A Truly Rare Cactus Borne In My Collection - Pediocactus Knowltonii Crest !

? Pediocactus Knowltonii Crest ?

** UPDATE *** 3/3/14

THIS PLANT MAY IN FACT HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED WRONG. POSSIBLE ID
Echinocactus Grusonii Variant Alba Inermis Crest

I planted the seed for this plant about 5 years ago, the germination rate was terrible from 20 seeds a single seedling germinated. I grafted the seedling to Hylocereus and after a few weeks I knew I had a special plant;

I have done a fairly extensive search of the web and spoken to everyone I know in the cacti industry and I can't find another plant in a collection anywhere, it could possibly be a truly unique plant. Over the last few years it has grown well;

About 1.5 years ago I did a semi degraft and potted the plant up to grow on it's own roots with the assistance of the Hylocereus whilst is establishes itself;

Before De-graft

Today

Today I took the knife out and have cut this plant up in an attempt to propagate this beauty and one day distribute it out to the cacti community :) I will post up some pics later on. 

Funky Trichocereus Peruvianus + Great growth

This Trichocereus Peruvianus Monstrose hybrid is starting to do some funky things. It almost looks like the peruvianus version of the TBM (Trichocereus Bridgesii Monstrose) aka "Penis Cactus". I hope this type of growth continues..

This Trichocereus Peruvianus Monstrose (TPM X SS02) is growing fantastically and has to my delight just started to crest after growing normally for the first year or so..

Varigated Astrophytum Asterias

Here are three Astrophytum Asterias from my collection which show some variegation. I quite like this trait and intend to grow more over the next season.

Trichocereus Seeds Down :)

Yesterday I planted approximately 150 Trichocereus Hybrid Seeds, they are some really nice hybrids that revolve around a bunch of very special plants here are some notes from the grower which gives the botanic name and the abbreviation which is commonly used and is how I refer to the plants.




1. Trichocereus Peruvianus Monstrose (TPM) waffles between regular and monstrose growth, but the monstrose is dominant - columns start out normal and then get super weird - and the freakish qualities certainly came through the other time it was crossed - fortunately this year I have it in more crosses, and got more seed total




2. Trichocereus Peruvianus Cristata (TPC) is a new addition to the hybrid pool - large freakish peruvianus cristata - even the flower was mutant - I crossed the single fruit with Juules, SS02, and (SS02 x pachanoi) - basically I hit it with all three of those hoping one would take - the seedlings may be any one of those three fathers or a mix of them - I hit it with Juules first, then SS02 a few hours later, and then (SS02 x pachanoi) a few hours after that - maybe Juules got through the most? Who knows..




3. Trichocereus Bridgesii (N1) that is excellent in all the ways that matter - one of my favourite plants and I'm totally stoked about the Psycho0 x N1 cross - those should be some seriously beautiful and badass bridgesii seedlings - probably fatter and longer spined than typical bridgesii as well, based on the parents..




4 Trichocereus Pachanoi "quasi-cristata" (TPQC) is a non-PC pachanoi type that grew crested after an apparent snail attack - maybe it is genetic in there somewhere and the snail attack caused it to come out, or maybe it is purely from the infection - regardless its a beautiful pachanoi though I haven't taken good care of it these past couple years..




5. Trichocereus Bridgesii "Psycho0" Aussie Bridgesii that grows like a weed and looks amazing.


6. SS02, Sacred Succulents Bridgesii, very nice plant.



These are the crosses that I have planted (Mother X Father);


1. TPM X N1


2. (SS02 x pachanoi) X TPM


3. Psycho0 X TPM


4. TPQC X TPM


5. Psycho0 X N1


6. TPQC x (Jules giant x SS02)


7. N1 X TPQC



So that was all for the hybrids but I also planted a couple of other Trichocereus species;


1. Trichocereus Nigripilis

2. Trichocereus Candicans

The dangers of cactus obsession :)

So two days ago now I managed to put a cacti spine straight through the knucked on the middle finger of my left hand. I was using a large hard bristle brush to dislodge some scale from a Trichocereus Peruvianus when I slipped and caused a 5cm long spine to go through the middle knuckle of my left hand and straight out the other side. Due to the pain I flinched and this caused the spine to snap off and I was not able to get it out myself.

So I went for a trip to the Doctors and then the Hospital, here is the damage.......The hole in the front is the entry point, it came out the other side.

Soccer Ball Loph

Soccer Ball Loph

The photographs really don't do this plant justice, it is even bigger in person that is looks in these photo graphs. I can't remember how old this plant is now but it has been grafted on this stock since it was one month old.

CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE

 

Lophophora in flower !!

Today Lophophora are flowering !!

CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VIEW

  

             

Trichocereus Part 1 - Budding up !

28th October 2013 - Trichocereus have started the flower cycle

The beginning of a small project ! Trichocereus Life Cycle

Many Trichocereus and other interesting columnar cacti in my collection are in the the very early stages of flower production. Over the next few weeks I plan to document the flowering cycle of Trichocereus Pachanoi and Peruvianus species plants, from the very beginning tiny flower buds to the massive open developed flowers, to pollination (cross), and finally all going well the development of the seed pods and resulting seeds.

Here are a few pics to get me motivated before I begin tomorrow

Trichocereus SP

Trichocereus SP

    

Potting up some Mexicans

Today I potted up some Ariocarpus, Astrophytum and Lophophora. I also set up a few Lophophora pups for rooting. A few pics of the plants below...

And here are a few random shots from the yard...

Ferrocactus

Trichocereus Terschekii 

Parodia Ottonis

Trichocereus Peruvianus Hybrid

(TPM x SS02)

Potting up the De Grafts

Today I finished off the de-grafted Astrophytum by potting them up in 120mm and 150mm Square plastic pots. The soil mix is 80% inorganic and 20% organic material and is topped with 10mm red Scoria. 

De Grafting Astrophytum !!

Spring is finally here! winter felt really long this year even though it wasn't that cold, but it has made me even more motivated to do some serious cacti cultivation during this growing season.

First off I have done a few de-grafts, I use a modified half de-graft method I learned from a very experienced grower from Victoria Australia, he is known by the handle Hanazono but his name is Frank, he is a well known to the cacti community and a top bloke :)

This method is best used when Hylocereus or Pereskiopsis are the stock plant but can be done with some others too.

Here is my modified de-grafting method:

1. Find a suitable plant that needs a de-graft.

2. Cut the scion from the stock but leave 5cm of the stock, I.E cut 5cm below the graft union.

3. Using a sharp knife cut all the green fleshy tissue away from the stock plant leaving the woody yellow core. Try and scrape the last bit off using the knife and scraping away from the graft union. Once it is all off you will be left this this (see below). Now trim up the woody core so it is between 2 and 3cm long.

4. Now allow the exposed woody core to try in the sun (indirect sun), for about 24 hours and then you are free to pot the plant up as you normally would a plant with roots.

Here are a few I did today;

         

Winter Update.

Winter is finally over and its time for some serious growth and propagation this season :)
A few pics from over winter.

Ariocarpus Hybrids

Ariocarpus Retusus

Lophocereus Schotii Monstrose

Nice looking Tricho Peruvianus

Lophophora 

Trichocereus Peruvianus Hybrid (TPM X SS02) Crest