My new cacti- Gymnocalycium Friedrichii var-???

[naja naja]

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Edited May 8, 2007 by naja naja

[kadakuda]

aren't yellow/red or mixes all called variegata?

[Ace]

Yeah, tis a standard verigated gymno - a dime a dozen at your local nursery/bunnings. Kinda cool, but after you've seen hundreds of the same thing, its about as exciting as a run of the mill mammillaria...

[naja naja]

This is my purchace to start practicing grafting buttons. I figured I may aswell graft sumthin that needs to be grafted and looks stunning.

And I guess I must live in a fairly isolated town cause I've only ever seen the Reds before. I picked this up when I went to the city.

[Koala (Luke Perth)]

That looks great Naja I want to graft one!

[Ace]

Sorry Naj - I probably sounded like I was having a crack at ya I could imagine they arent all that common in smaller towns - I guess thats the upside to being a city boy - there's plenty of cacti around, but usually not the exciting ones

It would be a really good idea to use these to practice grafts - and you could probably sell a few off at the local markets if you have enough of them down the track In fact, i might even track a couple down to practice grafts...

[naja naja]

I regularly think about offering my plants to local nurseries, they never have many or very healthy ones there. The only time u can get healthy cacti is after a new delivery has come and they havn't been put out in direct sunlight to scorch the shit out of them. Seriously, sum nursery owners/employees don't know bugger all about cacti. They think they all love full 40 Deg sun and no water.

There is one nursery down the road though I have to visit. The old lady is really old, like hardly walk and she's been a cacti collector for ever. I remember it from a kid, also went there during tafe and she still had her PRIVATE cacti greenhouse. I hope she's still alive and remembers me. She did last time and let me in straight away cause she knew that i'd been hasseling to see inside since I was like 7, lol. I still own cacti I bought from there at age 8.

[Vertmorpheus]

Hey Ace is the rootstock for these things (usually seen as "shooting stars" etc, around here I've seen coral pinks, reds, purply ones and a real lemon yellow) just dragonfruit? Looks a lot like it in the flesh (at least with as much attention as I can pay to anything in Bunnings, other than getting OUT of Bunnings)... if so, and naja you want to get a bunch going, I can sort you a heap of dragonfruit bits, got some great bits going to waste. Stuff certainly throws out roots at crazy places, pretty hard to kill off.

[tonic]

Isn't that a chloritic form and not a variegated?

[Hellonasty]

Hey ace I agree they area dime a dozen in the cities but I rekn a nice big one would be pretty awesome. Only ever seen small, just grafted, of these.

[Ace]

Yep, I believe they are a standard Hylocereus, commonly known as a dragon fruit. I havent actually seen a dragonfruit plant, only the fruit, so I cant confirm with certainty, but I'm 90+% sure it is Hylocereus. They usually have 3 ribs, areoles are spaced about an inch apart on each rib, and has an obvious cylindrical shaped core (standard in all columnard cacti, but kinda stands out from the skinny ribs).

If you have plenty laying around GreenDreams, I'm sure there'd be plenty of takers for some cuts - myself included!

Hellonasty, I believe they only reach a certain size on the Hylocereus. A bit like peres grafts - once they reach about the size of a golf ball (dependant on species of scion, of course), they tend to slow growth until they just pup. i think to achieve a larger scion, you'd need to look at a trich stock, or similar.

Tonic - what is a chlorotic form? I've only heard of verigation (usually a pigmentless patch of growth on a plant). Mind expanding a little?

[naja naja]

Hey Ace is the rootstock for these things (usually seen as "shooting stars" etc, around here I've seen coral pinks, reds, purply ones and a real lemon yellow) just dragonfruit? Looks a lot like it in the flesh (at least with as much attention as I can pay to anything in Bunnings, other than getting OUT of Bunnings)... if so, and naja you want to get a bunch going, I can sort you a heap of dragonfruit bits, got some great bits going to waste. Stuff certainly throws out roots at crazy places, pretty hard to kill off.

Cheers greendreams, I would love sum dragon fruit cuts. I'll PM u my addy. I Will need all the grafting stock I can get in the not too distant future. If any1 has any low % Pach suitable for grafting, I'd be after a decent number of trich stocks too.

Thanks all

[Vertmorpheus]

Yeah they look more or less the same as mine. I've got heaps of it laying around taking up pots etc, can help out with a few bits.

[tonic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorosis