Lophophora Williamsii var. Caespitosa Graft

Today I grafted a pup from my Lophophora Williamsii var. Caespitosa. This particular pup seems to be cristata or have some sort of mutation (monstrose). It was grafted on top of a Unidentified Trichocereus that I picked up from a local garden centre.
The graft went well and the Vascular Cambiums seemed to be lined up fine. I did have some trouble trying to fix an elastic band over the scion (it kept sliding around).
Only time will tell how well it will do!

I hope this to grow well, I am really interested in how the Lopho will form!
Here are some pics:



Lophophora Williamsii var. Caespitosa graft



Lophophora Williamsii var. Caespitosa graft



Lophophora Williamsii var. Caespitosa graft

BLOODY GRAFTING STOCK

Why is Grafting stock so damn difficult to come by?

I often visit local garden centres and few of them sell cacti, the ones that do stock Shit!
I have brought another San Pedro to use as rootstock; from the same trademe seller so I presume they are clones.
I intend to use this for another Peyote graft when its roots have developed!

I would really like to have a grafting stock from many different species so that I can experiment with what works best!
I intend to use:

Hylocereus undatus (dragon fruit)

Myrtillocactus Geometrizans

Stenocereus pruinosus

Trichocereus Spachianus

Any Pilosocereus

pilosocereus azureaus

I brought this thing for dead cheap but I am not sure what it is!





Trichocereus Panchanoi

Lophophora Williamsii Seedling Update!

An update on the 50 Seeds planted 14/11/09.
Only twelve germinated over the first week which I think was down the the weather being dull. These are now 2 and 1/2 months old!
One lonely guy decided to germinate last week for no reason, so I hope more will follow his idea.

The rest have grown well and a few are beginning to grow the distinct peyote rib formation!
Here are some pictures:



Lophophora Williamsii Seedlings



Lophophora Williamsii Seedlings


Over winter I plan to sow a load more seeds under lights and heat. This way they will be able to benefit from spring/summer weather!

First Graft Update 45 days after.

This is an update on the progress of my first ever graft. It was done on the 4/12/09 and is now 45 days old!

Here are some pics of how it looks now:



Lophophora Williamsii var. Caespitosa grafted onto T. Bridgesii.



Lophophora Williamsii var. Caespitosa grafted onto T. Bridgesii.


As you can see it has plumped up Allot and has shown allot of new growth.

Although this growth is great, it would be much faster on another rootstock. I chose T. Bridgesii because the Peyoye pup and T. Brigesii were similar in diameter. This will also be a fairly permanent graft in that it won't have to be re-grafted in the future. The thickness of the T. Bridgesii should increase as the weight of the Peyote Scion increases.

I will update you on its further progress in the future.

Alcohol and Peyote

DO NOT LET ALCOHOL TOUCH THE FLESH OF PEYOTE.
Somewhere I can remember reading that using alcohol based rubbing gel is a highly effective method of preventing mealybug and red spider mite infestation on peyote plants.
So this is what I did. The next day, this is what I found:



Damaged Lopophora Williamsii var. Caespitosa.



Damaged Lophophora Williamsii.



Damaged Lophophora Williamsii.

It seems that whatever was in this particular alcohol gel is very harmful to peyote. The flesh where the gel touched has bruised and has now scared.
The peyote plants have managed to make a full recovery, but the scars are ugly :< I was so devastated to find my pressious few Lophos like this.

The lesson is, Don't Believe everything you read.

I will have to see it as a Character building exercise for my Peyotes.

Decapitated Peyote

Here is a picture of the decapitated peyote from just after the graft, I am afraid that I might have not left it an areole to grow a new pup from! :<





This is a really interesting cross section of the peyote, it shows the 4 tissue parts very distinctly.

The outer epidermis (skin),

The darker green layer contains cells specialised for light absorption (these also contain the most alkaloids),

The paler vascular tissue is specialised for water and nutrient storage,

And lastly the whitish circle contains xylem/phloem tubes which transport products throughout the plant.


Here is the same plant 18 days later, as you can see it has fully callused over. I am not fairly sure there is no areole for the plant to grow a new pup from, this means it will eventually just die! :<

Second Graft - Loho on T. Panchanoi

On the 31/12/09 I tried my second graft. I used my best looking 3cm L. Williamsii button and grafted it onto a well growing T. Panchanoi.
This time I made sure I was prepared for it, I had brought razor blades and large elastic bands which I didn't have last time.
I was forced to super glue 2 elastic bands together to fit around the root stock's large pot.

I performed the graft pretty perfectly, keeping to the book at all times. I left it untouched for two days to let the root stock & scion join up. However when I came to inspect it things didn't look good!
The scion looked like it had shifted which will have broken the alignment with the xylem/phloem tubes (stopping the graft from growing well).
So once again I had to remove the scion and re-cut both surfaces, basically re-graft the scion and rootstock together.
Once again the graft was left with the scion held down with elastic.




The scion held on with elastic bands & tissue sling.

Here are some photos taken on the 18/01/10 so roughtly 20 days after the tissue graft.


Lophophora williamsii slice grafted onto T. Panchanoi rootstock.


In the end it all looks good, and I am fairly sure it has taken well. The scion has plumped up nicely and pale green tissue between the ridges is visible which looks like signs of new growth!




I have high expectations for this graft! both the scion & rootstock were my best specimens so I hope they stay that way!