shortened to twenty two months the time necessary to produce flowers on a dragonfruit seedling. etc"

An interesting report of reduced time to flowering for a Pitaya seedling.

Cheers

Have done a little searching on the Cactus X potexvirus which is perhaps the virus Steve mentions in his post https://garden.org/thread/view....

Have tried to follow the links on http://sdb.im.ac.cn/vide/descr... in particular http://sdb.im.ac.cn/vide/famly... without success, the response has been a "timeout" error message.

Have uploaded an extract from the first mentioned page, others may have more success with the links to affected Cactaceae species of interest to this forum.

Managed to connect to the webpage, http://sdb.im.ac.cn/vide/famly..., mentioned above, this evening.

There is mention of more than one virus affecting the Cactaceae.

Cactus 2 carlavirus
Cactus X potexvirus
Saguaro cactus (?) carmovirus
Opuntia Sammons' tobamovirus
Zygocactus Montana X (?) potexvirus
Zygocactus (?) potexvirus

Plant Viruses Online
Descriptions and Lists from the VIDE Database

Known susceptibilities of Cactaceae

Species tested:
Austrocylindropuntia cylindrica
Cactaceae
Carnegiea gigantea (syn. Cereus giganteus)
Saguaro; Giant cactus
Cereus
Chamaecereus sylvestrii
Echinocereus procumbens
Echinopsis
Epiphyllum
Ferocactus acanthodes (syn. Echinocactus acanthodes)
Opuntia engelmannii
Opuntia vulgaris (syn. Cactus monacanthos; Opuntia monacantha)
Prickly-pear cactus; Tuna; Prickly-pear; Drooping prickly-pear
Pereskia saccharosa
Schlumbergera bridgesii
Zygocactus
Zygocactus truncatus
Zygocactus x Schlumbergera

Prior to Winter(Western Australia) had removed the top of the Chauncey scion.

Surprisingly the scion produced another new shoot over Winter yet the rootstock shows little sign of new growth over the same period.

Cheers

Grafted an Ackermannii a little while back, to C. repandus. It has taken and now growing.

Be interesting to see what eventuates.

One interesting observation yesterday, The Eltu scion on the same rootstock, is starting to produce new flower buds, a most welcome development.

Cheers

Two days ago I tried to do a graft of what is, most likely, not an P. porteri plant, to the suspected P. porteri in the Windbreak.

Have been contemplating this for some time as I wanted to see whether this would give me a flower for the unknown and thereby a clue as to what species it is.

The graft was a flat graft and today was obviously not successful, .

Now, given the information obtained yesterday, it is more important than mere curiosity, to see if P. porteri and the unknown are either/both different species/clones.

Last week a grafting tool ordered to try grafting Shatoot scions to M. alba, arrived.

Today I did what could best be described as a reverse Wedge graft.



As well did another reverse keyhole graft using the new tool.



Both grafts were covered with Gladwrap.

Should know for certain on the 27th whether grafts have been successful. Always some uncertainty with Field grafts.

Cheers

The NOID Pereskiopsis grafts to suspected P. porteri, have been disappointing.

The reverse wedge graft failed though there is still a small hope for the Keyhole graft.

Have done a slight variation of the Keyhole graft since, the change made was not helpful, result was worse than the original Keyhole graft.

Will try again shortly, before the warmer weather disappears into Winter.

Cheers

This illustrates the importance of selecting the type of graft for the same rootstock and same scion source.

Initially an insertion graft was done in both cases. The scion on the left survived whereas that on the right failed and I regrafted with a flat graft, with a smaller scion than that on the left.

Health and growth rate vastly different, the left scion has done nothing but complain by showing the brown spots, whereas the regraft appears healthy and is growing rapidly.

Both scions will be left as is and I think it highly likely the right hand scion will flower this coming Spring.


Cheers

ausrpned said:Have done a slight variation of the Keyhole graft since, the change made was not helpful, result was worse than the original Keyhole graft.

Subsequently did another graft, this time successful.

Hopefully the scion is either a different clone, or another species, which will give me an opportunity to do a successful pollination.


Cheers

Intresting cactus graft and roses, too!

https://www.facebook.com/Today...

Thanks ShadyGreenThumb, have had a look and learned another way to do graft using his(?) hold down method.
https://www.facebook.com/Today...
Cheers

Have started some different grafts recently, results look promising.

Noticed the tube graft, first time I have used it when grafting to Pereskiopsis.


One of the best grafting demo's I used when first starting out was
https://www.youtube.com/user/D...,

Other excellent sites dealt with the different techniques used in vegetables, these were a real eye opener.

Cheers

The user does have interesting tips. Its where i began utilizing my germinating and planting technique.

Have done a few more grafts, first time I have had success doing a "tube" graft of S. megalanthus, to Pereskiopsis.

Perseverance has it's rewards, occasionally.
More inclined to think it is M. velunta rather than gracilis. Only came across the plant a couple of weeks ago.

When the scions develop it may be possible see whether my inclination is correct or way off the mark.

Cheers

One of my less than successful, grafts.

Initially a Red then a White flowering cultivar was grafted to the now flowering rootstock. The Red cultivar scion did not survive and last year, I expected the White cultivar scion to flower, not so.

Again the White did not flower this year.

Wonder whether the rootstock is not producing the right flowering hormone, florigen or the equivalent, for different Schlumbergera cultivars?

Will try again using other Schlumbergera cultivars as well as intergeneric rootstocks once flowering has finished and the weather has warmed.


Cheers

Did two Izavan grafts a fortnight ago, had three frosts since then so the plant is quite frost tolerant. Removed what I call tiedowns today and grafted a number of intergeneric Cereus repandus x Soehrensia huascha scions.

Won't be long before things warm up, the rootstocks are producing flower buds already in anticipation.


Izavan

Cereus repandus x Soehrensia huascha.

The discoloration on the Cereus repandus x Soehrensia huascha scions, is due to the offsets being left a bit too long on the scion source. It should turn the normal green if the past is a guide to the future.

Cheers

Looked again at the Zamia palms, keen to see them flowering.

As I traveled looked for more of the C. flava, wanted find some with the red colorations, success!




You can see why some call them Donkey Orchids.
Cheers