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Bryce

I have questions about trichocereus bridgesii crested cristata monstrose.

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I can't post a photo because I don't have my camera but I just purchased a Trichocereus bridgesii crest and it is small and had 2 reverts on the side. If anyone has grown this plant I would like to know what I am in for long term and any suggestions on care. I have already removed the reverts and am preparing them for planting in a couple weeks.

What will the reverts I cut off grow in to?

Are the reverts pretty much the inermis penis form forever?

Now that I have taken away the reverts will the crest continue to crest or will it fight me and keep trying to go normal?

Can I try to graft it on my Opuntia ficus-indica?

Are there any example photos of new crested growth and where it continues to grow from?

Any suggestions I am forgetting or don't know of would be appreciated.

I spent more money than I could afford to get this and I want to get the best out of it.

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I took a chunk off of my mother plant and grafted it to a pereskiopsis and it reverted 3 sections into a long form tbm looking plant. It's 2 inches long now and hasn't shown any sign of cresting. I'm going to graft it to a columnar and see wht happens. I wanted a long form TBM anyways, so I don't really mind if it stays like this. I'll keep you updated.

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Even short term that is pretty good data.

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BTW, here's a couple photos. You can see that one part is still crested and 3 are columnar.

post-12824-0-81874100-1398624440_thumb.j post-12824-0-94935300-1398624461_thumb.j

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post-12824-0-94935300-1398624461_thumb.jpg

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post-12824-0-94935300-1398624461_thumb.jpg

Edited by hostilis
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Looks like a high maintenance project plant.

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Not really. I just grafted it and let it grow. I do want to graft that section that reverted to columnar again though. I've love to get a long form TBM out of it. And maybe it'll send a crested pup one day when it's super big.

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From my own experience it seems that if you don't cut off the reverts then the energy goes into them and not the crest, so it's best to cut off your penis.

~Michael~

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This was it when I grafted it a while back. And just a few others to show it's development. At first it looked like it was reverting back to a normal bridgesii form. But it went more monstrose as time passed.

post-12824-0-83715000-1398641582_thumb.j (You can see a little fungus gnat chilling on the top of this plant. Hehe,

post-12824-0-32878600-1398641543_thumb.j

post-12824-0-00438000-1398641564_thumb.j post-12824-0-31480000-1398641740_thumb.j

post-12824-0-33406800-1398641498_thumb.j

post-12824-0-01456500-1398641519_thumb.j

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post-12824-0-01456500-1398641519_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-32878600-1398641543_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-00438000-1398641564_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-83715000-1398641582_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-31480000-1398641740_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-33406800-1398641498_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-01456500-1398641519_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-32878600-1398641543_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-00438000-1398641564_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-83715000-1398641582_thumb.jpg

post-12824-0-31480000-1398641740_thumb.jpg

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From my own experience it seems that if you don't cut off the reverts then the energy goes into them and not the crest, so it's best to cut off your penis.

~Michael~

LOL! Thanks for the input. I'm definitely going to cut off my penis.

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This is the most informative post I have ever seen on this topic. I have been learning a lot from this. Much appreciated.

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So I cut off both of the reverts on this. Grafted the longer one and then the other side I cut off (it's about 1" long) and I'm going to just try and grow it on it's own roots. It's pretty small, but It should grow (just super slow.)

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I Don't know about this bridgesii crest but I can say that my Opuntia robusta monstra always takes on a different form when grafted than when I plant the pieces in soil. It seems more prone to revert to normal when I graft it and the bigger the plant I graft it to then the bigger the revert. I am interested if this would affect this species and cultivar.

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I have heard anecdotally that the TBM crest is more likely to throw pups when it is grafted than it does when it is on its own roots. Which makes sense as a lot other cacti seem to do similar when grafted (ie lophos).

Your reverted cuts are most likely going to stay reverted, though if the crest originally occurred due to genetics one of these pups may throw a crest someday. (I have not actually heard of this happening, but it is a possibility)

The ridges of the crest are where it will continue to grow from (except for throwing pups from areoles). With the pups removed you should see some new crested growth.

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I hope it stays reverted. It looks like it's going to be a long form TBM. And since I've been searching for one (without having to pay a ton of money) I would like it to stay. And like you said, maybe one day it will pup a crest again.

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I have my cutting planted in a bunch of mineral soil and all the reverts removed. The ridges seem to not be doing anything so I hope it has not stopped. If it throws any normal buds I will chop them off and graft them to make regular monstroses.

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@Bryce - If the edges of the ridges are still green then you should be ok. One of my crests was severely attacked by thrips which appear to have killed most of the crested growth points. It has since thrown a pup, but I may be screwed on getting anymore crested growth out of it :wacko:

@Hostilis - Yeah, I've got several reverted cuts coming my way later this week from a generous fellow on another forum. I'm really curious to see how they grow out, and how much they resemble my long form TBMs.

I have been trying to acquire as many different looking TBMs from different sources as I can. My plan is to grow them out under the same conditions for several years and see how similar they end up looking in an attempt to determine if there are more than just the two forms currently recognized. My reason for doing so is that I have three TBMs that aren't obviously long or short form (still relatively small cuttings), but whose morphological ambiguity may be due to the conditions they were originally raised in.

Maybe if it is a good growing season this year I could trade you a long from cutting (just depends upon what sort of pup action I get this year).

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Cool dude. Let me know for sure. I'd be very interested.

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the short form.....a few inches per pup

reverted crested forms generally 6-7 inches per pup

the long form.....approximately 16-18" per pup

ps: there appears to be at least 2 distinctly different forms of 'crested bridgesii'

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Please explain further. This could get interesting.

ps: there appears to be at least 2 distinctly different forms of 'crested bridgesii'

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Zelly, have you ever taken off a reverted crest section and rooted or grafted it? If so, did it stop growing and pup another normal monstrose section or did it pup crested sections? Just interested in what mine is going to turn out to be.

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Zelly, have you ever taken off a reverted crest section and rooted or grafted it?

several times

If so, did it stop growing and pup another normal monstrose section or did it pup crested sections?

each case resulted in new growth being monstrous & not crested

I have never seen a reverted section revert back to crested growth, grafted or otherwise

ps: there appears to be at least 2 distinctly different forms of 'crested bridgesii'

to clarify, one form is a crested tbm, the other form is a crested bridgesii

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the short form.....a few inches per pup

reverted crested forms generally 6-7 inches per pup

the long form.....approximately 16-18" per pup

ps: there appears to be at least 2 distinctly different forms of 'crested bridgesii'

This jives pretty well with what I have seen/heard. It is interesting that the crest reverts take on a distinct growth form from either of the two "regular" TBMs that the crests supposedly came from.

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Do any of you have a photo of the non monstrose crested bridgesii form?

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Here are the 3 different crested bridgesii I have, not sure if they are regular or TBM type or if they are even different types at all yet. I need to take grafts of each and see how they grow.

post-13244-0-35294200-1398908125_thumb.j

post-13244-0-66882100-1398908362_thumb.j

post-13244-0-91537000-1398908152_thumb.j

post-13244-0-35294200-1398908125_thumb.jpg

post-13244-0-91537000-1398908152_thumb.jpg

post-13244-0-66882100-1398908362_thumb.jpg

post-13244-0-35294200-1398908125_thumb.jpg

post-13244-0-91537000-1398908152_thumb.jpg

post-13244-0-66882100-1398908362_thumb.jpg

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