Four years ago today, I grafted a tiny Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Tx) seedling onto a robust Trichocereus pachanoi stock. The Lophophora scion has since grown to a width of 8 cm (~3.2'') and set 6 offshoots - the total width including the offshoots exceeds 13 cm (~5.1'').
Grafted Lophophora williamsii (SB 854; Starr Co, Tx)
The plant flowered throughout summer last year and many of the resulting seed pods are ready to be harvested. This season's first flower already appeared last week and the remains can be seen in the photo below.
Lophophora williamsii - ready for seed harvest
Last year's flowers were allowed to self-pollinate with minimal human intervention. Today I harvested all freely exposed fruits and left the rest to fully mature. So far the result seems good as the plant set a lot of seed, time will show if it is viable.
Dried Lophophora williamsii fruit
Many of the fruits have a dry and brittle husk that is easily ripped and some of them almost spilled open when harvested. I probably ought to harvest the seeds sooner and not allow the fruits to sit and dry on the plant for too long.
Ripped Lophophora williamsii fruit with seeds exposed
As mentioned the plant has set lots of (selfed) seeds: the initial harvest totalled 101 seeds and there are still a few fruits left on the plant to be harvested later.
101 home grown Lophophora williamsii seeds
For comparison you can check the posts on the same graft as one, two, and three years old.
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1 day ago
Really beautiful creation. It would be interesting to investigate what is the mescaline and alkaloid content of the hybrid growth. Since Trichocerus tend to grow fast and big, it is likely that it is pushing metabolites fast into the Lopophora growth and making it produce high concentrations of these compounds.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, neat plants!
Nice photos. I like to see the fruit to seed progression. Grafting has always been a mystery to me, so I send my compliments and applause.
ReplyDeleteGrafting really isn't that difficult. I'm planning on doing a series of "tips and tricks" posts on grafting when I get the time (and the photos to accompany the posts ;-)
ReplyDeleteI recently grafted with pereskiopsis, the lopho is quickly increasing in size, more than with opuntia compressa. your graft is very very nice, my compliments.
ReplyDeletejack
Thank you for sharing your success with us!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful Loph you have there!
-Lacitsym