to graft or not to graft. that is the question.
I wouldn't graft them at this age.
well, here's my first attempt... i hope it takes. constructive criticism is welcome.
Looks good. You should be able to tell in a few weeks if it worked out. Keep us posted.
i'm trying to upload a pic but the file is too large apparently. there is what looks like three roots growing out from the gap... i'm assuming this means the graft will fail. should there have been more downward pressure?
Looks a little loose on the sides, but I could be wrong.
yes, i now believe it was.
All of those babies are big enough to graft onto the size Trich. you have there, I'd hazard to guess that you might have been too concerned with constricting the sides with the rubber band though. Having a really tight connection is important, but so is having an actively growing stock. If the stock is growing rapidly then the graft is going to take so long as everything is being held together.
my trichs are dormant right now but i will try again in the spring. my next graft attempt will be with a pereskiopsis which has about a 1cm stalk. would a 1 cm scion be about right for this graft? i imagine i would want them to line up nicely so i can apply pressure somehow. i am inclined to try the marshmallow stab just because it seems easier to balance.
You might think it is easier to try to get them to line up, but it is easier to try not to line them up in a way as this will ensure that they are lined up in part rather than not at all which is what tends to happen when one tries to be to perfect and get them to line up perfectly. The stab graft works better in many instances as it allows for more surface area to come into contact at a slight angle with the scion thus making it more probable that you will get a good graft even when you don't know what you are doing so to speak.
alright i'm sold on the stab method for next try. how quick do i have to be? my understanding is that i need to have the final cuts complete a couple of seconds prior to their attachment. this worries my as i'll be cutting the stock into a spear shape requiring multiple cuts.
You don't have to be quick, you just have to save a sliver of tissue to place back over each cut so the cuts do not dry out. The easiest way of doing this is to simply cut layers from your first cut to have at the ready and then make two more cuts applying your precut pieces back over the stem as you cut. This is of primary importance for very young seedling grafts however and your scions are definitely past this worrisome stage of grafting. With that said, the size of these pups will allow you to do a side stab or upside down stab as well. The upside down graft is generally done with the bottom portion or root side as this will encourage more pupping from the upside down roots that will be grafted onto your Trich., Opuntia, etc. The danger with grafting very young seedlings to Pereskiopsis is that they can easily push your seedlings off if they are overwatered or too well hydrated. You need a thick sap or super glue with little seedlings such as when your doing a cotyledon graft. You should have none of these worries though as your scions are very mature and should take to grafting very easy no matter which style you choose so long as they are held in place, kept humid, and you don't attempt to get to perfect of a match. Grafting works best when you purposely set things off kilter just a bit... especially so when your first learning to graft. Cacti are among these specimens to learn to graft and are very forgiving so long as we do not try to be too perfect with our attempts initially. That, and they take time and neglect after the operation is done or your going to undo your very successful grafts.
awesome nice tips! thanks. a little slice to maintain the moisture while i work. i'll be less nervous so less likely to make errors. i like the upside down idea too! the perekiopsis is about 2 feet tall right now. how high should the cut be? i don't want it to fall over down the road.
How tall your pereskiopsis is before you graft is a personal preference. I say this because as you mention swaying is something you have to take into consideration depending on how large you intend to grow your seedlings, mature specimens, etc. out on them. However, you can not underestimate the power of a simple stake placed next to your pereskiopsis in this instance to hold them up or even a string suspended above or slightly to the side to keep them from falling over. These are easy ways to prolong how long you keep them grafted on taller specimens. I personally prefer fresh growing tips as opposed to older lower down cuts when dealing with pereskiopsis. I've literally grafted seedlings to seedlings so height is not an issue, but rather speed of growth. You want your stock to be in an actively growing stage and not too woody where the cut is to be made. The better the fit or the more closely the two are similar in size the less chance that one will dry out and push the other off. This however can again be offset with the use of slight pressure to greater pressure depending on the size of the graft you are going to make. As a general rule, you want to apply as much pressure as the scion can take and this varies with the size of the scion and the size of the stock as well. This is why I prefer self sticking coban for seedlings over a year old and parafilm for seedlings under a year when grafting. However, you can use many different options and weights to hold them in place. You can use the juice from leaves or from stem tissue to help glue seedlings in place as well as to keep the cuts from drying out while you are fumbling with making other cuts as the case may be. You can even use superglue to hold them in place if one is careful not to get any under the grafting surface. This can be accomplished simply by holding pressure at the top. Grafting is an art that must be practiced and practiced and eventually it becomes so easy that it is like riding a bicycle. You have to try and see where you have failed or the graft has failed. You can easily graft to a two foot tall specimen and then cut the specimen to a shorter length later as well and still keep the graft intact. Your specimens are the size that they should do fine with coban wrap. Parafilm however has the added benefit that it stretches a lot more and will be more forgiving if you let it spend too much time on the graft. Truth be told, I've even use parafilm and coban in conjunction with each other. The idea behind using both is that both will hold in much more of the moisture content and prevent drying out while also allowing the graft to breath just a little. You have to experiment and you will get better. The obvious choice is to graft a specimen you have that you don't mind losing your first attempt when grafting very small seedlings for the first time. You can gain experience this way without losing something valuable or one of the kind when it comes to genetics. If one is talking about Lophophora w. where one locality is not self-fertile and the other is self-fertile I would choose the self-fertile variety to learn to graft with as there is not as much genetic diversity with a self-fertile variety as there is with a non-self fertile variety and you will be losing more in the way of genetic diversity.... The only reason to graft is to get your plants up to the size that they can flower and you can attain more seeds or you can see the results of a cross you have recently made and note any differences in morphology/phenotype. You don't create a L. w. Kikko variety for example without good genetics and many crosses... unless of course you are lucky enough to start out with a L. w. Kikko variety to begin with for at least one of the parents. When you can afford to get the best you start with the best. When you can't you work with what you have and sometimes end up creating something novel in the process, but in the end it is generally better to work on the backs of others who have already spent years trying to create what you are after. In the simple case of genetic diversity and if that is your goal you want to look at many different angles. The pollen for instance of many L. w. differs from one region to another and even within that region to an extent. So, one could easily make crosses based solely on differences in the pollen from one variety to another or one locality to another selecting out the rarest pollen geometries and hybridizing to create a strain that shows this rare or even a new pollen geometry. That to me is what makes hybridizing so interesting. You can select a trait that is only visible under the microscope and breed for that trait and increase that trait in a way that is only discernable to those that know what you are looking for and who knows what other traits you will be selecting for simply by using pollen morphology as your guide. Perhaps you will be selecting for traits that would have taken years to stumble upon by any other means as you have a guide post that others are not looking at when they are making their attempts. Still, those traits that can be seen macroscopically are important as well and you get the best feel for these traits when you have both the mother plant and the pollen donor their for examination and you can see how seedlings turn out. As a general rule of thumb, I prefer to grow out anywhere from 10-100 seeds from an initial cross, but try to ramp it up to several thousand seedlings when doing the second filial cross to really see what is hidden in there in hopes of noticing one seedling or two that really stands out. Whether the trait is an increase in a particular color in the flower, a slightly different shape to the flower or stigma... or simply a different pollen geometry... all traits are potentially interesting and can potentially be improved upon and there is no way of knowing how one trait can influence other traits until you have selected out for those traits. You can have multiple lines going each with different goals from two locality crosses and two is all you really need if the genetic diversity is different enough and you see promise in your f2 seedlings along the way. Add in more genetic diversity as you see fit, but realize that the more you add the harder it is to select out for recessives or traits that require that you build on them through repeated inbreeding. That is the beauty of what grafting does for us. It speeds up the seed set and the determination of different genetic variables in those crosses. For the person who has a lifetime of ambition without any other goal than increased genetic variability the obvious option is to cross southern locality to northern locality and vice versa. While at the same time crossing eastern localities to western localities and back and forth. Take the medicine wheel of crosses you have thus made and cross your eastern (mother) x western (pollen donor) to your Western (mother) x Eastern (pollen donor) and then cross your Northern (mother) x Southern (pollen donor) to your Southern (mother) x Northern (pollen donor). You could then cross your (NS x SN) x (EW x WE) and your (EW x WE) x (NS x SN) and the process could go on for a very long time as you must consider that even if you don't think your selecting for anything other than a blend of genetics from all regional variations that you will in effect still be selecting for some traits based on some unknown or known variables. I've seen some hybridizers focus on breeding for traits in the cotyledons themselves in such a manner that they were able to produce tricotyledon seedlings in 100% of their seeds that should have been dicotyledons. What effect did this have on their mature specimens? The point I am trying to make here is that there is a lot of genetic variation and much of what can be done is not known until we begin to experiment and the best way to do this is to actually make grafts to get seedlings up to flowering size quickly so as to make future crosses and the best way to learn to graft is to actually experiment with grafting.
Mentor pollen or pollen that has been inactivated can help overcome fertilization ability. The mentor pollen does not need to germinate to stimulate the stigma to be receptive to foreign pollen. Mentor pollen thus formulated by inactivation via alcohol, microwave, or oven can then be added directly to the stigma prior to fertilization with an incompatible pollen to induce the stigma to be receptive to the foreign pollen. Alternately, you can use a pollen cocktail with a very dilute mentor pollen and apply both at the same time. Or, you can simply use viable diluted pollen from your compatible pollen mixed with your incompatible pollen. All of these methods have been proven to overcome fertilization barriers. The main advantages here are that this allows you to transfer genes of a different species or genus to your seedlings and over time create something truly novel. Personally, I'd love to see some Astrophytum x Lophophora or Lophophora x Astrophytum created and then improved upon through subsequent breedings to enable a more diverse and phenotypically different grouping of hybrids. True, it may be that these hybrids or different hybrids created may be partially infertile and much work may need to be done to consolidate desired traits... but I think the projects are worthwhile to undertake for those so inclined. Also of note, mentor pollen can be used to make a normally not self fertile plant or cacti accept its own pollen. The idea here is to simply use inactivated compatible pollen and fertile self pollen in the mix. With this method, you may be able to get L. w. Huizache.. not normally self fertile to set seed with its own pollen simply by also mixing in inactivated pollen from a northern variety. This would be of value if you only had one seedling of a locality and it was not self fertile and you wanted more seed to work with. There is also a shuffling that occurs even with a self cross that may prove beneficial depending on ones goals.
(http://www.cactusedintorni.com/images/phocagallery/gallerie/panarotto/thumbs/phoca_thumb_l_astrophora-(asteria-x-lophophora-fricii).jpg)
Astrophora Astrophytum asterias x Lophophora fricii
Also... http://public.fotki.com/Grootscholten/plant-collections/pyote/lophophora-williams-6.html#media
Lophophora williamsii x Turbinicarpus lophoporoides
very nice pics the second one looks massive! here's fruit from the one i posted a while ago. can you tell me anything about this particular cacti?