Astrophytum asterias

Astrophytum asterias

Monday 30 April 2012

Cactus / Flowering of Ariocarpus hybrid

Ariocarpus hybrid, retusus v elongatus x fissuratus posted on 17th in this month was in flower yesterday.
The flower color was mixed color of father and mother plants.

Sunday 29 April 2012

Cactus / retusus cultivar

I collected seeds from my cacti, Ariocarpus retusus v major cv Daruma Royal and sowed on 12/11/2006. The growing speed of own-root Ariocarpus are very slow but retusus show quite acceptable speed if you gave soft sunlight and a lot of  water in summer.
The photo is 1st flowering of one of them, 13 cm diameter of body size.

Saturday 28 April 2012

Cactus / lloydii

I bought seeds of Ariocarpus fissuratus v lloydii and sowed on 11/08/2005.
Several young seedlings were grafted onto Hylocereus stocks.
I degrafted 2 of them later.
Degrafting  and rooting of fissuratus is hard because liquid from cutting face runs continuously and difficult to stop. This leads rotting during rooting process nornally.
I did degrafting with a short vascula-bandle of Hylocereus because this method was not necessary to cut the plant body.
I have not checked yet but I assume the short vascula-bandle has died and roots from body have developed.
This is the 1st flowering of this cactus.

Friday 27 April 2012

Cactus / kotschoubeyanus f Rio Verde

This is one of kotschoubeyanus forms, RioVerde.
The flower color is different from standard one.
The appearance of body is very similar.

Wednesday 25 April 2012

Cactus / kotschoubeyanus

Ariocarpus kotshoubeyanus is a very small cactus.
Kotschoubeyanus has various var and forms.
This grafted one is the standard kotschoubeyanus, making pale color flowers.
Kotschoubeyanus is relatively easy to grow by own root.
They will be in flower within 4 years from the germination.

Tuesday 24 April 2012

Cactus / agavoides

A grafted Ariocarpus agavoides was in flower yesterday.
I bought seeds and sowed on 29/07/2003.
Several young seedlings were grafted on Hylocereus stocks.
Almost all have been degrafted but only this one has remained as grafted plant.
I collected seeds from this plant and propagated. Some of seedlings have started flowering.

Monday 23 April 2012

Cactus / scaphirostris

I bought seeds of Ariocarpus scaphotostris and sowed on 31/10/ 2003.
The success ratio of the germination was very poor but I could graft several seedlings onto Hylocereus stocks.
I degrafted later abut only 2 plants were remained.
This is one of them, showing a monstrosa appearance.

Sunday 22 April 2012

Cactus / Daruma seiji

I sowed 60 seeds of Ariocarpu retusus v furfuraceus cv Daruma Seiji on 30/09/2004.
I grafted young seedlings on various grafting stocks.
This one was grafted on an Echinopsis stock.
The current size is around 16 cm diameter.

Saturday 21 April 2012

Cactus / Daruma Royal

I bought  80 seeds of Ariocarpus retusus v major cv Daruma Royal and sowed on 30/09/2004.
I grafted quite many very young seedings just after the germination.
Grafted seedlings were degrafted later after grown as good sizes.
This is one of them, own-rooted currently.


Tuesday 17 April 2012

Cactus / Ariocarpus hybrid

I created an Ariocarpus hybrid, retusus v elongatus x fissuratus and sowed seeds on 25/11/2010.
Several very young seedlings were grafted.
They are still very small but one of them is showing a flowering bud.

Monday 16 April 2012

Cactus / asterias

Yesterday was warmday day. Many asteriasu were in flower.
This grafted variegated asterias was also one of them.
I was not interested in variegated plants but I grafted 10 variegated young asterias seedlings lately.

Sunday 15 April 2012

Cactus / asterias

It is in autumn and has continued clear days.
Outside temperature is aroung 25 C' but inside of the greenhouse is more than 40 C'.
Some of Astrophytum asterias are still in flower.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Cactus / Onzuka

I grafted 5 scions of Astrophytum myriostigma cv Onzuka in this season.
Since I lost several good size of Onzuka in this season, I tried to regain numbers.
It is possible to keep own-root seedlings but it takes years to be flowering size.
Easiest way to get a flowering size, own root plant is grafting young seedlings and degrafting later.
Rooting of degrafted Onzuka is very easy.

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Cactus / Shinkawa tama zouge

This is an Ariocarpus retusus v major cv shinkawa tama zouge.
I bought seeds and sowed on 11/08/2005.
I bought seeds as variegated plants but I could not see any variegated seedlings at all.
Several young seedlings were grafted.
This cactus is also in flower every year in this season.

Monday 9 April 2012

Cactus / seedling grafting

I use 3 methods of seedling grafting.
It depends upon the age of seedlings.
One group is very young seedlings, from 2 days to 40 days after germination.
During normal grafting process, the scion will shrink. You need a pressure onto the scion to compensate the shrinkage.
Since body of very young seedlings are small, the shrinkage is negligible and so you do not need any pressure onto the scion. The scion on the photo is Ariocarpus scaphirostris, 20 days old.
I can graft 2 mm diameter seedlings.

To protect from direct sunlight and to minimize drying up, I use paper caps.
You can see the grafting result within 10 days.

Sunday 8 April 2012

Cactus / trigonus

I bought 20 seeds of Ariocarpus retusus v trigonus and sowed on 11/08/2005.
Seeds were variegated trigonus but variegated seedling was nil.
Several very young seedlings were grafted.
This is one of grafted trigonus.
It is in flower every year in this season.
Many seedlings have been growing collected seeds from this plant.

Saturday 7 April 2012

Cactus / variegated cactus

I was not interested in variegate cactus but I recognized some people were very interested in.
5 well balanced variegated asterias seedlings were grafted and taken well.
The photo is varigated asterias x super kabuto.

Friday 6 April 2012

Cactus / elongatus

I bought seeds of Ariocarpus retusus v elongatus f CSD45 and sowed on 31/08/2006.
Several very young seedlings were grafted.

The appearance of elongatus is very similar to torigonus.
The flower is also similar to.

Thursday 5 April 2012

Cactus / cauliflower

This is a grafted Ariocarpus retusus v furfuraceus cv Sugri cauliflower.
I bought seeds and sowed on 11/08/2005.
Although several young seedlings were grafted, only 2 scions were taken.

This one does not show the cauliflower cheracter significantly but some of offsprings show well.
The cactus is in flower every year in this season.