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Inyan

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Posts posted by Inyan

  1. Posted

    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....

  2. Posted

    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.

  3. Posted · Edited by Inyan

    A bridge cross is essentially one that is done to enable you to breed desired traits from one cacti genus or species into another that can not be done via a straight cross. For instance, if I desire to cross Trichocereus x Lophophora... I may discover that this is not possible via several different means of mentor pollen, cut style, etc. Rather than give up or continue with this madness... You may discover that perhaps a particular Lobivia can be crossed to a certain Mammillaria. You may discover that Lophophora can be crossed to Mammillaria as has been previously documented. You may also see that this Lobivia can be crossed to Trichocereus. Its not hard to follow the bouncing ball and see that it is possible via a wide selection of crosses to eventually breed the desired traits from more than one species or genus into a single new hybrid. I've started this thread in hopes that some of the cacti giants that Lurk in here will post some relevant information. Relevant information is any known cross involving any active species with another species or genus. We can of course accept entries from anyone wishing to share relevant links to proposed crosses and I encourage everyone to post of known crosses. The idea is to come back and straighten out the results that ensue to create a master list of tried and tested crosses to shorten the time it may take to create some of these more novel hybrids. Anyone and everyone should post with any relevant information. We can straighten this out later and make it look nice and pretty... i.e. easier to follow. I'm relying on the cacti experts in here as well as the novices to all share a bit of research that they have done or are doing.

    Lophophora (seed bearer hybrids)

    Lophophora koehresii (seed bearer) x Lophophora fricii (pollen donor) =viable seed (courtesy information provided by KadaKuda)

    Lophophora fricii (seed bearer) x Lophophora koehresii (pollen donor) = not enough data/attempts made to warrant ruling this one out... no seeds thus far. (courtesy information provided by KadaKuda)

    L. diffusa (seed bearer) x Obregonia denegri (pollen donor) = pod produced... awaiting more information.

    Mammillaria bocasana (pollen donor) .... notes on F1 seedlings: Body shape altered and seedling hybrid spines 3 x longer

    Strombocactus hybrids... no species listed... no identifiable differences in F1 seedlings, possible parthenogenesis... F1 x F1 may yield determine validity of this cross or F1 x Strombocactus.

    Turbinicarpus schwaarzii hybrids... red and green scales around buds, large flower, petals pointed

    Turbinicarpus pseudomacrochele hybrids (pollen donor) ... "Beautiful or the color of body and blossom alike"... more details needed. Was the color different and how so?

    All of the above information was given via the help of MS Cacti. Your help is always appreciated.

    http://www.shaman-australis.com/forum/inde...showtopic=19832

    Astrophytum (seed bearer)

    Astrophytum. x Mammillaria. x Gymnocalycium... while not much information is given. It is understood that this means Astrophytum (seed bearer) x Mammillaria (pollen donor) = F1 A.M. The resulting F1 A.M. (seed bearer) was then crossed with Gymnocalycium (pollen donor).

    http://www.lapshin.org/cultivar/N18/exp-e.htm

    We need a list of other crosses attempted and or overlooked. The idea here is to present as much valid information as possible with the understanding that even the best of hybridizers makes mistakes. Open sharing can not be done and will not be done when a member feels like they have been castigated or might be castigated for any information they have shared. While it may seem absurd to someone to try a straight cross between Lophophora and Trichocereus both ways... has it been tried? How many times has it been tried? Did a pod form on either plant and if so was it aborted early? Sometimes the most absurd things turn out to be the very things that work or point us in a direction that will work. Try to keep an open mind and share what you have here guys. Links to sources are of course desired if and when possible. My idea is to move all of the relevant data once formed into one post which can be linked to this post for anyone wanting more specifics. Help me out guys. Knowledge is great, but it must be easily accessible and in a format that is easy to follow. Feel free to post any questions or relevant information in this thread. A cleaner thread will be made later. It is generally accepted that the above attempts were made via standard pollination techniques and so we can not rule out that more advanced techniques might yield better results.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    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.

    Excellent data thanks Aux..particularly interested in this and more so the ME..Extracted from fresh cuttings via the me!'s mescaline in less than 4 hours technique to yeild approx. 2.5g mix alkaloids

    The spice commentaries are typical and accurate in that the ending can come quite soon and unexpectedness with other psychedelics..in fact it can be the first choice to end a trip and get some tiredness happening so one can get some sleep rather than sitting out the tail ends wide eyed and beaten.

    Great stuff..great articles and Bioassays.

    H.

  5. Posted · Edited by Inyan

    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.

  6. Posted

    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.

  7. Posted

    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.

  8. Posted · Edited by Inyan

    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

  9. Posted · Edited by Inyan

    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.

  10. Posted

    Thanks again for your kind replies all.

    To answer your questions,

    Alas Mutant, the pictures of my garden growing are on my previous girlfriends camera.....not available im afraid.

    And Inyan, the Psychotria are Carthaginensis unfortunately. Not much brewing potential apparently.

    The shonky operator who sold it to me said it was viridis.

    Identity was confirmed by the wise souls on this forum.

    I do have some real ones from SAB mail order coming along nicely in the hothouse.

    The Carth seeds like crazy and those little buggers just come up everywhere.

    Isn't it a shame that Viridis don't grow as profusely as its cousin the Carth!

    post-337-1230608955_thumb.jpg

    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.

  11. Posted

    On self fertility:

    All of the known northern williamsii populations that have been looked at are self-fertile. This is based on both DNA work and on planting selfed seeds.

    The El Huizache population in SLP is believed to be self-sterile based on failures of breeders to self it. DNA samples have been taken for analysis but they have not been analyzed only purified (while the researchers were still in Mexico).

    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.

  12. Posted · Edited by Inyan

    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...

  13. Posted

    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!

  14. Posted

    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.

  15. Posted · Edited by Inyan

    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?

  19. Posted

    Right on Garbage. I see you know a good bit about Brugmansia. The flowering region should never be cut back so as to remove that first fork that forms as this will increase the time drastically till you get that next set of flowers. Still, you won't have to wait as long as you would for that same rooted specimen to flower as you would have to wait for a seedling to flower. Personally, I like cuttings from the non-flowering region as they tend to grow faster and taller. However, you can get a portion from the flowering region to grow just as fast and to revert to its nonflowering state by laying cuttings from the flowering region down in log type fashion. Simply cover these logs leaving a few nodes exposed and these cuttings will revert to their immature state growing much more vigorously and much taller than your normal cuttings taken from above the flowering region. However, if you want a bush rather than a tree form... those cuts above the Y or fork are best. Man, I think I've just rehashed everything you've said Garbage. Forgive me, I haven't had much sleep. Your posts are much appreciated Garbage and its nice to see another who is so knowledgeable when it comes to Brugmansia. Keep that mumbo jumbo coming Garbage. Its well appreciated I am sure. Nice to have you as a neighbor Garbage. I'll be seriously reducing my Brugmansia garden and getting rid of some as yet unreleased Brugmansia aurea in the not to distant future. If your still hold an interest then, I'll gladly let you have a few.

  20. Posted

    Looks like your well on your way to flowers. You should be able to see the flower buds starting by now. If your camera is a good one, you should be able to take pictures of them as well if you can keep from shaking. As Garbage is inferring, you may loose the first set of blooms as this is not uncommon.

  22. Posted

    Pruning the offsets is fine, its the top that you don't want to prune. Give me a picture of the smallest leaf at the top and I'll tell you if its going to bloom anytime soon. The picture at the top looks like it might be close, but I can't make out enough detail in the leaf. Your plants look fairly young by the way so you shouldn't be too discouraged at this stage of the game. Trust me, you will have seeds if you have two different Brugmansia and take the time to cross pollinate them.

  23. Posted

    Actually I had some pot plants at my work. The Super Thrive nearly killed some of them though all my at home plants seem OK. How would one go about getting Ga3? :)

    http://www.super-grow.biz/GibberellicAcid.jsp

    Did you dilute the Super Thrive?

    http://www.superthrive.com/page1.htm

    This is the stuff your talking about? Its been several years since I bothered to buy the stuff, but if memory serves me I also followed the directions. Its a bad habit I've been known to follow with fertilizers and such.

  24. Posted

    I've used it on all those plants you mention and a few more. To be honest, I never noticed anything of note. Now, GA3 on the other hand will definitely give your plants, seeds, etc. a boost that can not be overlooked. Still, you have to be careful with growth hormones as you can kill seeds, plants etc that attempt to grow too fast for their own good. Not sure if that helps you and perhaps someone else will come along who thinks the world of this stuff. I'm always interested in learning.

  25. Posted

    http://www.sacredsucculents.com/ssofferings.html

    Noticed this place has a few hybrid Trichocereus seeds

    And this place has some selections of hybrid Trichocereus cuttings.

    http://www.basementshaman.com/trichyb.html

    For others, a quick search for Trichopsis or Echinopsis hybrids will yield some beautifully flowered specimens of many different colors. Just thought you might be interested in some of these links as your into hybridizing these beautiful cacti. The more the merrier. You can never have too many flowers or too much diversity in your collection.

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