Inyan

I guess I can live with normal if I can hope for the rare abnormal form. You just had to go and burst my bubble Kadakuda!

Nice graft mutant. Its always nice to see seedlings being given a boost. Quicker growth, faster flowers, more crosses, more diversity. I'm a super big fan of grafting. Hopefully we can get some more interesting chimera to form if enough of us participate in grafting. Its all just a matter of numbers, luck, and a little skill. Keep it up!

You can see two glands on the back side of each leaf. This is what the ants are after. I haven't grown this vine in a long time, but you can rest assured that even a brown stick with a bit of green under the bark and no leaves will root given enough time. Your plant should be fine if you don't mind the ants.

Pollen can be shipped in the containers you see below. However, always dry your pollen out for at least 1 hour before freezing or shipping. You can remove the anthers just before they dehisce and allow the pollen to fall out or scrape it out of the anthers as well. With smaller anthers, you can place them directly into the microcentrifuge tubes and tap them about to dust the tubes. Pour the anthers into another tube and dust again. Then discard the anthers or pollinate with them. http://www.usascientific.com/index.asp?Cat...Action=VIEWCATS You don't have to be particularly fancy guys and gals. You can simply cut the offending stigma with its barriers to reception off and pollinate the stigma directly, but do so in a fast motion as the cut style may dry out and become unreceptive if your unduly slow with this procedure. Also, remember that other barriers may exist. Just a few more tools for those of you who may wish to try such an endeavor. Remember, in some ways, pollen is just like a seed. It needs to reabsorb sufficient fluid once it is dried out so creating a humid environment for the first hour of pollination sometimes helps to get things started. With that said, some particularly difficult crosses will still abort their seed pods and you will be lucky to find a few immature seeds which may or may not be able to be nurtured. Immature seeds have a tendency to dry out much faster than their mature counterparts, so again... keep the humidity up. To answer a few of the questions posed: You should still emasculate the flower before the pollen has matured. How much time you have to play with depends on the speed of growth of the pollen which varies depending on whether you are using old dry and frozen pollen or freshly collected pollen. Temperatures also play a role in how fast the pollen tube grows. Etc. etc. The idea behind the grafted style is to allow the receptors of the "proper" stigma to allow or trigger the appropriate pollen to fertilize and then jump the graft to the inappropriate or less compatible style. With the cut style method, you are still working with an emasculated flower, but you are bypassing the need for a stigma altogether which can also be done with many crosses. Another method is to make a solution of the pollen and simply inject this solution directly into the ovary. It works sometimes, but you will need to poke the needle straight through the ovary and then pull back to insert the liquid pollen mixture into the ovary. When you see the liquid oozing out the sides you know you have some pollen grains inside your ovary. Sometimes a barrier is associated with the simple distance the pollen has to travel. As a general rule of thumb, you shorten the style to the same length or shorter as the style length of the pollen donor otherwise you risk the pollen simply not being able to make it to the ovary.

This would be one approach to the grafted style method or cut style method. The difference between the two is whether you actually join a different style or merely make a cut to apply your pollen closer to the ovary. More pictures to follow. The cut is made in this particular variation well below the stigma which is where you would apply your pollen. Sorry for not using a cactus flower, but you use what you have available for teaching purposes.

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.