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Philocacti

Grafting to rooted pereskiopsis leaves

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So most of us tried to propagate pereskiopsis by rooting leaves. This only resulted in rooted leaves that never made any shoots, however the leaves stay alive for a long time.

In these coming weeks I'll root some Pereskiopsis leaves and then I'll try to graft a seedling to each leave and see what happens.

This is only for experimental purposes, even if the grafts took, I don't expect them to grow as fast as on pereskiopsis stock.

Anyway, we'll see how it goes. I'll try to update and add pics.

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cool idea

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hate to burst ya bubble but unfortunately i really cant see this working

in the past i have used slices of peres only around half a cm to a cm which have rooted and thrown new shoots

wich is good to know for creating more stock.

but i have to say sorry the whole idea of grafting directly to a leaf sounds a like a guaranteed failure to me

good luck though id love to see it actually work :)

cacti can do some crazy things :wink:

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Yeah, I agree with myco. Also, the leaves probably don't have the growth hormones and stuff they need to start growing.

I spray a lot of my grafts with GA3 solution (100ppm once a month directly on the scion) Maybe you should do that if you get one to take just to jumpstart it. But I have a feeling that it wont even take in the first place. I guess we'll have to see.

Edited by hostilis

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Yeah we still don't know how it'll go, that's why it's experimental ;)

I'll start rooting my 1st set of leaves today.

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Funny enough I had a whole bunch of leaves today after doing some grafting and was about to toss them when I thought fuck it and buried them in some soil.

I don't expect them to do anything, but I'll give them a few weeks just in case.

I'm pretty sure that the leaves will just wither up and die though.

Edited by terracottacactus
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Great :)

Trust me, they'll throw out roots from where the leaf was connected to the stock and pump up' I tried it many times

Edited by Philocacti
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I think I will attempt this too just for shits and giggles. I'll use a bunch of hormones to try and get it to work.

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That would be perfect. That way we'll have more sample size and different techniques.

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Sweet. I'll pick some nice fatty leaves for this. I also have two different clones (or species) of pereskiopsis. I'll try it with both. Keep you updated.

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I think it would be fun (not practical and not likely to do anything) to graft the Pereskiopsis leaves to other cacti much like arborist do with trees binding to a stock with some other trait they want. I want to see a loph all covered in leaves!

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That would be interesting to graft a leaf to a loph areole. Haha. I wonder if it would aid photosynthesis (i doubt it would take, but it's just for the sake of experimentation)

Edited by hostilis
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Well,

mine are all dead. :(

I've found the best way to grow pere is in a seedling green house. $9 from Bunnings. (http://www.bunnings.com.au/saxon-mini-green-house-with-seed-tray_p2960182)

Under shade cloth, in full sun. I keep the latches closed and it gets super humid in there.

I cutting in each seedling cube. I'm starting to get super strong green pere with tiny spines. It's great for grafts too, they fatten up much faster than my open air ones.

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Since it's winter her, all the leaves that I stuck in soil are having a hard time rooting. They're turning yellow but I won't give up on them until they die. I have their trays over a light bulb which provides some heat.

post-6382-0-61409500-1389937267_thumb.jp

post-6382-0-61409500-1389937267_thumb.jpg

post-6382-0-61409500-1389937267_thumb.jpg

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So out of 20 leaves or so only 4 are rooting, which is a low percentage, due to the cold weather. In a week or 2 I'll attempt to graft on them.

I guess I'll have to wait for the active season to try to root more leaves as all my pereskiopsis dropped their leaves during winter.

post-6382-0-82911100-1390722351_thumb.jp

post-6382-0-82911100-1390722351_thumb.jpg

post-6382-0-82911100-1390722351_thumb.jpg

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Mine are growing under lights and the leaves are very big, but wide and skinny. When I grow them outside they grow fat leaves that i could actually put a seedling on. So I will also wait until summer to attempt this again.

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Thought I'd share this

"A vascular bundle is a part of the transport system in vascular plants. The transport itself happens in vascular tissue, which exists in two forms: xylem and phloem. Both these tissues are present in a vascular bundle, which in addition will include supporting and protective tissues. Also, it is a vein in the leaf that contains conducting tissues.

The xylem typically lies adaxial with phloem positioned abaxial. In a stem or root this means that the xylem is closer to the centre of the stem or root while the phloem is closer to the exterior. In a leaf, the adaxial surface of the leaf will usually be the upper side, with the abaxial surface the lower side. This is why aphids are typically found on the underside of a leaf rather than on the top, since the sugars manufactured by the plant are transported by the phloem, which is closer to the lower surface.

The position of vascular bundles relative to each other may vary considerably"

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

So hypothetically this could work if I succeed in aligning the vascular tissue of the seedling to that of the leaf

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I found this interesting. I had heard numerous times that spines are modified leaves, but one of my teachers had mentioned in class that cacti spines have stomata on the bottom. This thread reminded me of that and made me investigate further; I found this..

"One defining feature of cacti is having clusters of spines. Numerous plants have spines of course, but in cacti, spines occur in clusters in the axil of leaves, even though the leaves are usually microscopic. Most cactus morphologists have concluded that cactus spines are either modified leaves or modified bud scales (the difference is inconsequential because bud scales themselves are modified leaves). The leaf-nature of spines is certainly understandable from the point of view of location: spine primordia look just like leaf primordia and are produced at a location where we would expect leaf primordia – at the base of the axillary bud’s shoot apical meristem.

Evolution appears to have been more complex than would be expected: mature cactus spines do not contain any of the cells or tissues characteristic of leaves, and conversely leaves lack all features characteristic of spines. The two organs have little in common other than developing from leaf primordia. Spines consist of just a core of fibers surrounded by sclereid-like epidermis cells. They have no stomata, no guard cells, no mesophyll parenchyma, no xylem, no phloem. When mature, all cells in a spine are dead, and even when the spine is still growing it has living cells only at its base. Cactus leaves on the other hand – even the microscopic leaves of Cactoideae – have parenchymatous epidermis cells, guard cells, spongy mesophyll, chlorenchyma, xylem and phloem. So the evolutionary conversion of cactus leaves into spines did not involve a mere reduction of the lamina and then further reduction of midrib and petiole, it instead involved the suppression of all leaf-cell type genes and activation of genes that control formation of fibers, the deposition and lignification of secondary walls, and then programmed cell death. These fiber morphogenesis genes are not activated in any cactus leaf (none at all has fibers), but they are activated of course in the development of wood. It would appear that after an axillary bud apical meristem initiates spine primordia, most leaf genes remain suppressed and instead wood fiber genes are activated. This does not involve all wood genes because vessels are never produced in the spines, just wood fibers. This would be a type of homeotic evolution."

Spines:
http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/mauseth/researchoncacti/spines.htm

Leaves:

http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/mauseth/researchoncacti/Leaves.htm

Edited by hookahhead
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