Now that's a nice reminder, of sorts. I'd be interested to see how a few bits of bridgesii might fare as grafting stock. The peyote I've put on a PC pach is doing so well. I'd recommend experimenting with grafting to anyone who has cactus material to spare.
Space constraints eventually become the bane of the dedicated cactus hobbyist!
I never let them grow more than 180-190cm. One 40cm rootstock and two 70cm cuttings is ideal for that size ime. Middle cutting may be used for ceremony...
I never grafted onto bridgesii. Many years ago I started with pachanoi and peruvianus and only a few bridgesii. Bridgesii turned out to be rather slow growers, but they proved to be medicinally stronger with a cleaner chemical spectrum, so they were used for other purposes rather than as rootstock. Now my focus is on various forms of bridgesii, but I have plenty of pachanoi and peruvianus rootstocks, so almost all of my bridgesii are grafted as scions onto them.
I cannot relate... Psych, there is twenty to thirty you can't see that could all benefit from larger pots. Another twenty or so you can't see in the yard in five gallon pots as tall as I am. Struggle between wanting to and not wanting them to take up anymore room in winter dormant season.
Just looking at this again, I would like to report that my couple of bridgesii have fared at least as well as any of my other specimens growth-wise, if not better. They've outpaced a macrogonus in terms of length if not girth, to the extent of falling over in a storm and forcing the weighty decision in finally having to cut the 2.7m long example, partly due to damage incurred in the incident but also because it had grown another 10" this year and would no longer have fitted back into my conservatory in an upright orientation.
My new bridges (about 20, all with a good reputation) grew very nicely as scions this season — roughly 2 kg in 14 months, all from small scion pieces. It’s hard to say whether this was thanks to the rootstocks or if they would have grown quickly on their own.
I hope you'll find you've got lucky with a faster-growing self-rooted bridgesii strain - is that ~100g measured as fresh growth per plant, or as biomass after drying?
Sorry, what you mean by ~100g? I wrote 2kg, and yes, this is fresh.
Various forms of pachanoi and peruvianus. My rootstocks are very strong plants, usually 40–60 cm long with well-developed roots.
Sorry, I don't have any experience with TBMs or Lophs. I prefer fast growing columnar cacti.Also, thinking about TBMs and roots, those things put out some chunky adventitious roots quite consistently, so I wonder if you can offer any practical commentary regarding that? And is the idea of root grafting (as in attaching one of these adventitious roots to something else) that just entered my head likely to be something, or is it merely addled nonsense?
Also, do you have experience of de-grafting and re-rooting lophs? I mean, obviously I could just search for this stuff, but I haven't done it yet
And what if one were to attempt grafting an adventitious TBM root onto a a pupped loph graft a suitable length of time prior to degrafting?
20×100g=2kg
- although I'd no idea how amazing your rootstock may have been.No worries - just bear in mind, though, you could turn some of your good rootstock into loph factories
20×100g=2kg
2kg dry in 14 months would, admittedly, have been phenomenal
No worries - just bear in mind, though, you could turn some of your good rootstock into loph factories
I'm already thinking it could be worth me grafting a slice of bridgesii onto PC and then grafting a loph onto that, in the hope of boosting the loph's alkaloid content.
Oh, now that is simply wonderful to hear of! I misread as 2kg total, not 2kg per plant! There's a mini-me doing a happy dance inside my belly now20×2kg each = 40 kg fresh total. With a moderate dry-to-fresh ratio estimate of about 5%, that comes out to roughly 2 kg dry in total. That’s using the whole flesh, not just the outer green layer.
Yes, they grew really nicely. They get a lot of love.
Here are the pictures of some of them — the time difference is 12 months and 27 days.
View attachment 106275
View attachment 106276
Well, I have the capacity to test this at least a little bit, with identical scions and stocks, but one with the extra bridgesii slice. I can even use stocks growing on the exact same roots. One of the scions will have its nutrition passing through a zone of differing metabolic capability, however briefly. It will be fun regardless of the outcome!
I understand your passion. I have it the same
.
In fact these are two different spots, I have more of them. But you are right, this small wall was built last year, they called for it
On closer inspection I noticed as much, and then became highly amused by your apparently near exponential increase in cactus pots.In fact these are two different spots, I have more of them. But you are right, this small wall was built last year, they called for it
Last year I picked up about 25 new cacti, so yes—the collection has grown a bit. I even had to cut some of the big ones, which gave me some nice new rootstock for grafting.
Yes, I have to move the plants indoors for the winter, and the hard terracotta pots are perfect for that.
Happy happy and healthy! Looking good. All through the growing season the height sneaks up on you doesn't it? Doesn't seem that drastic but then you see a photo...
I think I've blown it on that front already
but I'd love to hear about your specimens either here or in a more on-topic thread for that. There were already quite a few cultivation-centred posts earlier on in this thread so feel free to roll with it as you see fit.
It seems nature did in fact design them to fall over and break off, in no particular orderthe san pedros are fine btw
