The Effect Of Different Rootstocks On Peanut Cactus (Chamaecereus) Growth
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Firstly, Peanut cactus is identified as Chamaecereus silvestrii or Echinopsis chamaecereus. They are quite close to Echinopsis and Lobivia family, able to form interspecies hybrid if you are lucky. Either way, I will refer to it as peanut cactus to nake it fair.
Let's go with the basic growth guide first shall we.
Description: The peanuts cactus, Echinopsis chamaecereus (probably best known under its old name Chamaecereus silvestrii), is a very popular cactus with many crowded finger-like stems. Established plants can reach a height of 15 cm and width of 30 (or more) cm.
Stems: Pale green finger sized, initially erect that became prostrate up to 10 cm tall, 1.2 cm in diameter, up to 15 cm long. As cactus ages, eventually eventually become woody and spineless.
Ribs: 8 to 10.
Spines: 10 to 15 soft, white bristles, 2 mm long.
Flowers: Orange-red about 5 cm in diameter, often produced in prolific quantities from an early age.
Blooming season: In several flushes in late spring and early summer.
Remarks: Chamaelobivia hybrids: The peanut cactus is still often encountered as Chamaecereus silvestrii, and occasionally as Lobivia silvestrii. This plant has been intensively hybridized with other Echinopsis (especially Lobivia ssp.). This hybrids are sometime called "Chamaelobivia" and are pretty easy to grow and easy to get to bloom and are now available in different striking flower colours. They are often thicker, stronger, larger growing than C. sylvestrii and tend not to have the typical peanut shaped offsets. The offsets produced being more strongly attached to the main stems.
How does it normally look like?
This how the mother plant looks like and it was grown own root. Its stem is around 3 to 4 cm thick and unfortunately hasn't flower since this day.
What kind of rootdtock are we talking about?
I'm new to using Peanut cactus as scion but so far, there are 3 different rootstock species namely Cereus hildmannianus, Hylocereus undatus and Myrtillocactus geometrizans.
1. Myrtillocactus geometrizans
I know it is smaller than my common standard but it is what I have at the moment, no picture of larger stocks to share for now though.
2. Hylocereus undatus
3. Cereus hildmannianus
In conclusion, Hylocereus get the early vigor and bloated thick scion shape. It is preferable if you are aiming for enlarging offsets to fasten its maturity. They branch a lot too compared to growing by own root.
Myrtillocactus would be a waste to be used on this cheap scion. Plus it doesnt offer better vigor nor larger scion size compared to other stocks. The growth rate is similar to own root in the begining and it will slow down significantly.
Cereus is a so so choice for this matter because the schion thickness is less than by own root but the branching is numerous. Plus it continue to grow non stop as the rootstock can carry far bigger load. On a good side, you doesn't need to degraft because Cereus last forever.
In a nut shell, I am sharing this so that anyone who want to start grafting cactus aware that rootstock does matter and start with cheap cactus to build experience before going with rarer scion.
This is my Mammilaria graft on Cereus stocks. Cheap scion to start with and it is worth on every try because failure ia not the opposite of success, it is part of success.
Thanks for reading, hope that helps.
Which one is your favourite rootstock? It is a close call for.me between Hylocereus and Cereus. I believe that Cereus offers more robust and stable base. Whereas Hylocereus is easy to propagate. You can get the stock readily to compare to Cereus. However, for long term, I pick Cereus. What is your say on this?
ReplyDeleteLove both of them equally lol.
ReplyDeleteI got 10 pillars of red Hylocereus in the farm and they will be my rootstock factory while producing fruits.
At the same time I have rooted quite a number of Cereus as farming fence.
As they are abundant,I use them a lot.
But in term of success rate and growth rate,Hylocereus is the best.