September 2019 Graft Updates Part 2

Cactus Graft Updates

September 2019

6. Myrtillocactus geometrizans

Doing the unusual as usual! How to graft your grafting root stock onto another grafting stock. I have grafted a lot of Myrtillocactus onto Hylocereus to boost their growth so that I can root and graft on them later. Even though Myrtillocactus is a good root stock, they took a bit of time to get into good size

 Myrtillocactus size comparison between own root vs grated onto Hylocereus. 

Comparison between the same batch, grafted vs own root. Grafted Myrtillocactus stock is (31 cm) 12 inch tall and very thick, around 8 cm wide. Grafted on June 2019 and it is still growing, will be cut to root for grafting usage later.

Same batch as the one above, but smaller in width, yet a 12 incher too! Don't under estimate the effect of grafting, you can replicate your root stock far better than simply rooting them as graft leftover.

Size comparison between a seed grown, rooted cutting and grafted Myrtillocactus. To be honest, they are not as big and thick as the one grafted on Hylocereus above but more than sufficient to be used as grafting stock.

End result? Myrtillocactus serve as a great long term root stock, but I would recommend you guys to graft the left over from grafting onto a faster root stock first. You will see how fast you can get a new root stocks and they may come in bigger package.

Hope that helps.

Hasta la vista guys!

September 2019 Cactus Updates Part 1

Cactus Graft Updates

September 2019

1. Ariocarpus fissuratus 'Godzilla'

 A huge specimen bought from eBay, and been with me for quite a while. 

This guy is close to 15 cm wide and quite heavy, was grafted onto Ferocactus thus it is safe to say it is a very old specimen! 

One of the noticeable traits of A. fissuratus 'Godzilla' is their very pronounced papillae on the tubercles, it is resembling Godzilla spicky and rough skin texture in the movie. The naming system came from Japan, and A. fissuratus 'Godzilla' is the top breed of Ariocarpus worldwide.

The tubercles is around 7 to 10 cm wide, so this is a well selected 'Godzilla' from the wide tubercles characteristic. Fine papillae is also one of the main trait selected by breeders. 

I wish this guy will stay healthy, few days ago I found that the one of the tubercles was rot so I removed it and the cut is still wet. Hopefully it will recover and grow as fast as my other own grafted cactus.

2. Gymnocalycium pflanzii

Bought this from a hobbyist that clearing up some of his collection due to space. Gymnocalycium is not only the red and yellow moon cactus often seen in common plant stores, there are a lot of them and they varies greatly! G. pflanzii is a big species and a fast grower too, it was half this size last year; now it sitting at 32 cm tall and wide. Not very noticeable but in the first picture, this guy is aready adding another 4 to 6 ribs; meaning it plan to get fatter and bigger.

3. Gymnocalycium mihanovitchii

Gymnocalycium mihanovitchii is the most common Gymnocalycium grown worldwide, but you will often see them grafted on Hylocereus and in red, orange to yellow. Obviously, this is the green member of the family and it is quite rare for them to grow this big. Haven't frlower ever since I bought 2 years ago about 4 cm big. Now this guy is close to 17 cm wide and already too big for its pot.

Next to each other, a big Gymnocalycium and a giant. One day I will cross their flower if given the opportunity to do so, I wonder what they would hybridize into.

Catch you guys later!

Wait for Part 2 for another September updates.

September 2019 Graft Updates Part 1

Cactus Graft Updates

September 2019

1. Mammilaria 

This is one of my earliest grafts, an unknown I.D. Mammilaria grafted around August last year and have been growing vigorously ever since. The scion was 4 to 5 cm big at that time and now they are more than 25 cm wide. The scion might be a common Mammilaria but they put out a lot of small blossoms endlessly. The mother plant died 3 months after graft due to heavy rain and snail damage, which made me glad to graft it earlier.

I have used Cereus hildmannianus as root stock for this graft, it works well in pumping Mammilaria scion, although it is not as fast as Hylocereus. In my opinion, bigger root stock like Cereus tend to be used for its long life span and high tolerance on weather abuse. To improve the scion growth, all areoles have been removed to prevent offshoots.

2. Astrophytum asterias var. superkabuto 

This is also one of my earlier graft, a small and unknown background of A. asterias with the size of 1 cm was grafted on a 2 feet tall Cereus root stock. Now this guy is around 6 cm big and filled with white specks, with characteristic of 'superkabuto' type.

Historically speaking, it was grafted while the root stock was still attached to mother plant and after 4 months, I separated the branch into individual pot. I found that the root stock took quite a bit of time to root and continue pumping the root stock. In addition, they pups a lot especially underground which compete with the scion. from this stage, I made my own standard for rooting Cereus where their bottom areoles will be removed to prevent similar thing from occurring again.

You can view my guide on rooting Cereus by clicking this link below:

Guide on rooting Cereus hildmannianus

3. Astrophytum myriostigma var kikko x fukuryu 

Germinating my own cross of Astrophytum myriostigma sure made me wonder what they would grow into. The guy on right is grafted two months ago and the one on left is a month later, quite a big difference isn't it! They are sown into tight enclosed container with moist media for a bout a month and then grafted onto Hylocereus undatus, also known as Pitaya and Dragon fruit cactus.

Hylocereus is a fast grower themselves and it is categorized as the top selection for grafting root stock due to their efficiency in growing scion. Same with Cereus, I removed all thorns and areoles from this root stock to promote scion growth. you will see the effect of root stock offsets very clear on Hylocereus graft compared to Cereus due to their different growth pace. Hylocereus will neglect your scion if they start to branch, better clear up all side shoots when caring for your grafted cactus!

Throughout the Hylocereus graft pictures, you would noticed that most scion put up offsets. This is due to their very vigorous growth from very vigor rootstock that continously pumping water and nutrient into the scion. The extra energy and nutrient from Hylocereus caused myriostigma scion to pup, some might grow into mature size without any offset while other might get to the extreme of growing tens or hundreds of offsets. 

4. Ariocarpus retusus

 

It was a sick Ariocarpus back then, getting too much water that made it start to be squishy and stop growing. I am quite lucky that time as one of my Cereus graft failed, the A. asterias scion cracked due to  additional moisture leaving the root stock available for an emergency graft. This guy is no older than 4 months old but grow quite magnificently, probably due to well established root stock and it initial size; 10 cm big. Now it has grow more tubercles but yet to be as big as before. If you look closely, the ridges and bumps on the tubercles are more pronounced and abundant compared to older tubercles underneath. Obviously, you will see the hidden character of your cactus when grafted onto faster growing cactus as the root stock!

5. Oreocereus

 Now that is a weird looking graft! Oreocereus unknown I.D. was grafted onto Acanthocereus about 4 months ago, it was impale graft too. Grow into a quite magnificent sight with current scion size of 15 cm wide, this guy keep bloating and produce lots of hair. I would assume that it is supposed to grow into a huge species of Oreocereus based on the reaction it show from getting grafted. Might be something similar to Oreocereus celsianus or O. trollii, worry not as we shall see it grow into something nice in no time.

5. Astrophytum asterias var. shinshowa

One of my earliest graft too, the picture does not do justice to the size of this scion due to the sheer size of Cereus root stock but this guys is 7 cm or bigger.

Prized for their red flower, the 'shinshowa' variant is well known for their thin petal form compared to normal A. asterias that usually bloom with yellow thick petals. if I am not mistaken, 'akabana' is the term used for red flower  A. asterias, thus this guy can be called var. akabana shinshowa. Thanks to Japan naming system, most people struggle to predict the cactus characteristic if their are not really into this hobby. I am expecting this guy to grow into a specimen size A. asterias, current growth rate is phenomenal and so far it does not throw any side shoot yet; the chance for it to focus solely on growth is quite better than the rest of my A. asterias grafts.

That is all for now, there is a lot more that I could share in Part 2.

Thanks for reading,
May the Cactus be with you guys!

Adieu.

How To Root Cereus Hildmannianus

How Do I Root Cereus Hildmannianus

Cutting Preparation

To start with, you need at least a tiny piece of Cereus cutting to do this. How big it should be? From my experience, even a rib cut of 1-3 cm could root and grow into a decent cactus but it will take forever though. 

Let say, you fetched a nice newly sprouted,  2-3 feet long Cereus; is that a good cutting to root?  Some would say yes, I would say go for it too; but if you have other choices then you better cut older tip and thicker rib to get a decent cut. Older Cereus tip cutting withstands long period of dryness pretty well compared to younger  tip. 

Mature Cereus cuttings. Top cutting is 2 feet long and bottom one is 4 feet. 

Tip cut vs Mid cut, which one is better? I prefer Tip cut when rooting Cereus for grafting as a root-stock, but at the same time will also root Mid cut to further produce more cuttings in the future. To be honest, they root at the same rate if they are same size anyway. 

September 2019 cuttings. A mix of Mid and Tip cuttings. Tallest is 5 feet tall. 

My advice is, get a big and thick cut of Cereus, anything bigger than 20 cm tall and 10 cm width will grow pretty quick. My personal choice will always be 2 feet or taller Cereus with thickness of between 12 to 20 cm for tip cut. I will root any Mid cut that is taller than 1 feet but must be thicker than 15 cm. And they must be mature which means their rib is thick and plump. Mature Cereus will be dark green color while young one will be blue to greenish blue and their ribs are soft and floppy.

Mature cutting with thick ribs. 

Mature Cereus tip, they are dormant but will quickly resume growth once rooted. 

Future grafting stocks. Their core/cambium ring are still soft and not fibrous yet even though they are dormant for a long time based on their color and thickness. 

Can you root into dirt right after cutting them off mother plant? Yes! Getting them dry between 3-14 days works too. They are pretty tough even you can root them on the same day as long as you do not over water them in acidic waterlogged media, lol. Best bet would be to let then dry in around 3 days, do not went too long or they will lose more water. 

 Rooting media and cleaned cuttings. 

Thorn removal is my way of cleaning and controlling their growth, you will see others do the same on their Cereus root stock.  Depending on individuals, some people remove thorns all the way to the growth point while other might keep all areoles intact. I prefer to remove 6-10 areoles on all ribs at the bottom part of my cuttings. It helps in controlling side-shoots coming from underground. Plus it helps with handling as I do not wear glove most of the time. 

Cuttings are tied onto stakes to induce proper rooting and ease of management. 

Make sure you put Cereus cutting under shaded area, it would be nice if you put them on top of sandy soil too in case you might be busy and forgot about them later. Though pain and mistakes, I would highly advice anyone who want to grow Cereus to root them under shade. Generally speaking, Cereus roots pretty quick under optimum temperature and moisture but tend to delay root growth if they are too dehydrated and sun burnt.

 A mix of 1:1 oil palm decomposed sludge with local top soil is used as growing media. 

Poly-bags are used as plastic pots replacement. All the cuttings will be moved to plastic pots once they are grafted later on. 

This is due to their morphology that contain lots of water, that is why they could grow extremely fast once established. Even wrinkled dried cuttings could pop out pups but it usually really small and slow to growth at start. Therefore, to root and grow your Cereus cutting into a giant, go with big, mature cutting that is hardened under shade and water them well. 

Growing Media

Cereus could almost anywhere in my country but they prefer to grow in well drained soil. Obviously, high organic content with moderate soil water holding capability proven to produce huge Cereus in my garden. They can get rot from highly acidic soil what over retain water. 

My options on media composition usually consist of:

Option 1: 100% decomposed cow or goat dung

Option 2: 60-80% of Option 1 and river sand

Option 3: 50% decomposed oil palm sludge and 50% local top soil

Option 4: 50% decomposed cow/goat dung or oil palm sludge, 40% coco peat and 10% river sand. 

All in all, as long as the media could retain and drain water well, Cereus will grow as they are not very picky. But do not go into full mineral media, they require lots of organic as they are fast growing cactus. 

Watering

Cereus loves water compared to other cactus, they could spread like weeds in tropical country while other cactus are struggling from rot and disease. 

Having said so, I water well established Cereus every day up to once a week if I am too busy. Hence I went with a bit porous media, I spend my time watering them and ensuring that they get plump. You can grow them without much caring too, but I always aim for extra fast growth and strong root-stock. 

Mammylaria grafted onto Cereus stock. Huge plump stock often perform well on scion growth. 

Now we are more or less done with rooting Cereus. Next I will share about Cereus Grafting. 

This guy grow from 12 inch cutting into 9 feet giant in 2 years. 

My First Cactus

My First Cactus 

G'day guys! 😍

Writing a blog is a new thing to me but the spark is there somewhere all along, waiting for me to do some sharing.

I'm Mizan, an Agronomist in a Malaysia plantation company that specialize in oil palm industry. Been in love with plants and animals ever since, but I put more focus on growing cactus and orchid as my hobby. With 6 years of experience on managing cash crops and oil palm, I would say that the more you know about plants, the more mysterious they get. Despite living in Tropics, I do grow some species of cactus from various background that might be common or rare depending on their availability.

Having said so, I would love to share with others about my experience in growing cactus and other succulent. Yes, my experience may bit limited to some local and imported cactus; but I am expecting a great information exchange with my blog readers so that we all could improve our knowledge. Other than basic cactus care, I will share about cactus grafting which may help some of us who struggle to grow cactus in wet or challenging climate.

Ultimately, I'm aiming for a platform to share about my way of growing cactus and their growth updates. Obviously, there are various kind of cactus, thus there would be a lot more ways to grow and graft them. It all get back to knowing and understanding how they behave, thus I will try my best to name them correctly. 

Basically, I will share my own pictures in the blog, but if otherwise; I will state their source.

What Is My First Cactus? 

Cereus hildmannianus

Guys, nothing could beat the tall and thorny Cereus hildmannianus in our wet and hot all year round tropical climate. And it was the earliest cactus I ever grown as a kid, maybe around 20 years ago. From my reading, they are originated from South America but undoubtedly they acclimatized very well here. Mom hates them so much due to their long sharp thorn (1-2 inch) that usually break when it impaled our skin. Now I have tons of them around my and in law houses. You will regularly see them on roadside pupping like crazy with bluish green new growth here.

Depends on your taste for cactus but I like them due to their sheer size, extremely fast growth rate, huge white flower and good performance as root stock. They can easily hit 4 to 5 meters tall here and get as thick as 20 cm not counting the thorns. In my experience, they can take a lot of abuse in term of watering and light; although they do hate low light. Bear in mind though, they could grow thinner rib when grown with low water supply; while the picture above show how thick their top part is when grown with lots of water and fertilizer.

Cereus are known to bear pink, round to oval fruit that taste sweet sour with white flesh. Although I have more than 20 Cereus plants, they do not make any fruit for me as they are very likely came from a same source of cutting somewhere down the history. Even though I got them from 3 different places, they don't cross. Plus, I don't really focus on Cereus breeding anyway.

Source: eattheweeds.com

Fun thing is there many confusing names on this cactus and people mixed it up but they are also called Cereus jamacaru and Cereus peruvianus. While at it, common grower just call them Cereus to ease discussion. I am a frequent visitor to Facebook group for cactus grafting namely "Grafting Cactus" and you will get to see significant number of grower use them for root stock but not as famous as Pereskiopsis, Myrtillocactus or Hylocereus.

Hopefully, my first share will give you guys some insight on this cactus. I will focus on grafting in another post, but for now I can proudly say that they work well for medium to large size scion graft. Below is some picture for a sneak peek.

Echinopsis chamaecereus (peanut cactus) grafted onto Cereus hildmannianus stock.

Thanks for reading guys, may the cactus be with you!

Adieu.