Inyan

Grafts of the day in a hurricane... Like most days, I'm grafting today, but today is special as I'm leaving these grafts outside to greet Hurricane Florence. Lets hope we all survive and yes... lets hope these grafts survive the hurricane as well. These seedling grafts will be left out without any protection to be pounded on, rained on, and generally abused by Florence. Hopefully, I will be back with an update for you guys and gals. I'm fairly confident that if we make it out alive, so too will these grafts. With that being said... let the Hurricane begin. Size of seedlings being used todayAnd this is how we do it.. Stay tuned for updates on grafts able to withstand a hurricane or not?

Fail to trim and you scion will fail to grow. Case in point So, you can guess that in addition to rectifying this travesty by trimming my stock plants today I also made a handful of grafts as is the case most days. While I was at it though, I also took a Pereskiopsis from full sun to partial shade to demonstrate dark green growth on bottom half indicative of full sun exposure and light green growth on top showing shade growth

Graft made today Caterpillar buffet again.... looking like caterpillars are eating my babies every day now for a few days...Another hybrid.... and this little one... not grafted

And today... two new mutants discovered while preparing to graft

Bark has no value to me for a potting mix as it actually pulls nutrients out of the soil. As a top dressing bark is fine. The more bark you have in your soil the more you will want to fertilize. Like Gimli, I often use pre-made soils. Like Gimli, I like to add bone and blood meal to my cacti soils. With an emphasis on the bone meal rather than the blood meal if I'm going to skimp on one. I've used cow manure, bat guano, and even buckets full of chicken manure scooped out of my own chicken coops for my cacti. Most people tend to underfeed rather than overfeed their Trichocereus. The same thing goes for watering in the warmer months. Keep your Trichocereus in full sun and in warm soil and your going to experience some phenomenal nice thick growth. Especially when I don't have the time to make up my own soils. I've used Miracle Grow soils for Trichocereus, bags of black cow (composted cow manure), etc. Just about any moderate to high quality garden soil for potted plants will work great for most Trichocereus. Now, with that being said, If you've ever grown Tomatoes or Brugmansia... feed and water your Trichocereus like you would a Brugmansia or a Tomato plant during the hot summer months and you will be very happy with your results. If your unsure of how much to add or whether your doing more harm than good, plant a Brugmansia with your Trichocereus and as long as your Brugmansia is lush and green you can be sure your Trichocereus is going to flourish. The best part about that... your Brugmansia can be made to go dormant just like your Trichocereus when winter comes if that is your practice. With that being said... fish emulsion and blood meal, both of which I frequently use mixed in with inorganic fertilizers... are major animal attractors. So, use with caution depending on where you live.

I've always kept my Trichocereus in very rich soil, watered them heavily, and fertilized heavily as well. An example of the fertilizer I use for my cacti... rich in organic and inorganic fertilizers. For nice thick growth on your prized Trichocereus specimens you will want a rich soil and a healthy dose of fertilizer. If the soil can drain or dry out within a few days at most that will help your roots to develop and grow as well. Trichocereus grown in a bog system tend to have underdeveloped roots as compared to those that aren't.

Looks like you are going to have some potentially very nice babies to graft and soon... what I wouldn't do to be a fly in your green house Mean Green.

Nice rich soil you have there Average Joe. I see you believe in rich soil for your Trichocereus as do I. As for me, I grafted a bunch of hybrid babies today after I found a caterpillar eating some of my newly grafted seedlings. Check out the hole on the side of this cacti...

More grafts done today... now, I won't bore you with the usual step by step pictures. Instead... I'll hit you up with a few pictures of how I roll on the other minutia of grafting... those steps many don't talk about. Without further ado. First, its nice to have a tray of stock ready. Now, I fertilize my stock regularly, but when transposing I prefer to soak them in a little something stronger. Sometimes I'll soak my seed in fertilizer to clean some of the dirt from them as well. . I've also been known to simply use water for that my seedling soaks. Whichever you choose... I try to do at least two baths with the last being water or if I'm concerned I might add in a bit of h202. Next, I often lay out a few stock plants and wrap them with a little parafilm. This keeps fuzz and what not from getting into my grafts later and also helps the next top l layer of parafilm stick a bit better. Note, in the previous picture, some have also been grafted already. Another perk of parafilm... you can lay your grafted work on its side or upside down after you are done. Bump into your grafts... no worries. Before long, you should have a nice stack of grafted babies ready to go. Just be sure to have some light or your babies might look like this mess when your done. Suffice it to say, I was grafting in the dark again! Not a smart move, but I can't stand not to graft each and every seedling I have plucked for the days grafts.. Lastly, you will want to feed those fresh grafts as this will help settle in the soil you worked around your stock to keep them snug. I make this a wee bit stronger using both chemical fertilizers such as miracle grow, fish emulsion, etc. You may wish to skip the organic fertilizers if you can't keep your trays away from the wild life though as organic fertilizers have been known to attract foxes, dogs, etc.

Soaking dirty little girls and boys today before the grafts were to begin when I noticed this alien munching on the thigh of one of my little ones. All that trouble to keep them clean so they can be grafted and this darn little one is eating them up just as fast as I can graft them. Apparently he doesn't like the stock as he just goes after the scions.

Another day another hopeful light yellow hybrid gets grafted.

Asking if the plant Earth is giving you enough unconditional love is failing to realize that in order to experience unconditional love one from another one must first have unconditional love for oneself. No, I don’t believe there is any inherent need for murder, rape, cancer, man made global warming, etc. That kind of thinking is indicative of thinking entrenched in dogma at best and at worst is indicative of one that is incapable of genuine empathy and shows a genuine lack of conscience. Good and bad can indeed be subjective, in that good and bad is often colored by ones dogma and or personal beliefs. However, be that as it may, most of us instinctively have empathy for another human being when it comes to their suffering. This is what makes us humans and not psychopaths. I will explain a bit further. If I were to take 10 people in this forum at random and show them a young dead man that had been mutilated for no apparent reason I’d be willing to bet 9 out of 10 of the people here would have sympathy in that they would feel compassion for that individual that might even be so strong as to cause a violent retching or vomiting from the pits of their stomach. We inherently feel and know that mutilating another for no reason is wrong. To feel differently is something that must be taught or one must be born with the inability to feel empathy or sympathy. So, to wrap it up without explaining things too much more and in too much unneeded depth… if one has knowledge of an act that causes pain or suffering or that will cause pain and suffering it is natural to want to help to alleviate that pain and suffering. It is inherent in us as human beings to want to alleviate pain and suffering as we have empathy and sympathy for others that we see as the same as us. So, failure to do anything about a murder, rape, or any other such atrocity speaks volumes about the person who fails to act so long as they have adequate knowledge about the fact. The art of detachment.... that is something many are good at however. Some out of necessity, as for example those who work with the dead must stay detached from their work lest they have horrific dreams at night. As I can attest as I've worked with both the dead and those who work with the dead.

Some more hybrids.... yeah, I love em purpleor red. Provides some detail if you notice the cut going down the side on this own... that shows you the line I sometimes make to remove the parafilm. You can see however, it is definitely not necessary to remove the parafilm so early.

Natural environment certainly can help or hinder depending on humidity and the like. One thing is for certain though, your grafts look very nice and are a testament to the fact that anyone can learn to graft which is exactly what I have been saying from the beginning. 5 to 105, so long as they are willing to try and have hands that are stable enough to guide them through the actions of grafting... anyone can graft. With that being said, I'm still learning from my grafts. That is especially true when I change up variables and try something new. Even something as simple as grafting to a woody specimen versus a nice young specimen can teach you things about grafting.