Self degraft

[rahli]

Just went outside to say goodnight to my garden and found this 200g baby jumping off the Peres. She was my biggest single headed entry in the 2007 Loph comp. I was hoping to hold off degrafting until the dry season. Looks like I'll be in for a wet season challenge.

Given the high humidity up here I think her best bet is to root her on straight course sand under a clear plastic cover to keep the rain out.

Does anyone have any advice on rooting peyote degrafts in high humidity conditions?

Thanks in advance.

[PD.]

Just went outside to say goodnight to my garden and found this 200g baby jumping off the Peres

Lucky! Cheecky lil bugger sneakin off to the pub for a nite on it no doubt.

Seriously though mate thats a bit of a bummer, not a sight you wanna see at all. I have no experience whatsoever when it comes to your location so im not even going to try with this one, its too good a plant to lose from some half arse advice. Im sure someone can help you.

[zelly]

She should do just fine if you keep her out of the rain and the sand dry.

Additionally you can surround her with coarse rocks to keep her stable while she roots and if necessary a heat pad to keep the pot & rooting sand warm.

[bit]

No advice from me sorry, but that's one hell of a nice looking plant! Massive too!

[KanJe]

I don't have any first hand experience here either but have you considered using a root hormone to help it along?

[weedRampage]

60% backyard dirt

40% fine river sand

small amount -palm full- of dolomite

pinch of diet salt (supermarket - 50% KCl)

and don't sterilize the dirt

there are a lot of beneficial bacteria in it

and other critters too

ideally you would test the mix to be

pH 7.5 - 8.0

[PD.]

Well from the looks of it its a nice healthy plant that is in no way dehydrated, therefore it should push out roots rather quickly. As long as there are no open wounds as to invite any form of fungus/rot then it should be ok to root in sand or whatever medium you choose. I always just use sand when rooting degrafted lophs, dries out fast, they root very quickly and it makes for easy transplanting when the time comes. As long as there is enough heat there shouldnt be an issue with moisture really but like i said, i have no experience in your climate so im not 100%.

keep us updated

[kindness]

I have de-grafted a few lophs... one from a trich graft and four so far from pere's. Mine live in a cupboard growing under fluoros as they seem to like that better than the sunlight here, and it keeps them growing year round. The humidity gets high in the cupboard because of the heat generated from the fluoro's and then watering the cacti, I do not have a humidity meter in there but as some of the grafted cacti throw roots while still grafted I assume that the humidity is high.

With my first degrafts I just sat them on some cactus mix which was dry, I periodically gave it a water and then let it dry again. This method took them probably 6 months to really get their roots into the soil and start to fatten up again, (after losing bulk to not getting water).

Next I tried using coco coir. I wet the coco coir first and then sat the de grafted lophs onto it, (after leaving them to dry out a bit for a few days just sitting on a shelf in the shade. This method worked much quicker. Probably around three months or so and they are growing roots.

The trich graft got infected with a mould/rot (orange shit which was inside the lophs and all the way down to the trich) this was before degrafting. So the lophs, which were seven when broken apart didn't start out as the healthiest of specimens. I lost three I think it was to the rot but four of them survived and are now just starting to grow on their own roots. With those ones I didn't water the coco coir or pots at all until I started to see roots forming. Again these are in my cacti cupboard which I think has pretty high humidity... probably nothing like the tropics though.

That said it has been mentioned to me before that humidity actually assists them to form roots. Perhaps coco coir moistened once will be enough and they will get the rest of their water from the humidity in the air and throw roots fast. If they are outside keep them sheltered from more rain, or bring them inside.

The first ones i did, (mentioned above) threw roots even though they weren't in sunlight for more than an hour a day.

hope this helps

[AndyAmine.]

Id suggest using Perlite in some kind of a dome as it will help to suck up extra humidity, use a coke bottle dome but stuff the the top with perlite as well (where the screw thread is) so that all the air is dried before going into the dome?

[Teotzlcoatl]

PM Kadakuda and ask him, or maybe he will comment here.

He is an expert on the subject.

[rahli]

Thanks for the advice folks. I think I'll stick with the dry sand given the current prevailing weather. I'm pretty lucky that there is no exposed flesh as the peres just dried and broke off clean.

I'm thinking of trying the coco coir method in the dry with another degraft.

I've placed the peyote in a terracota pot on top of sand -

Then put two layers of shade cloth ontop to slow down the desication -

And placed the pot in the dry house -

Wish me luck.

I'll keep you all informed on my success or failure. Lets hope its the former and not the latter!!!

[Chiral]

coco coir...seriously it is amazing at stimulating loph roots, a thin layer over some nice loph mix and the roots will jump out within 2 weeks, from memory Tst tantra tipped me into that one and I was extremely impressed with the results, I degrafted heaps and heaps of lophs last year and tiny pups/offsets, some less than a cm wide and they all took to the coir and are now all happily living on roots in their own separate pots. kept them pretty dry and inside a shed next to a window so they never got bumped or stressed by the weather, after a couple of weeks they went outside and took off nicely.

[BlackDragon]

Sand will take forever.

Keep it inside or covered and use coco-coir. If you get cheap brick coir, be sure to rinse it well with hot water at leats 3 time to remove unwanted salts.

Ive had degrafts take years to never root in soil or sand, and coir in a matter of weeks to a month.

See my Coco fiber to the rescuethread

Edited December 8, 2009 by BlackDragon

[gilligan]

Farrrrrrk, rahli, that is one sweet loph...

I am just about to degraft a heap of pups this time to start their own lives, not be regrafted to trichs, so this has been some good info, cheers, all...

[sharxx101]

Yeah man love that loph massive. Great info thanks everyone

I would probably regraft her to a massive tricho. Please keep us posted Rahli

[kadakuda]

wet season is no prob man. peresk grafts are so easy to degraft and root cause they got such a small pinhole the stock was in, your golden bro.

i root lophs in wet season here ok. i would do as your doing, except loose that screen shit, not needed and will only cause issues. stick it on a mineral mix (sand/rocks is best for our wet places) and covered from rain. they can go under light -ok- especially that large! jsut dont give them a drop of water...mine generally sprout root buds in 3-14weeks, once they do give them small waterings just to help rehydrate

if you shade too much, your asking for rot...in my experience. not sure how wet it is there...but here it gets REALLY wet and is quite warm...not sure how you line up. i am in southern taiwan fo rcomparison.

[rahli]

Thanks for all the great advice guys. I've been growing lophs for a few years now but have been putting off the degrafting side of things.

Great advice kadakuda. My only worry is that the feirce sun will dessicate the loph to quickly. It was already a little wrinkled after one day with only one screen. I'll take the shade off for a couple of days and see how it goes. I have to leave my dry house where it is behind the pool fence so my daugther doesn't empty it out while playing in the garden.

Thanks again for all the great advice and I hope others find success from the broad experience given on degrafting lophs.

Cheers

I'll keep everyone updated.

[mutant]

Great advice , thanks everyone. Great topic. And now, what the f##k is coco coir? it's hard to get some stuff sometimes in my town.... some large nursaries sell cacti but they don't sell cactus soil !!??!!

[BlackDragon]

Heya Mutant,

Its the by-product of the coconut industry.

Its the hairy fibrous husk, decomposed in water and ground to a fine (or coarse) mill. Its then generally compressed into bricks, if you get "bricked" coco, be sure to rinse it well with hot water a few times, to remove excess salts. There is also a magnesium and calcium treatment you will find around the place to help avoid nutrient lock-out. Most times its not need to do it.

You can get it from most garden centers, or hydroponic suppliers.

See attached thumbnails:

Or my favorite brand:

The Canna brand has already been pre-treated, and is awesome quality.

Hope that helps

[kadakuda]

My only worry is that the feirce sun will dessicate the loph to quickly. It was already a little wrinkled after one day with only one screen.

keep it at the same light level ti was previously growing in...don't step up. you can shade it a little if your worried, but putting it right inside a pot with thick mesh over it in soil is probably best avoided. i use pots for rooting degrafts as well, but they sit on top, not inside. it will wrinkle some, dont worry. once its rooted it fills out like a balloon.

[rahli]

Thanks for the great advice kadakuda. I'll let you know how she goes.

Its going to be a bit of challange. 35c fierce sun building up to afternoon storms. I reckon I'll take the shade of completely when the monsoon sets in as there will be low light levels and rain for weeks straight. But for now she's hot and humid with the odd storm and the sun is scorching.

[Chiral]

Can't you just move the pot and loph to a shaded area like on a patio or inside even near a window...? Even placing a normal desk fan near it oscillating will help keep it from being to humid if that's an issue.

although we don't get your monsoonal conditions down south here in NSW they root quite well when just sitting on moist coir next to a window inside the garage or even on the kitchen window ledge.

keep us updated with as I'm sure quite a few here are pretty interested in how such a large graft fares when attempting to root...oh and don't forget to also update us on Icaro Mutant...I love that plant and look forward to watching it's progress.

Edited December 10, 2009 by Chiral

[mutant]

Hey, BlackDragon , cheers mate, yeah, that helped a lot. Where are you at? mediterranean climate huh?

rahli, good luck with the rooting... This topic should be pretty useful when my grafts grow....

[rahli]

Update

I've taken some of Kadakuda's advice and taken the peyote out of it's prison pot.

She's now sitting on top of the pot atop sand and has a shade cloth structure suspended above the pot to allow for maximum air flow. I can't post a pic as its Pissing Down with rainbut the poyote is safely inside the dry house. Pheww!!!

[BlackDragon]

Heya Mutant,

Well Im in South Australia, very similar Mediterranean climate. Im glad the pics helped

Rhali, ditch the sand man, use coir and bring it inside on a window ledge. Seriously.....