I was admiring one of my astrophytum grafts yesterday afternoon, and i realised there was a gaping hole under the soil. I had burried the rootstock almost completely under the soil, so i wasn't too suprised to see that it had rotted...
But when i pulled it out...i sure was surprised!
This woody piece is the remains of the grafting stock, a myrtillocactus.
What has really wigged me out is that this woody piece is absolutely fine, not squishy in anyway and is nicely connected to the astrophytum roots which were attatched to the bottom of this woody piece (i broke them when i pulled it out of the pot) ...These roots were not dead! Healthily growing like nothing has happened..
No sign at all of rot on the loph or in the connection between the loph and the rooty bit.
In fact, everything that you see here is perfectly healthy.
The astro has even sprouted it's own roots out the side of one of the pups.
Has the astro literally taken the centre of the myrtillo as it's own? Like some sort of genius parasite?
How can this be? Its mind-boggling for me, has anyone seen this or a similar situation before?
I'm pretty blown away, but also stoked becuase i think my astronis just fine and i should be able to pot this up again without any cutting or drying.