It’s time to shake off the dust of the prehistoric peyote buttons from the previous post and get started with the new growing season. Two years ago today I grafted a 50some days old Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Tx) seedling onto a (then extravagantly oversized) Trichocereus pachanoi stock.
Grafted Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Tx)
The plant has set 3 offshoots and grown to a width of 5.6 cm (~ 2.2'' – excluding the offshoots) and a height of 4.8 cm (~ 1.9''). It’s currently busy increasing the number of ribs from 5 to 8 (or maybe it goes directly for 13 ribs... it’s a bit hard to tell at this stage).
For comparison you can check this photo of the same graft one year ago.
Full circle
The plant flowered 4 times last year – all flowers were self-pollinated. The resulting fruits contained 22 seeds that were sown April 4, but until now only 5 have germinated and out of these only 3 seedlings are thriving. Yet another illustration of why inbreeding should be avoided.
Lophophora seedling grown from self-pollinated seeds
I find it quite amazing that grafting enables you to go full circle from seedling to seedling in two years.
A more detailed account of the plant’s flowering and fruit setting can be had by following the “previous” links.
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Album der natuur. 1894 (added: 11/18/2024)
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*Publication Info:*
Haarlem :A. C. Kruseman ,1852-1909.
*Call Number:*
QK1 .A3655
*Contributing Library:*
Missouri Botanical Garden
15 hours ago
Hi, I have been visiting your blong since a while, and I noticed you have quite a great experience on grafting techniques. I was wondering if you have ever tried to make a chimera. Maybe composed with a variegated lophophora and some kind of interesting stock. It would be great to know if you have done something like this. It seems to me quite interesting.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Mexico, and congrats about your blog.
No, none of my grafts have resulted in chimeras, although two Lophophora williamsii seedlings grafted last year on Trichocereus pachanoi seedling stock is showing unnatural, elongated growth – I’m still not certain if it’s just a result of increased growth or if the scion has “fused” with the stock plant.
ReplyDeletemaybe it's an increased growth. I think chimeras only arise when one cut the scion off the stock, and leaves a samll amount of tissue over it. It would be nice to see some more pictures of your graftings. Nevertheless I hope that are chimeras, it would so interessting to see one in that combination.
ReplyDeleteJust a question: how many time would it take for a in a Pereskia sp.-grafted seedling of Lophophora to blossom?
You’re probably right, it’s just increased growth – I’ve posted a photo and some additional information confirming your point that chimeras appear as offshoots where the scion and stock fused, at the discussion group http://groups.google.com/group/lophophora. Please feel free to join the group (even though it’s still in its budding form ;-) Also, if you have more information on how to induce chimera growth forms, I would very much like to hear about it.
ReplyDeleteI haven’t done any Pereskia grafts and only a few on Pereskiopsis stock. One of the Lophophora williamsii I grafted last year on Pereskiopsis has grown to a width of 3.2 cm, but is showing no signs of flowering yet.
You have problems with self-pollinated seeds? So far I have planted eight self-pollinated seeds and five of them have germinated. I suppose it still early stage but they seems to be going well.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I was too harsh in my initial judgment of self-pollinated seeds – 7 have now germinated and out of these 6 are doing well. Still, I don’t find a germination rate of around 30% impressive, but this low rate might well have to do with the seeds being stored at room temperature or some other factor. I’ll experiment with sowing the next batch fresh or store the seeds in the refrigerator, before jumping to conclusions on the quality of selfed seeds;-)
ReplyDelete