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The Corroboree

Inyan

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Everything posted by Inyan

  1. Inyan

    Bridge cacti

    http://www.geocities.com/pride_lands/Liger_Tigon.html Now, to me that is exciting. The fact that cacti can do this on the same or larger scale doesn't impress me nearly as much. Thanks for posting the above information though as it is a wealth of information Auxin.
  2. Inyan

    Family

    Sublime Crime, I'm the one in the pretty red skirt ;)
  3. I've used micropore tape, but I find that its a bit too sticky for my taste. My favorite tools of the trade are parafilm (wax sheets that breath) and co-ban elastic wrap. I've tended to utilize parafilm underneath my coban for most of my grafts though though to offset the biting into the tissue that you can see if you aren't careful with coban. Coban can also leave small threads inside of the tissue of your plant if left on too long which can also color the tissue the color of your graft. This again is overcome with parafilm wrap directly underneath your coban. As for your question, Kada, as to grafting two Brugmansia together and leaving them both on their own roots... Its just faster to graft that way and was a bit of fun at the same time. Grafting is fun to me and during the winter, I utilize every cheat I can think of to ensure my grafts take. We all know it is much better to graft when the days are a bit longer, but here I am always grafting. I guess you might call it an addiction, but it makes me happy. I also like seeing multiple colors, shapes, etc. on one tree. Some of my grafts, such as my red series Brugmansia grafted onto double pinks for example, I don't show as it is a bit embarrassing. That type of graft speeds the red Brugmansia up too fast and they become much more prone to disease... its a waste of time and effort, but if I didn't do it... it would be second hand knowledge or in actuality, no knowledge... as no one shared this with me. http://www.ptdirectonline.com/ProductDetai...oid1=&oid2= http://www.2spi.com/catalog/supp/supp4b.shtml The above is the parafilm I utilize. It works great for seedling grafts as it doesn't put enough pressure to damage the seedlings provided only one or two wraps are applied and can be easily torn to size via a quick ripping action or you can use scissors. Yes, I realize that many don't use anything to hold their seedling grafts in place. To each their own style or technique. Planthelper, Grafting any plant, cactus, seedling, etc. is easy if you know how and have patience so that is a given. As to your other questions, I graft for the diversity it creates as well as to learn how a particular stock affects the scion. Rather than throw out my hypothesis on how or why I do something or what I think I've learned, I like to allow those to see things unencumbered by my own b.s. as that gets the individual's creative juices to flowing.... wondering why and coming up with their own theory. Perhaps, they will try it and share a common thread of perception with me and together the two perceptions will have more weight and less of a placebo effect than if I simply throw out my own garbage so to speak. Not that I don't throw out plenty of my own garbage out there. I guess some of it just depends on the mood I'm in at the moment which is influenced much more than I would like to admit from the particular environment I am in at the moment. I applaud your additions by the way as they are much needed for those that haven't had any experience grafting as well as for some of us that have been grafting without a care as to the spread of disease. Perhaps I will find some documents I've made on grafting Brugmansia and post them here as well if you don't beat me to it. Unfortunately, my computer was purged recently enough that some of my better grafting projects are lost.
  4. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    This is the safest way to handle Brugmansia. Just be sure to wash your hands before you rub your eyes if the seeds are fresh. Next, plant them in the ground and enjoy the flowers. This is one sacrament that is best left to those who simply enjoy the fragrance of a nice flower unless of course you have a death wish.
  5. Inyan

    Family

    Hunab Ku, we often are so afraid of sharing a bit of who we are with others, but I feel it is only by sharing and allowing others to peek at a small bit of ourselves that we can begin to open up and share a small bit back. It also opens you up to ridicule as well which makes you more vulnerable potentially, but I'm the kind of person that tries, note the operative word "tries", to take a bit of ignorance and or just different opinion with a grain of salt. Perhaps we learn something about ourselves in the process of sharing.
  6. You can see a very nicely healed graft here between one of my hybrids and its mom. Wildfire, one of my other favorites. I'll stop posting pictures for now as I know many of you have much better in your collection. I assure you, I have much better in mine as well. You never post everything.
  7. Post some pictures cappi! I love blue forms simply because I like the color Blue. I'm taking the seed was taken from several different cacti? Pictures of mom's available or records kept? As for the other comments... I'm about as lost in these woods as I can possibly get.
  8. Inyan

    Lophophora hybrids

    http://cgi.ebay.de/(-10-)-Samen-Lophophora...228127004r24623 http://www.thegardenforums.org/viewtopic.php?p=142694 Sorry to post a few links to pictures of hybrid seed as well as hybrids. I just thought it might be nice to keep information about hybrids of a specific genus in one place for quick access. Better to go to one place rather than thumb through all the threads in search of bits and pieces. Alright guys, I started this, but I expect contribution from anyone and everyone. Especially you KadaKuda as you've already created some hybrids with this genus. When hybridizing, its important to realize that you may be seeing parthenogenesis with those seeds so you can never be sure from the first cross. Crossing the siblings of your F1 cross should help though if no obvious phenotypical differences arise in the F1 batch of seedlings. This is called your F2 cross. Remember, store your pollen in a dry frozen state for utilization at any time of the year. You don't want to be handicapped by the pollen you happen to have available at the time. Pollen cocktails, mentor pollen, etc. are also good idea's if your simply wanting to add some diversity to your seedlings. You can work out the particulars later if you keep good notes as to what species was in each batch of pollen. Of particular note, use a permanent marker to label your pollens and keep a log book of when a cross was made with a particular batch of pollen, how many attempts were made, what approach was used, etc. If you cut back the style on a few and not on others, you need to know which ones were which as you may find you have parthenogenesis occurring one way and a good cross the other. Please refrain from idle chatter in this thread. I'm hoping this will develop into a serious working thread for those interested in creating hybrids. Please note, attempts at hybridizing with the cross attempted in proper format and resulting seeds or seedlings can be posted here as well without the fear of ostracism or other such ridicule. It is well known that many Lophophora may indeed self pollinate and no cross can be guaranteed even with the best of techniques such as emasculation of the flower before the pollen matures, etc. as we can not rule out parthenogenesis. With that said, I am hopeful that those who are so brave as to list some of their crosses attempted will give dates of pollination as well as dates the fruit matured as fruit can be delayed in many species when the pollen is not one that it is used to. Pods can abort. These things can and should be noted with the understanding that a failure does not mean the cross is not possible. It merely means that more attempts, different stock plants etc. may need to be tried or different techniques. An example might be: L. jourdaniana (seed bearer) x M. luethyi (pollen donor) pollinated on 30 Dec. 08. Method employed cut-style method... cross labeled JL1 L. jourdaniana (seed bearer) x M. luethyi pollinated on 30 Dec. 08. Method employed pollen cocktail... cross labeled JL2 L. jourdaniana (seed bearer) x M. luethyi pollinated on 30 Dec. 08. Method employed grafted style. Note: parafilm used and or capillary tube ... cross labeled JL3 L. jourdaniana (seed bearer) x M. luethyi pollinated on 30 Dec. 08. Method employed cut-style method... cross labeled JL4 L. jourdaniana (seed bearer) x M. luethyi pollinated on 30 Dec. 08. Method manual pollination of emasculated flower... cross labeled JL5 M. luethyi (seed bearer) x L. jourdaniana (pollen donor) pollinated on 30 Dec. 08. Method employed cut-style method... cross labeled JL4 The idea being that you can come back and edit, add pictures, etc. to keep everything smooth and in one place. Protoplast fusion Links http://www-saps.plantsci.cam.ac.uk/docs/protofusion.pdf I've put this link in here as it makes protoplast fusion sound easy and goes step by step. You can source the chemicals and more pertinent articles and extrapolate from there how to do this with cacti. Of particular interest of course is the very distant types of crosses made possible with this method. Another useful idea is to stain each cell from a species or genus with a different stain for each experiment. This will allow you to isolate, watch, and select the exact fusion products you are after without the worry of, " Is my fusion product simply Lophophora 22 + Lophophora 22= 44 chromosomes. Another thing to keep in mind is that protoplast fusion utilizing gametes will yield your normal 22 chromosome cacti which may stand a better chance at natural hybridization with another species or even a new species. I'll come back to this and keep adding so keep watching as pertinent information will be edited in. Bridge crossing or bridge plants is another area one may want to look into. Suppose one wants to cross Trichocereus x Lophophora and you've tried everything you can and nothing seems to work. A Bridge cross or two or three may be needed... one finds that a particular Lophophora out of 100 from the same genetic location will cross with a particular M. luethyi your F1 seedlings (L.M.l=F1) from this cross would be Lophophora (seed bearer) x M. luethyi. Now, you have also discovered that a particular Echinopsis will cross will cross with M. luethyi These F1 seedlings you label M. luethyi x Echinopsis (pollen cocktail m20%.p60%.t.20%) or F1= M.lE 262) You continue to cross these F1 seedlings from both of your crosses while simultaneously trying to cross these seedlings to Trichocereus. Your crosses might look like this: F2= M.lE 262 x L.M.l These seedlings may then be crossed to a pure Echinopsis and perhaps later to your Trichocereus. Yes, this takes many crosses and back crosses in an attempt to filter out the genes that you are after into the cacti you are attempting to create and perhaps I should have started out with an easier cross or method.... Easier method to visualize the process. Trichocereus x M. luethyi = f1 TxM.l Lophophora x M. luethyi = f1 LxM.l f1 LxM.l x f1 TxM.l = F2 (LxM.l) x (TxM.l) and you have your resulting cross with genetics from both Trichocereus and Lophophora. Yes, unwanted genetics may be in this cross, but you may find that this cross will cross to either species itself in its pure form. Back crossing to Trichocereus and Lophophora and crossing those resulting seedlings to each other or back to their respective sets of parents... Yes, its time consuming work so you really have to love hybridizing and seeing what if anything arises. Pollen cocktails and mentor pollen are both valuable in this type of cross as you can test out many types of pollen or varieties from different species at the same time. For informational purposes there have been some very wide crosses of this type done. Follow the link for just one such example. Astrophytum. x Mammillaria. x Gymnocalycium http://www.lapshin.org/cultivar/N18/exp-e.htm The above cross is a perfect example of a cross that could be utilized in this manner. Especially so as both Mammillaria and Astrophytum have been reportedly crossed with Lophophora. [(Astrophytum. x Mammillaria.) x Gymnocalycium] x (Lophophora x Mammillaria) would be another good cross if one assumed that the particular Gymnocalycium or Astrophytum utilized was not able to cross with Lophophora and you desired those particular genetics for your particular project. Unusual form, flower, color, etc. are thus introduced slowly into your Lophophora line which you can then breed back to Lophophora varieties repeatedly while selecting for the trait or traits you were after. In this way, you could eventually create a hybrid that could be considered almost genetically pure Lophophora that had a purple or even a bicolored red/purple flower if that was your goal.
  9. Inyan

    Lophophora hybrids

    Your proposing something like this? Stigmatic fluid or exudate..... Don't worry yourself about which is which. Grind the compatible donor stigma up and use the juice. You don't need to think fancy. The same thing goes with the grafted style... don't think fancy. If you know a particular pollen germinates and grows x number of cm's in an hour... you can think of ways to accomplish this and remember, you don't need a lot of tissue for your grafted style/stigma, etc. The main and most important thing to remember is pollen is very much like a seed. It needs moisture to germinate and higher levels of humidity than those that might be encountered in a plants natural setting can often increase the ability of a foreign pollen to germinate. Humidity is of utmost importance for the pollen as well as for the cut style or stigma surface. Even a coke bottle, plastic bag, etc... can keep things more humid. I prefer parafilm myself as it is exceptional for grafting purposes... it breaths, stretches, and falls off when it is no longer needed. As far as how much style or stigma to remove... the zone of inhibition has to be by-passed. Cut the style in half and you've generally accomplished this. Cutting the style in half can be done horizontally or vertically. If done vertically, you can insert an nice chunk of your compatible pistil (compatible with the pollen) ... not the plant or cacti in question. Essentially, you'd be making a grafted style lengthwise instead of horizontally. You have to allow yourself to think outside of the box. The mentor pollen, both viable and killed method serve many purposes... one is fruit set. If their is insufficient compatible pollen then your pod will often abort. If there is not enough viable pollen from your mentor pollen... your pod will often abort. You have to experiment and see if 100% dead mentor pollen is okay to trigger things with each and every cross you attempt. If not, then you need to move to minimal pollination utilizing mentor pollen in your pollen cocktail. The idea is this: If you know you need 1-2 grains of viable pollen from your mentor pollen to get a pod not to abort then you use 1-2 pollen grains to accomplish this. Any other seed that forms will be from your non-compatible pollen and thus you have 1-2 seeds that are not hybrids and the rest which are. The problem is of course that many times the resulting hybrid seeds will still abort and or you will find an large mostly empty seed pod with a heavy load of callous tissue surrounding those aborted seeds. I have a few pictures detailing this in my own crosses. Unfortunately, I don't have them small enough to post in here... at least most of them are too large. You are very right in many of your assumptions.. even the experts don't understand 100% why these methods work. I really don't care too much as long as I have data to back those crosses up. I think of many pollen rejection in much the same way as I think of the human immune system. A female with rh- blood may have an rh+ baby with no problem without a rhogam shot. However, the next baby she will not be able to have if it is rh+ if she did not have the shot. Similarly, the body detects foreign antigens when they reach a crucial level and mounts a reaction against them. With this in mind, many plant stigma/style surfaces can be exposed to the proper antigens to signal seed production from dead or minimal levels of viable mentor pollen thereby allowing the foreign pollen antigens to go undetected as they begin to germinate. However, some foreign pollens need the specific antigens found on and in the stigma of their compatible species to germinate. Excessive humidity may bypass this need, but when it does not... this is why stigma fluid is utilized. I'm thinking for our experimental purposes, its probably best to place a a few pollen grains on the stigma prior to macerating it as this allows for that stigma to send added chemical messengers unique to that particular pollens germination to be utilized in/on the cut style of the non-compatible style. Likewise, you can simply apply the compatible pollen to its compatible stigma and then insert this stigma into the stigma/style of your non-compatible cross taking care not to let the stock or scion to dry out in the process. High humidity is a must! Pollen is much more adaptive than many like to think. You can germinate many pollen grains on a slice of onion and so it appears that not all are dependent on stigmatic juices so to speak. You can look at this germination under a microscope if you use a thin peel from the skin itself. Again, be careful not to let it dry out. With that said, minimal pollination has a great advantage in that you utilize a set percentage of pollen types and a set number estimate of pollen grains. Serial dilutions are made of each pollen type and many crosses are made. The idea being that if you know a particular cactus can set seed pods of 20-30 seeds when out-crossed and needs a minimum of 4 seeds to produce a seed pod... you reduce the number of pollen grains down to 10-15 to pollinate each flower with. You use varying percentages or dilutions in relationship to each other with the understanding that any seed pod over 18 seeds is most likely a waste. Those in the 10-15 range though in this scenario may have varying percentages of both hybrid and non hybrid seed that you should be able to uncover the percentages within reason of both compatible and incompatible crosses. This is the theory at least. If you have 4 grains of compatible pollen on a stigma and they are viable and 10 grains of non-compatible pollen and you get 10 seeds to form and 3 abort... you can figure that the first 4 grains did their job of keeping the pod from aborting while the 10 grains of non-compatible pollen went undetected. Perhaps your dilutions work so that you can only get pods of 10 seeds compatible pollen and 2 seeds incompatible polllen... you see why many attempts have to be made and back-crosses to both sets of parents must be done to ensure that you have actually created hybrids when the obvious phenotype has not changed enough to be certain. Its similar in this manner to a mother with rh- blood. She may have an rh+ baby so long as not enough blood/antigen is detected from the baby as she creates antibodies/callous tissue to the resulting foreign tissue/antigen/protein. Why not work with Lophophora pollen? I don't think there is a regulation against shipping pollen yet? You can see a few different examples of how I have tried impossible crossed below. I've tried many more ways mind you and many of them resulted in seed. The majority of the seed aborted early on many of these crosses however. Some did reach pretty impressive sizes before they aborted with this particular cross, albeit, it was the opposite way... enough though for some nice examples. You can extrapolate from my examples and apply them to your own research and hybridizing attempts whatever the species or genus may be.
  10. Inyan

    Ethno Garden 2.0

    Sceletium and Mammillaria, now that is a nice idea for a ground cover. As for viridis, it does tend to grow slow so if you get freezes its a good idea to let it grow in a pot and sink that into the ground. You can pull it up later when the temps start to drop. You can protect your Brugmansia from minor freezes of short duration by placing a cover over them. I've used everything from blankets to shade trees to produce a cover that protects them from slight dips down to 0 degrees. Still, if it gets much colder than that or stays at that temp for more than a few hours you might also want to consider bringing your Brugmansia in for the winter... i.e. keep it in its pot and sink the pot in the ground. You can make your Brugmansia go dormant simply by placing it in your basement with the lights turned off or keep it growing slowly if you place it by a window. Be sure not to water too much though or your Brugmansia will rot when it goes dormant.
  11. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    http://www.abads.net/brugidchart.htm Informative chart for you. http://www.abads.net/Gallery/species/brugmansia-species.htm http://www.abads.net/Gallery/ http://www.abads.org/abads/Registry/namelist/ Lists hybrids, who hybridized them, what species were involved, etc.... Brugmansia and Datura Angel's Trumpets and Thorn Apples by Ulkrike and Hans-Georg Preissel... one of the best books I've seen on Brugmansia. http://www.alibris.co.uk/search/books/qwor...0Thorn%20Apples I personally have the above book and a few others on Brugmansia. You can't beat the one above and it is available in multiple languages if English is not your native tongue. If you desire particular properties in a Brugmansia then let me know and I can point you in the right direction. I've grown quite a few different Brugmansia and I have my favorites for ease of flowering, seed production, beauty, fragrance, etc.
  12. Inyan

    Crossing Cacti

    Deliberate cross pollination attempts made in mass and with accurate records of how, when, and what types were utilized would be nice. There are many general rules and many rules that can be broken via different means. Do these things happen in the wild? Well, lets think if its possible that a stigma could get damaged in the wild and subsequently pollinated. Possible, but not very probable, still the cross would have to be made at the same time the damage was done.. a natural cut style method or mutilated style method would have thus taken place. F1 seedlings may be parthenogenetically produced via this pollen which by its very definition means that while no pollen dna was actually incorporated into the mix, seed still formed. This is why further crossing F1 x F1 is important. It is also important to utilize the pollen donor of the original cross, or species type at the least, to cross to this F1 seedling as the cross may only be able to go one way. Even with a successful cross, chromosome elimination may occur, seed may or may not germinate or even mature, germination may be sporadic, etc. etc. Is this a valid area to spend ones time? The answer depends on how much you like hybridizing or how much you value the goal you are after. Just because the common consensus is that it can't be done doesn't mean it can't be done. You have to be willing to try and try again. To think outside of the box. Mentor pollen and pollen cocktails combined with multiple fertilizations of via the cut style method, etc. may yield some added genetics. The trick is to realize that all of this generally requires a nice stock of pollen, the ability to store pollen in airtight/watertight containers, etc. I love diversity, but I don't buy everything I hear either. I also realize that sometimes too few experiments/pollination attempts, etc. were done to convince me that it isn't possible. All too often I have heard some crazy idea when it comes to hybridizing and then after doing some research on that idea found out that indeed, that technique did have some merit. Even environmental influences can be passed on to seedlings for 1-2 generations... if you don't think a grafted plant exists in a different environment than a non-grafted cutting of the same plant grown right next to each other... you are sadly mistaken. Jumping genes/transposons etc. can affect genetics as well. Graft-induced hybridization has been previously reported in Capsicum annuum L....These Graft induced genetic changes occur only during "mentor" grafts. when the scion is maintained without leaves while the stock, having vigorous branches and leaves, serves as the DNA donor. Graft transformation of the scion occurs when chromatin masses migrate from the lignified cells of the stock's stem, through the vascular system, and are incorporated into the new cell nuclei at the active primordia of the scion (Ohta 1991). A referenced and quoted from http://books.google.com/books?id=vY94Joa8X...9&ct=result You can literally months researching how one particular method works in one plant/cacti and not in another or works differently in another plant or not at all.... enough rambling for now.... Lol, I can't stop. http://www.actahort.org/books/625/625_12.htm "MOLECULAR MECHANISM OF GRAFT TRANSFORMATION IN CAPSICUM ANNUUM We have analyzed genetic variation in the graft-induced variant lines of pepper for 50 years. Various kinds of variations have been found with irregular genetic behaviors in the progenies derived from repeated grafting and reported. Based on our experiments, we especially suggest that transformation is a probable mechanism for graft-induced genetic changes. To verify the hypothesis, we surveyed DNA transferred from stock to scion by using molecular techniques. We found several specific common DNA sequences among scion, stock and graft-induced variant such as tomato transposon-like sequence. It is likely that gene transfer and integrated mechanism in the grafted plants might be mediated via retrotransposon system. By using differential display, we are further analyzing some genes responsible for bushy plant and inverted-blunt fruit that are typical characteristics in the graft-induced variant lines." http://www.bulbnrose.org/Heredity/Mungbeans/mungbeans.html Graft-induced Inheritable Variation in Mungbean and Its Application in Mungbean Breeding Okay, enough information for one day....
  13. Inyan

    Ethno Garden 2.0

    Cappi love water and respond well to heavy watering when planted in the ground. I'm not sure about your hook set up, but if it is done right it could work. Cappi can grow out a few feet and then wrap itself around small twine, wire, etc. that is kept taught enough... even a chain link fence would work for that purpose, but remember it is going to be hard to unwrap from that kind of set up the older and thicker the vine gets. Your Black Datura is most likely a Datura metel and as such will grow better in full sun and is less forgiving of over watering and colder temperatures than some other Datura. Spider mites are a problem with Datura as well as Brugmansia. With that said, you have to bite the bullet and use a systemic on them if you want perfect growth and little maintenance. Again, this is going to affect what you want to plant next to them as its okay to plant seedlings and such that aren't going to be eaten any time soon if your using systemic insecticides and if your not, your going to want to be weary of planting any cacti too close to them. You have to choose these things wisely. If your big on organic solutions or more natural solutions to mites, etc. then your going to have to know that more time is going to have to be invested in fighting these things off of your Brugmansia. I love Brugmansia, but I'd hate to see a cacti collection devastated by mites as well. You can of course opt to use systemic insecticide solutions that you wipe onto the leaves... wearing protective gloves, so as to ensure that your other plants are not affected. Many systemic insecticides only last about 6 weeks with Brugmansia so if this is the case you can always switch to a non-systemic insecticide for a few weeks as well. I treat my Brugmansia collection with pepper spray and plenty of water when I go to a non-systemic program and I start this program 2 weeks before the systemic is supposed to start depleting itself from the plant. Just be careful you know what you are doing. Its nice to have a bed just for cultivating and looking at, but its also nice to have another bed that is for other purposes like growing those vegetables, etc. in. If you rotate plans as some do, make sure you keep them marked so you know how long it was since they were exposed. If you don't have a clue as to how long a particular systemic stays in a plant... use your brain.... research. Sorry, I know I'm giving more potentially useless and unwanted information, but I do tend to ramble.
  14. Inyan

    Mammillaria as an admixture?

    Mixed Mammillaria tea sounds interesting enough, but more data is needed as far as mixes and proportions. Which species or hybrids were utilized, how many of each variety utiilized, and were each of these separate varieties tested previously on their own. I'm assuming a mixture was thought to be more synergistic or otherwise done as they were what was available in the quantity desired at the time. As we have seen that some Mammillaria will cross with Lophophora it also makes a good argument for crossing active varieties of Mam's with Loph's. Now, if we could just get a list of compatible crosses for Mam's we might be able to find a Lobivia, Echinopsis, etc. to make a bridge cross and hopefully get the attributes of the Mammillaria, Lophophora, and Trichocereus that we like into one cacti. What we need here is a comprehensive listing of all known crosses with Mam's , Lobivia, Echinopsis, Trichocereus, to shorten our search. Of course, we could rely on pollen cocktails, but I'd much prefer a smaller cocktail to a larger cocktail.
  15. Inyan

    Lophophora hybrids

    Pollination Techniques to overcome fertilization barriers Mentor pollen is utilized to allow a pollen that is highly unlikely to make it to the ovule to have a teacher that knows the way. Seriously, follow the link or simply type in mentor pollen yourself and google. Macerations of the stigma of the compatible pollen are also sometimes used to inoculate the stigma surface or cut style surface of the plant to be crossed. Whether you want to argue that the stigma recognizes the protein signature from the mentor pollen and produces certain chemicals or from the pollen tube itself is not of importance to me, what is important is that mentor pollen has been successful with many different crosses to allow foreign pollen to introduce its genetic potential to a new genus or species with relative ease when compared to some other methods to overcome these barriers. "The use of mentor pollen has enabled successful hybridization between cassava, Manihot esculenta Crantz, and the wild species M. pohlii Warwa. Killed pollen of a cross compatible type produced by freeze-thawing was mixed with incompatible pollen and the mixes were dusted on stigmas. This treatment resulted in production of seed in 4.9 % of the total pollinations, compared to 0% in the case of untreated pollinations. The use of a bridge species, M. neusana Nassar, through the hybrid M. pohlii and M. neusana also proved successful in overcoming interspecific barriers between cassava and M. pohlii." ( http://www.geneconserve.pro.br/reprints10.htm ) There are many techniques to create mentor pollen and while freezing dry pollen preserves the integrity of the pollen, repeatedly freezing wet pollen, i.e. freshly collected pollen, irradiating, etc. will render you mentor pollen. Mentor pollen is often mixed into a pollen cocktail that has anywhere from one incompatible pollen or several different types of incompatible pollen. Pollen cocktails are another valuable technique which may also include mentor pollen. My suggestion is use mentor pollen, but utilize it in a controlled manner such as adding mentor pollen to pollen samples that have been divided into three and only mixing in mentor pollen with 1/3 of your properly labeled pollen containers. Pollen cocktails allow you to quickly find a bridge species or plant. I divide this into bridge species/cacti as you may find a single cacti or an entire species that is capable of cross breeding to either group in question. It is important to keep as accurate records as possible of the particular plants utilized in your pollen cocktail as well as the percentages from each species utilized. After all, if you find a bridge species via a cocktail and are unable to reproduce your effects it does you no good. Noting the individual cacti utilized in each cocktail is just as important as listing the species and %'s of each. http://mobot.mobot.org/cgi-bin/search_vast Nice link to chromosome counts for various cacti. While it is a myth that chromosome counts must match to create viable offspring, it does tend to help if chromosome counts match.
  16. Inyan

    Ethno Garden 2.0

    Minimum and maximum temperatures would be nice to post as well as how long to expect those temperatures as not all of us are going to research these things to help you out. Based on your Brugmansia growing there though and the particular type of Brugmansia you have going. I would need to know what your desires are. For me, I would plant one or two more Brugmansia in that spot. Sure, you could plant many more, but what I would be going for with that would be a screen to protect your cacti that you also seem ready to plant in this area. You don't want too large of a screen though as you want to create even more shade for your cacti seedling bed... again, something I'm assuming, as well as for your cacti that might like to be out of the direct sun in midday temperatures. The one or two Brugmansia I would pick would be ideally extremely fragrant and or in color... preferably something to contrast the colors of the flowers you already have. A nice pink suaveolens x aurea or a pure or almost pure pink aurea would be my next hybrids to choose from in that area. That or a nice dark rich double orange candida. Candida are typically not as fragrant as the former though. I would also till up or hoe up that small patch of dirt first. Dig out the soil completely down to a depth of twelve plus inches. Refill the bottom 6 inches with composted manure where you are going to plant your Brugmansia while utilizing your own soil to mix into this soil for a good 50/50 mix. This will still leave you 6 inches to top dress around your Brugmansia to be. You want to be careful not to create pockets of standing water as your cacti will need to be allowed to dry out between waterings. With this in mind, you could dig deeper just in the one or two spots in a 12 inch circle right around your Brugmansia to ensure any water that may collect underground flows towards your Brugmansia as they can withstand a heck of a lot of water as well as fertilizer run off. The top dressing immediately surrounding your Brugmansia should be relatively light and airy for optimal growth, but need not extend outward too much. The most important will be the top two-four inches of soil mixture as many Brugmansia rely on this 2-4 inches of soil for optimum growth when they are not pot grown. A pot grown Brugmansia has different needs and adaptations that suit it of course if you want optimum flowers and growing in pots directly in the soil allows you to uproot and move your Brugmansia to a different location much easier if that is your desire. I prefer to grow my Brugmansia in ground when at all possible though. You could of course run a PVC pipe with many holes drilled into it and put these around your Brugmansia as well. These PVC pipes, if your careful to keep them above ground and allow them to sink to the bottom before putting your soil into the ground will allow you to water your Brugmansia directly from these pipes and to control exactly where the water is going and to what depth or depths the water is released at. Placing funnels or bottles above these pipes will allow you to collect more water faster as well as rain water contributions. The bottom line, you will have to water less frequently and get better growth. Some people use 2 liter coke bottles inserted into the soil in much the same way for the same effect, its up the the individual gardener as to how much or little to put into projects like this. Other than Brugmansia which I have raved on about for long enough... Psychotria would also grow well in these spots and would be one of my choices for a nice bush directly underneath my Brugmansia or several feet away on their own. A Banisteriopsis cappi vine to grow along the fence on the opposite side or you can also allow one to grow up your Brugmansia if you don't expect your vine to get too big. Lastly, my suggestion would be a nice Tabernanthe iboga for edible fruit production. Perhaps you could be so lucky as to acquire different varieties and start your own seed production. As a general rule of thumb, I like to have two, at a minimum, of everything I am currently growing and preferably those two will genetically unique from each other as you never know which plants are not self fertile and which ones while self fertile could throw out some nice hybrid seed for you if left alone or otherwise painted with your own hands. Genetic diversity is a must in a small garden area like this for me. I wish you luck with your endeavors. I like the idea of a seedling area as well though and never forget that you may may decide to keep those seedlings in the ground or simply keep that area weed free so you can plant your seed trays in the ground themselves as this makes for easy removal of all of your seeds once they get a bit bigger. Simply lift the seed tray out of the dirt when it comes time to transplant.
  17. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    I love variegated plants/cacti myself Kada. I used to have a fine collection several moves ago. Now, I have a very limited number of variegated Brugmasia. I'm pretty sure the one you mentioned liking though can be had still though. Still, I love my plain old double orange the most as she's a blooming mad women who grows much faster than most of the single flowered Brugmansia I have. With the exception perhaps of one or two of my pure aurea species plants. Yeah, its easy to fall in love with Brugmansia, but its not the color or the foliage that most attracts me to Brugmansia.... its that heavenly fragrance. Sadly, many hybrids are being hybridized for color with no regard for this fragrance.
  18. Inyan

    Lophophora hybrids

    Protplast Fusion....This thread will expound on exact chemicals, protocol, etc. for those interested in gamete protoplast fusion or other cell types for 2n=22 or 2n=44 type protoplast fusion products. The idea here is to make this simple enough that anyone could do it. Give me some time to work on this and I'll keep coming back as time permits to edit and add information. Chemicals sourced: http://www.ncbe.reading.ac.uk/ncbe/materials/PDF/Price08.pdf viscozyme...Carbohydrase mix ..Viscozyme® .... £10.00, PectinasePectinase .......Pectinex ... £14.00, Cellulase ....Celluclast® . £10.00 http://www.worthington-biochem.com/PASE/pl.html Pectinase http://www.worthington-biochem.com/CEL/pl.html Cellulase http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/Lookup...;ST=RS&F=PR Viscozyme http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/Produc..._KEY&F=SPEC Plant Protoplast Digest/Wash Solution http://www.aniara.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Scr...TOXICITYTESTING Stain MTT Diphenyltetrazolium Bromide .... turns viable protoplasts red while not needed, will help to differentiate between different protoplasts and ensure you are getting the sought after combination between your different genus/species crosses as otherwise you may end up growing fused protoplasts from the same species/culture. http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/catalog/Produc..._KEY&F=SPEC Another dye, while not needed... can help to differentiate between different types of protoplasts. Evans Blue
  19. Inyan

    My Ethno Garden

    http://users.lycaeum.org/~mulga/images/psych4.jpg The above picture is a good explanation of how to identify viridis. Its the only way I can tell the them apart to be honest. That and by actually growing them. P. viridis grows extremely slow in comparison. http://www.biopark.org/chacruna.html P. alba grows much faster than P. viridis of course and for what its worth, I've seen some reputable suppliers give out the wrong species so please give this "shonky operator" some slack. Most professional places are eager to make sure what they are giving out is indeed what their suppliers have told them it is. I know of an old Brugmansia enthusiast who used to sell many species of Psychotria and Lee and Alan eventually found out that one of their specimens was incorrectly labeled as well. Give the place a chance to make it right. If it is a private individual or an organization, I'm sure either way that they are steamed to find out that they are being given the wrong material for resale. The different Psychotria species apparently interbreed very easily as reported by others. Sorry, I haven't grown up any hybrid seed myself from these mixtures myself. However, if I were to hybridize with Psychotria, I'd do so with viridis and alba in an attempts of getting faster growth while still looking for those classic barbs in my seedlings. (P. alba x P. viridis) x P. viridis Sorry, I ramble a bit... Your pictures are very nice and many thanks for sharing them with us. It's been too many years since I've grown the Psychotria species of any sort so what knowledge I once had is a bit shoddy at best now with those species.
  20. Inyan

    Crossing Cacti

    This is the bit that interests me. A self-sterile locality of a species... if this locality should be able to cross with self-fertile localities, will the resulting seed be self-sterile or merely show a reduced fertility. Not that you these are your only possibilities, still it begs to be answered via cross pollination studies.
  21. Inyan

    Lophophora Echinata

    Trucha, If you could furnish some information regarding variations in different localities via pollen studies, dna, flower morphology, etc. Really, anything of interest... I'd be interested in poking through the websites or other resources myself. I'm not a pure purist as I like hybrids between different species, localities, etc. and information pertaining to them as I like diversity as well. I've always heard of various hybrids and seen a few black and white pictures, but I've never seen any hybrids that had any ongoing work done with them. Of course, parthenogenesis comes to mind with many of them as well as partial inclusion of the offending paternal pollen sources dna as not all hybrids actually incorporate the full set of dna from its pollen donor. At any rate, I like where your mind is at. Keep spreading some of this information around and perhaps I've simply overlooked some of your other posts as well so I'll keep looking. Diversity is the key though as hybrids between localities may be able to fit niches that neither parents fit in previously. Lophophora w. El Huizache x L.w. La Perdida are the types of crosses I'm most interested in as far as locality goes. My interest is obviously crossing the northern and southern forms as well as western and eastern forms. The idea being to utilize members for crossing that are as far apart geographically as possible... at least thats one of my ideas. Sure its not original and someone else has already done it, but its worthwhile to me. I've toyed with a few ways of doing this. The most obvious way is to collect many different location types from all area's and then utilize the pollen of a few northern types found in Texas, etc. to pollinate each and every locality. Southern types from the most southern or most distinct type could then be crossed back to all types as well with an emphasis on hitting the Texas locality types first with this type of pollen. What am I hoping to uncover? Who knows? Thats what makes it fun. Of course the idea of different localities being more suited for different soil types, etc. makes it worthwhile to make these crosses as well. Different environmental niches for seedlings, combined quantitative traits from different gene sources...
  22. Inyan

    My Ethno Garden

    Those Psychotria seedlings are coming along great. I'm assuming you got tired of rooting the leaves and decided to plant some seed off of your own plants? I know I was amazed at the amount of seed a single Psychotria could put out in a very short period of time. Which species are those by the way? I've only grown a few species myself, but I've never been able to tell much of a difference with some of them other than by looking at the underside of the leaves. Very nice garden. Your making me wish I didn't move around so much. I'm guessing your cappi vines are also around 2-3 years of age, but that depends of course on your climate. Mine were grown outdoors much as yours, but I had to contend with them freezing back many years. What can I say, you've got one nice garden. Don't think the Brugmansia escaped me either. I love em all. I especially like the fact that you have a nice bit of diversity in your garden. Keep it up and ask your girlfriend for a camera for your birth day!
  23. Inyan

    Brugmansia Beauties

    http://www.engelstrompeten.de/wupperstolz.htm Beauty is clearly in the eye of the beholder. Sure, different variegated specimens are going to be more important for breeding purposes and others are going to be more important for esthetics. The above is one of my favorite double pink variegates. Due to the type of variegation though, I doubt very seriously that this one would be good as a mom as she would most likely throw out albino babies.
  24. Just how much are these other people paying and why are they getting paid to disseminate information? Trucha, your losing me. But thats not always hard to do. If your inferring that Mutant might be feeling negatively affected by my post then my sentiment still stands. It's all good. Of course, you could counter with, "It's always good till someone gets hurt." But, I assure you my feelings are genuine whether they are taken that way or not. Agreed, online communication is not always the best even when two people's first language is the same language. Am I following you? Or am I lost in the woods?
  25. Mutant, No offense meant means no offense was taken. In short, that means, it's all good.
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