Inyan

Kaduka, Just think, one of these hybrid seedlings of yours might turn out to be what is known as a bridge plant. A plant capable of hybridizing with another species that neither parent by itself could hybridize with using ordinary means. Yeah, your doing some great work. Don't give up. Graft those little struggling seedlings!

For me, it will be most interesting to see if these hybrids are compatible with both parents in the same degree of ease making natural or easy hybrids both ways or only one way? Perhaps, they may even be fertile only amongst siblings from this same cross. Whatever the case, I would love to see your sibling x sibling hybrids as well as crosses back to both parents utilizing the parents as mom and dad both. You may even find that these hybrids themselves are more easily out-crossed to jourdaniana or some other species so don't rule that out either.

The important thing to realize is that different pollens have different life expectancies given different conditions. Some pollens are only viable for a day if kept out in the open. Others last longer. When in doubt, dry and freeze as soon as possible.

A chimera is a mingling of the cells between two cacti in such a manner that the two become one plant. Similar to variegation coloring, only this would be a variegation in cell type where some cells are trichocereus and some are Lophophora. Imagine taking a blender and mixing the two in a blender and then forming a solid growing mass from that blended mixture. That is what a chimera is.

Many dry the pollen and then store the pollen in the freezer. Protect from light and moisture and you will have viable pollen for your next exploits.

It almost looks as if that little pup is coming from the Trich. It wouldn't be all that bad if you happened to have a chimera form between these two plants. It might actually be kind of cool looking.

You could always opt for somaclonal variation / hybridization. Adjusting the temperature slowly so as to select the most cold hardy cells and then grow those up. Its a bit faster than line breeding.

Self sterile or not, you may be encouraging a plant to self regardless depending on your technique. This happens in nature. Still, I hope your keeping pictures for your record book to keep for yourself regardless. Failed attempts are just as important as your successes. Each one attempted is another that you have to realize may work with a different plant of the same species. Try and try again and I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. I have great faith in what you can do if you keep trying and don't give up. I've seen some beautiful work here. Keep it up.

Pollen cocktails is an advanced way of making more crosses than you have flowers to make crosses. Its primary value is achieved only when you realize that the genetic variation in each flower as well as pollen grain itself is variable. With that said, you can figure it out. You just have to keep good notes. And repeat the successful crosses with one pollen at a time from the rare successful pollen cocktail. Perhaps you have a single lophophora that can take a particular foreign pollen. Only one flower is capable of accepting foreign pollen. Every single flower is genetically unique just as each ovule produced from such a flower is genetically unique.

I'm assuming here that they pass on well via the maternal side. Thanks for the information.

Beautiful flowers guys! Keep those pictures coming and label those crosses I know you guys are making!

Loving those flowers. I'm a big fan of Echinopsis, Trichopsis, etc. type hybrids.

Has anyone done any research with Lophophora variegates? I'm asking in particular if the variegation is passed more strongly via the maternal side than one would find in a non-variegated seed mom? Variegation is often passed on the maternal side with many plants. Any variegated x variegated lophophora seed out there?

Spill the beans. What's the cross on this one? Lophophora x Trichocereus? C'mon, serious minds want to know.

I like this discussion. First, to be sure you are getting a successful cross you might want to try to emasculate your flowers before the pollen ripens. For intergeneric crosses, some tidbits such as making a pollen cocktail of 5 or more species might be helpful. If one foreign pollen makes it, do you really care which one made it? You can of course figure it out if you label each pollen cocktail and keep good notes. This allows you to test many more pollen types at a time rather than relying on one pollen type and one failed attempt at a time. Frequently, the barrier to fertilization is located in the stigma. This can be overcome by cutting the stigma off or cutting the style in half and then applying the pollen lower down. I recommend mixing the pollen thoroughly before applying it. You also want to dry and then freeze your pollen cocktails. Use what you need and then refreeze for future uses if you have success. You may find that you have to make several crosses with one pollen cocktail to get one to take. It also helps to keep the flower isolated via some barrier to keep the bugs from coming along and helping you out. Oftentimes, you may get a seed pod, but the pod aborts with more difficult crosses. Inside, you may find if your lucky, immature seeds. These will need to be tissue cultured in order to keep them alive and growing in many instances, but simply knowing its possible is half the fun. You also want to label your crosses. Most advocate labeling your cross like this: Lophophora Southern form (seed bearer) x Lophophora Northern form (pollen donator). Keep track of your crosses and your seedlings and go after a specific goal. Some crosses will only work one way. This means you will want to try a single cross with both parents acting as the mom for the others pollen. Just food for thought.

Nice work Jack.

Nice hybrids. Are you trying to say you have some intergeneric hybrids as well? Did you emasculate the flowers and isolate them to ensure that they were not accidentally self pollinated? More importantly, what technique did you utilize? Cut-style approach, grafted style? C'mon, enquiring minds want to know.