nitrogen

CBL - I've noticed some of them start out normal for awhile - a bunch of my TPM x N1 were like this - looked normal till like 3cm tall on pereskiopsis and then went weird.. The freak rate appears to be high with these crosses regardless, especially the ones with TPM or TPC as mother - you'll have quite a few here in a bit ;) I like growing conventionally too but I haven't had good luck with hardening them off really young - seems to stunt them - I like to keep them in high humidity and no direct sunlight till they a couple cm tall or so.. Naja Naja - nice! I love the one in the last post you made, far right - the one that's formed a 3-headed monstrose type thing - so cool looking!

Wow Hellonasty those are all so beautiful and healthy looking!!

I leave my pereskiopsis grafts in the humidity chamber for about 7 days - works really well - don't need a heating pad. The last day they are in there I uncover them a bit to bring them back to regular humidity slowly, and then after that I just keep them in regular air.

It's a variety of factors - but once they get 10-20cm tall or so, and are fully hardened off to sunlight, they will start showing their mature traits (spination, coloring, glaucous, alkaloids, etc). That's the joy of growing seedlings - as they get to that size, each flush of new spines will be longer and more colorful etc - developing seedlings are so gorgeous! But yea, within 1 year if grafted or within 2-3 years you can see the mature traits pretty well, if they are growing optimally - but until they are at their full girth there is more changes to come (in terms of spination etc) I wish I had room for all the seedlings I am growing to reach their full maturity - would love to see large, multibranched motherplants of my seedlings.. Here's a gratuitous shot of my T. bridgesii v "Bruce" X T. macrogonus v. "Sausage" seedlings - what a great cross this is - just starting to see glaucous blooms on a couple of them - these are much greener/light green than most seedlings I have - most of the trichos I grow out (hybrids of bridgesii, peruvianus, pachanoi etc) tend to be darker green and bluish - this cross is much different - till recently when a couple are getting that characteristic aquamarine color of bridgesii.. And here's my SS02 x SS01 seedlings - I started these in 2007 I believe it was - there are two of them in this pot, the only two I kept - one blonde and one brunette - in the first pic, the upper right 3 columns/pups are the blonde, and the left column plus its four pups on the bottom of the pic are the brunette. This plant is fully mature - and I have pruned it back once before already to make some decorative dried cactus chips - I love how these two seedlings look - they are so blue and spiny and outrageous -I have taken so many pics of them and use any opportunity to show them off

The seedling in that last pic looks totally normal... NOT!!

I believe Clone A is in fact the long phalic form whilst Clone B is the clumper - for sure this is the case here in the USA anyhow. I got a small cutting of Clone A into Oz a few years ago actually - can't remember who I sent it to though - someone on this board I know that..

Here are some Super Pedro x J3 seedling - The ones I planted together in a new pot are getting very fat - these have the baseball bat type shape and I can tell they are just going to be massive if allowed enough rootspace. http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_2041_zps06242994.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_2046_zps60c00f88.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_2049_zpsa9e4d808.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_2042_zpsec733f7a.jpg.html'>

This is a TPM x SS02 - this plant was grown under natural light, but then I've grafted a couple sections of it - one to pereskiopsis just recently, and another to pachanoi - the pachanoi graft has much thicker crests than the natural mother plant. Also, the mother plant looks like it's wanting to throw out some more normal or monstrose columns - this is my fav of the 4 seedlings I have from that cross. http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_2000_zpsf7cb3b0e.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_2006_zpsf3e20fd8.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_2003_zpsa8c4592b.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_2026_zps734fb0bf.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_2028_zps403073c6.jpg.html'>

Haha yea this one forms tighter crests than the other two crests I have from that cross - the non-grafted mother plant has really small, tight crests - but also put out a normal column that has now gone monstrose, and other sections look to be forming regular columns - a picture is worth a thousand words though so I'll get a photo up soon.. No need to be jealous though, you're like one season away from having all sorts of action like this in your garden!

Wow, gorgeous!!

Here's an update on my graft tree from page 1 of this thread - Loph's are endangered in Texas, USA, and now it looks like they are endangered in California, USA - this one sure is anyway as my TPM x SS02 graft is going banannas - not sure what to do exactly - shortly here that poor little loph is gonna get impaled! http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1986_zps676cfe23.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1985_zps7a534470.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1984_zps8e93b4cf.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1981_zpsd272f320.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1979_zps7cadbbdb.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1976_zps87e384c1.jpg.html'> http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1975_zps0c9709a1.jpg.html'>

Yea I think we have to include the parentage for sure, to keep track of the geneticss - but then we can just name the variation however we like - I've already decided on a TPM x (SS02 x pachanoi) v. "Ned", and a TPM x N1 v. "Conundrum".. Flattering as it is, I don't think including the name "nitrogen" or variations thereof as the species name is a good idea because we lose the original parentage, and also because I've made a bunch of other crosses that aren't going to have all these exciting mutations.. I don't think there's any way around keeping the genus and species in there somewhere.. Come to think of it, in the above examples, the full name would be T. peruvianus v. "monstrosus" x (T. bridgesii v. "SS02" x T. pachanoi v. "PC") v. "Ned and T. peruvianus v. "monstrosus" x T. bridgesii v. "N1" - kinda a mouthful for sure.. Might could just put the full articulated name in a footnote if distributing seed or cuttings..

Yea these things are going to be all sorts of awesome when they get bigger - I'm trying to imagine what each would look like as a multi-branched mother plant - not easy!! They grow so quick on pereskiopsis - I grafted up a few recently and with the warm weather here now they are catching right up..

A little Saturday morning cactus porn here - I'm so happy to see the beautiful variations in these hybrids that we're getting! The growth you see here was mostly indoors during the winter - windowsill sunlight for 2-3 hours a day - on pereskiopsis they seem to thrive inside under natural lighting conditions at this young age - so, don't despair Aussie cactophiles, you should be able to enjoy watching these crosses grow all winter Psycho0 x N1 http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1961_zpseb679d08.jpg.html'> TPM x N1 http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1958_zps8990f6f3.jpg.html'> TPQC x TPM http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1956_zps24091c04.jpg.html'> TPC x ? (either Juules, SS02, or (SS02 x pachanoi) http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1955_zps4987a061.jpg.html'> TPM x (SS02 x pachanoi) http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1954_zps1bd9f105.jpg.html'> TPM x (SS02 x pachanoi) - that little globular one in the bottom center I'm gonna name "Ned" - I looked at it and I'm like, yea, that's a Ned. http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1950_zps0767d55d.jpg.html'> TPM x (SS02 x pachanoi) http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1949_zpscf4a8e9f.jpg.html'> (SS02 x pachanoi) x TPM http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1952_zps0899147f.jpg.html'> (SS02 x pachanoi) x TPC - this hybrid came very late in the season, after I'd mailed out everyone's seeds except for like 3 or 4 people - it was a tiny fruit, only like 200 seeds in it - so they're out there but not en masse - fortunately it looks like a cross with a high mutatation rate so hopefully the Aussies who got them can propagate. http://s199.photobucket.com/user/bringyourownbios/media/IMG_1948_zps115cec2d.jpg.html'>

My garden isn't showing much for flower buds - but I've got a T. peruvinaus v. "short-spine", psycho0, and TPM working up to flower - will get pics if they develop.. Been using a lot of Miracle Grow on my cacti over the winter and spring, to increase vegetative growth - not sure this helps flower formation though..

Check this pic out. Basically, when I sowed all these hybrids nothing germinated for over a month, and I was pretty devastated because I thought I'd screwed up the seed somehow by fertilizing the cacti heavily during fruiting - I was really very upset though after a nice mild tea journey I got more acceptance around it. The only hybrid seed that germinated during that 6 week period was the (SS02 x pachanoi) x TPM - and only a couple of the 40 or so seeds germinated. So I figured they were viable, but only a small percentage - so I sowed a whole bunch more figuring I'd get maybe 15 seedlings - much to my surprise and delight I checked them one day to find they were germinating like mad, and soon after that all the other hybrids started germinating as well. I think I just planted them too soon out of the fruit pod - the built-in mechanism that keeps them from germinating in the fruit pod was still active - I have since taken to refrigerating freshly harvested seed for a few days and this seems to lead to quick germination. Anyhow, here's a whole bunch of (SS02 x pachanoi) x TPM seedlings - I'm not sure what to do with them, they are way crowded and the smaller ones are basically getting trampled underfoot the bigger ones - there used to be like twice as many of them when they were little - quality problem though for sure - I'll likely pluck out the weird looking one's and graft them

I'm stoked you got those seeds in Philo! Philocacti has been my dear brother from another continent for some years now - was bummed to hear the seeds hadn't made it.. My seedlings are getting big enough now that I can see the ones that have clear crest/monstrose characteristics, and am plucking them out to graft.. My first round of grafts though was just luck of the draw since they all just looked about like Philocacti's seedlings above - couple weeks old and that.. I've noticed that the TPC x and TPM x N1 crosses start out normal, and then get weird - whereas I'm seeing the TPMx(SS02 x pachanoi) going weird right off the bat more often..

Damn dude, did you take that pic with the mousepad or something? Anyhow though, nice tricho!

I can't get enough of this thread!

That looks totally wierd..

Neat specimen Hookahead! I grafted a few of each cross to pereskiopsis in like November and have been growing them indoors all winter next to a window - turns out when they are that small, they don't need much direct sunlight at all to grow quickly and with good girth.. So, if winter approacheth down under you can do that too.. Me, I'm looking forward to the summer

Y'all in Oz have a lot of great trichos growing in peoples' yards - here in the USA, pretty much you see PC pachanoi but nothing else - came across a peruvianus awhile back and was pretty stoked - smalle rplant but growing out in a dirt alley. Other than that just pachanoi

Mushrooman - it's hard to know what's in store with the TPM crosses - the motherplant will put out normal columns that grow several inches, and then at some point go totally weird/monstrose - so assuming that trait passes on, the seedlings could exhibit similar behavior..

Nah I just grafted them randomly - they all looked the same when I did - they were so young at the time.. Generally I pick the larger, healthier seedlings for grafting though..

I think it's just a lot of sunlight and dry air - cacti seem to put out gnarlier spines when they are in a lot of sunlight and when they are more stressed in general - its a coastal desert type climate here and I notice spines on my cacti tend to get pretty wicked.. I would rather the pereskiopsis have no spines and glauchids - I have to pick them out of my fingertips with the razorblade tip after a grafting session..