Albino Cacti Seedlings

[doxneed2c-me]

How long can they live if they aren't grafted?

[Evil Genius]

Depends. 100% Albino, weeks to months. Not complete albino, depends if they can produce chlorophyll. Every freak seedling is different!

[afungitobewith]

Yeah I had 5 last month. 4 died and one is still holding on. Hasn't really grown at all though. Should graft it this week

[DiscoStu]

can you shock a seedling into becoming albino? i put some on a too hot heat pad and a lot of them went white, still haven't recovered. most have died. they were only 1-2 weeks old.

[hostilis]

I planted a pot of Echinocereus pentalophus x e. scheeri recently and 50% of them are pure albinos and the other 25% are variegates. Lol. Trying to decide what to do because i don't want to waste 40 pereskiopsis to graft all of them. In my experience, like EG said, they last about 1-8 weeks before they turn to mush.

[Bryce]

I knew of someone who grafted an albino and later it began to form chlorophyll and then resulted in a variegated form that was planted on its own roots.

[Berengar]

Trying to decide what to do because i don't want to waste 40 pereskiopsis to graft all of them.

Do some areole grafts. Graft most of them onto Peresskiopsis areoles, and when they grow a bit, decide which ones to keep and regraft to a better stock.

That can be very usefull for exactly that purpose, getting the seedlings to show their characteristics and then decide which ones are keepers. I do it with Astrophytum mix bags, usually when I graft a supposed 'Japanese Astro cultivar' onto a nice looking Hylocereus or something, it turns out to be a boring old normal myriostigma. So now I first judge them to see if they are worthy. ,