hostilis

Pimento, it looks like your asterias are getting amazing growth!! That lighter color on the new growth looks surreal!! Amazing! Anyways, what kind/mixture of substrate do you use for your astros?

That was mine, and unfortunately it died. I tried grafting it, and I should have just left it. Here's one of it's siblings. Here are some other variegates and stuff that I started from seed. A lot of them were pure white seedlings. This one is pretty weird. It pups from every areole. Non-grafted because I wanted to see if it keeps this characteristics on it's own roots.

Yes, the payment went through and they shipped them. It's in New York right now about to get delivered. I have the tracking number and stuff. Edit: Was in New York a few days ago. I'm closer to the west coast than New York

Pimento, your astrophytum are fucking amazing!!!

I waited 6 months for an invoice from them and they finally just sent it. It was a whole bunch of seeds so I really really hope they aren't labelled like that. It was hell trying to get an answer from them. I messaged them several times asking if they were going to send me an invoice or what and they didn't answer for a long time. Finally they responded by forwarding me the original message saying "We received your order" rather than answering my questions. Which didn't help me understand what was going on at all. They actually responded after i asked the same exact questions in response to that message. They just told me they will send invoice when the seeds are ready. Took 6 months from order till invoice, but quickly shipped after I paid. Overall a crappy experience so far. I'll update when I get the seeds.

I've seen people graft onto unrooted columnar cuttings then let them root like that and the grafts were just as successful as the ones on established plants, but they took way longer to get started. Personally I only graft onto plants that have a well established root system, are fully hydrated, and are in full growth. I want the scion to be fully hydrated as well. With these conditions I rarely have a failed graft, but it still happens sometimes. I've tried grafting onto dehydrated, slightly soft stock before and the success rate is a lot lower that way. hostilis

It looks to me like a seedling that was just born unhealthy and slightly rotting rather than variegate/albino. Do you know if the seedling hard or soft?

Yeah dox, those super colorful ones in the big box stores are fake. But I agree with prier, E. pectinatus var. rubrispinus is a beautiful plant with almost neon purple looking spines.

I really like Tephrocactus geometricus. But also a lot of the neoporteria species. Oh and astrophtums of all kinda.... oh yeah, can't forget about stenocactus... Screw it, they all look good.

I see them labelled as "Pilosocereus azureus" in hardware stores. Not Azureocereus. Has there been some sort of name change or something?

Pilosocereus azureus is my guess as well.

That journal you posted doesn't have anything to do with sexual reproduction. Even in the titles of both is says sexless or asexual. This thread is about sexual reproduction. From my experience breeding grafted cacti, depending on where the flower came from (stock or scion) it passes on the genetics of whichever plant's flower formed a fruit. And of course the father pollen.

I've seen them straight up just spray paint cacti, Skin, spines, and all. Then market them as "Kosmic Cactus" It's kinda sad, lol. I think they were mammilaria gracilis. On the sign that said "Kosmic Cactus" also said, "These cacti will grow beautiful bright white spines on new growth".... Haha.

This is definitely true. I have several different batches of seeds labelled "variegated ..." and got anywhere from 10-100% variegation out of them.

Sad part is I did tons of research on it and knew that could happen with pyrethrin. I was told (and read) that using water based pyrethrins instead of oil based it wouldn't do that, but it did. It sucked ass big time. I ended up just getting fed up and completely bombed the room with diatomaceous earth and it killed em.

Some cacti have an organ on the areoles called extrafloral nectaries. They excrete a sugary liquid to attract ants and then the ants fight off other insects for the plant.

I once made a pyrethrin mixture and sprayed it on all of my indoor grafted plants (under flouro lights) and it killed like 50% of them and every single pere lost all of it's leaves . Lots of lophs and trichs rotted. It was very sad.

What species is this upside? It reminds me of my little "T validus" seedling I got from SS seed, but mature.

Beautiful dawnbeaver! Is that little loph graft variegated?

Dayumn! That's a fatty loph.

I've never had any of my crested cacti die after flowering, and as far as I know most of them do flower. Seems like they don't flower as easily as non crested plants though. The only one I've heard of that doesn't want to flower is the TBMC.

Zed. MasterB was nice enough to send me a few out of his personal stash. So it's been taken care of, but I really appreciate the offer!! Thanks my friend.

Wish I woulda seen this earlier! Lol. If anyone would be willing to share like 2-5 of the pure scop seeds with me hit me up!! I'll be sure to make it worth your while. Thanks hostilis

Shoulda checked that first. I'm pretty stoked about this cross!! Hopefully I'll be able to get a few seeds. Thanks everyone for participating.

What kind of pollen did you use as the father?