Astrophytum Asterias

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. 

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.

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.

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Lophophora in flower !!

Today Lophophora are flowering !!

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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 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. 

About Astrophytum CV Fukuryu

Astrophytum CV Fukuryu

I don't put a species in the title on purpose because I believe these are not pure Myriostigma but rather interbreeding between  Myriostigma, Ornatum and possibly Asterias. Spination and size point towards Ornatum, overall shape is Myriostigma and some characteristics could be seen as Asterias like. This is pure speculation and I have no evidence whatsoever to back this up but my personal observations and experience. 

Whatever they are, or are not, Fukuryu most definitely are amazing plants with some funky genetic lines, seedlings produced from crossing with other Fukuryu are strange to say the least and produce many monstrose, variegated, kohyo and deformed plants. The problem I see is once you cross genetic lines many times the plants become "Unstable" for want of a better term and the offspring are weak mutants that are susceptible to disease, pests and in most cases eventually die. I have had a few completely white plants that survive in a controlled environment (inside) but as soon as they are exposed to the elements e.g sun, wind etc they will die due to stress. Plants such as this are nice to look at and due to them being rare etc but this is certainly not the future of Fukuryu or Astrophytum in general.

I plan on making some crosses this year but this time a little differently;

1. Very mild Fukuryu trait (I.E Looks like Myriostigma)  X Complex genetic Fukuryu CV

2. Ornatum var Mirbelii X Complex Fukuryu (Each way)

3. Ornatum var Mirbelii X Simple Fukuryu (Each way)

All of this is food for thought and I can hopefully do these crosses this year. By all means anyone feel free to beat me to the punch and do them first it's not a race rather a destination :)

Here are a few of my Furkuryu 

   

Two Promising Astrophytum Asterias Cultivars

I like the look of both of these cultivars, both grafted to Hylocereus.

Re-potting some Ariocarpus Seedlings

Ariocarpus Retusus seedlings from 2010. Several different forms of field collected seeds all mixed together. One of the plants appears to be variegated and is glowing a little bit slower which is characteristic of the trait. All appear to be healthy and are growing well for plants that are just on 2 years old, I think the growth rate has been about average for the species.

First two trays:

A few of the bigger ones, you can see the variegated seedling in the bottom right corner.

Variegated seedling: