Berengar

Thanks EG, sure, you can add them. I'll try to take some more and better pictures in the coming weeks. Thanks Glaukus, I completely agree, it got the best of both worlds for sure!

I can't tell you that for sure, there are always allegations of poaching whenever a newly discovered plant pops up for sale. It is not as widely available as A. valdezii has become, even though it's quite easy to propagate by grafting offsets, so I'd guess even if it was poached, it was in very low numbers. I haven't seen even one specimen on it's own roots, so that would suggest there are no habitat specimens in any significant numbers in Europe. Personally I'm aware of 4 collectors who sell grafted specimens, all of them from Eastern Europe, but I'm sure soon there will be more of them given the number of distributed plants. And I wouldn't generalize too much, it's not really about 'Eastern Europe', it's more about those few huge collectors and growers who happen to live in Czech republic and Poland and have connections in Latin America, botanists or otherwise, from there they first sell to nearby growers in various cactus fairs and exhibitions, which are popular in that part of Europe. And regarding seeds, people are still just speculating, in some species of Mammillaria the seeds can't be extracted without destroying the plant, so people think it could be the same with bertholdii. That's the reason that there are so few seeds of M. luetheyii for sale for example, even tough it's relatively common grafted plant.Time will tell I guess.

Psycho0 X Cuzcoensis. 1.6 meters and 30 cm circumference in 2.5 years. Breaks my heart, but I'm going to cut it into ~5 pieces to propagate it. Could have even flowered in a year or two if left alone, but I'd rather have many of them sooner. Scopulicola X puquiensis

Really? There are a couple on auction every week on ebay in Europe, 50-80 euro per small grafted plant. Seeds are 50 euro for 10. From what I've read, it's very difficult to extract the seeds from M. bertholdii because the fruit ripens inside the body of the plant like some other Mammilaria, and they don't germinate easily without treatment. But valdezii is quite common in Europe now, lots of people sell grafted plants for reasonable prices, 10 euro and up, and many of them are producing a fair number of seed. But both plants and seeds are usually not sold openly, because the prices for 'stooges' would drop considerably, this way they sell them for ridiculous prices on ebay, and for a fraction of that to fellow growers and collectors. http://www.ebay.com/itm/87-MAMMILLARIA-BERTHOLDII-ariocarpus-/361403062245?hash=item54254d17e5 http://www.ebay.com/itm/1117-Mammillaria-bertholdii-GIFT-rare-cactus-ariocarpus-kaktus-/391275819158?hash=item5b19db3096

Psyentist, I think it's safe to say yours is a 2nd generation plant, grown from seed that was bred in captivity either from a plant grown from habitat seed or from a habitat collected plant. Everyone always gets their panties in a bunch when it comes to poaching a couple hundred plants, but no one spares a thought for all the thousands upon thousands that were and are being destroyed every day by urbanization, road building, pollution and every other kind of habitat destruction. Probably hundreds of species have been destroyed before ever being discovered by science. I'm not saying poaching is OK, far from it, but you need to put it into perspective. And as was said, without poaching, we wouldn't have 10% of cacti and succulents we have today. In many countries, any kind of collecting seeds and plants from habitat is illegal. That is especially true for Mexican cacti and African stapeliads. If the plants are bred and propagated quickly enough and in large quantities, then soon the need for poaching that particular species subsides almost entirely. Don't feel bad about your plant, it is extremely beautiful, but do if you can try to reproduce it, either by crossing or with cement dust at first.

Thanks! It's one of my current favorites and I'll try to propagate it as much as I can, so I guess I'll have to think of a cheesy 'clone name', like 'sunshine', 'celestial bliss' or 'golden shower' or something.

Thanks! Without yours and Mr. X's generosity I wouldn't have anything to post pictures of, so thank you! Yup, they are still out in the sun. Don't know yet if I'll put them under the lamps over winter or let them hibernate. These grafts on Selenicereus take quite a while to get going, but they don't usually stall like Peres grafts do for me after a while (my climate is not well suited for Pereskiopsis), and they retain a more 'natural' appearance, stronger spines, better colour etc.. But for now, these same plants grafted onto Pereskiopsis at the same time are at least 4 times bigger... I can't wait to see your pictures of Werd Jessica, I don't have that one, but 3 different fruits from ABG.

Werd 1 Validus 2

It seems to be enjoying it's new body.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCgmImv6KY8

You sure they are actually sprouting? The only thing I can see in the first picture is cobweb mold. Do you see any green in there at all?

1 - T. bridgesii 2,3 - T. pachanoi 4,5 - T. knuthianus 6,7 - T. scopulicola

Well, you could argue that a 'hybrid' between two named peruvianus, pachanoi, bridgesii, etc. clones is potentially more 'purebreed' than seed collected in Peru from plants open pollinated by bats. This way you know exactly what both parents looked like, they aren't necessarily hybrids between different species.. I agree that growing wild collected seed is very fun, but if you want some specific traits, then 'hybrids' or clone cuttings are the way to go. Also, this way you can be certain the seeds are fresh and viable.

Some vendors with smaller seed selection can afford to keep better track of their sources, for example by providing a collection number, location data, and if possible, photographs of the mother plant. Succseed is one of those, but there are almost certainly others. Koehres has a huge sellection, so there's always a chance some of the seeds will be mislabeled and/or very old with poor germination rates. If you're interested in Trichocereus, here's probably the best place to find what you're looking for, many people sell hybrids with both parents being known, and usually named clones.

Beautiful plants, love all those 'weird' Trichocerei, I hope you get some seeds, the cross would probably look amazing! (btw, I'd definitely be willing buy a few of those seeds)

http://trichoseriousethnobotany.blogspot.hr/search/label/Trichocereus%20Validus Here are the pictures of the Fields validus. A plant that's very similar or maybe even the same is growing in the SecretGarden (sorry, no pics of that), and a couple of open pollinated crosses have been made this year. A bunch of seeds got distributed to people in various countries, so there should be some awesome looking hybrids in a couple of years.. Here's my little 15 cm baby. http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=41064&p=514657

This is an old picture, from May. I'll take some new ones this week.

Don't get your hopes up, this vendor isn't known for his naming accuracy. Two different batches of Koehres pachanoi I've sown have both turned out to be cuzcoensis, pretty plants so I don't mind, but still is disappointing not getting what you bought. Hopefully you'll have better luck.

Olive's terscheckii X Yowie Olive's terscheckii X Bondi scopulicola 1&2 Group shot, two xYowie on the left, Xscop on the right Interbeing terscheckii OP Solaritea's terscheckii X peruvianus Jessica Solaritea's terscheckii X PC T. escayachensis

Sure, I'll take some pictures in a day or two and post them in the grafts thread. And the escayachensis hasn't grown much because I had to regraft it 3 times, but is looking quite nice, I'll post some pictures of it too.

Hey Olive, thanks! I'm good, little bummed out because the growing season here is ending. This plant looks really great, I have a couple grafts of both crosses that are now about an inch in diameter, and are already showing a wide range of characteristics. Can't wait to see what they'll look like in a year. Btw, that SG validus looks much better IRL than I can get on the pictures, I can easily see it becoming my favorite cactus.

Olive, is this the plant you made your xYowie and xScopulicola crosses with?

Harrisia jusbertii is allegedly a natural hybrid of a Harrisia and an Echinopsis species. This may or may not be true, but it doesn't matter. The fact is that it's thicker and more weather resistant than most other Harrisia species, which makes it better for grafting. And it has shorter spines. I've tried grafting to Harrisia pomanensis and Harrisia martinii, they are fine as a rootstock, but a nuisance to work with because of all the spines, and far too skinny to support almost any scion species long-term.

EG, so what then are those with long spines? Or is that just normal variability within the species? Also, imo, it's very active, it can grow up to a meter per season when established!

Cereus, but I never know what this species should be called.