karl_marx Posted September 8, 2016 Inspired by Master B's recent post in "what did you do": How do you all manage your grafting stock? Most posts take it for granted that grafters have plenty on hand but I haven't seen a thread focused on growing stocks, aside from the hydroponic experiments. I'll start - My pereskiopsis have gained probably 30cm since a few months ago. They are 4-5 plants to a 4in square pot with a mix of sand, perlite, and potting soil that's quite a lot richer than what I use for trichos but not pure potting soil. They get about 6 hours of direct sunlight a day and I keep them watered most of the time. I've observed that similar plants I put in 6-pack pots (much smaller space) are growing at a pretty pathetic rate, by comparison. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MountainGoat Posted September 9, 2016 Nice idea for a thread. I've grown pere under lights, shade cloth, and full sun. The nicest looking and least spikey is under lights for sure. However, I found that if i later moved the grafts outdoors, they dropped their leaves more quickly then the outdoor grown. I don't keep lights running all year, only sometimes for a month or 2 at a time, so growing the stock under lights proved unnecessary for me. On the down side, in the dry season here (winter) the wallabies (my place is surrounded by national parks) love to get into the pere and they'll strip leaves and take the tops off anyway... When its warm, it grows like a weed, so its never really an issue... If you give pere "the works" and look after it, it goes crazy and its hard to keep up with it. I started with 6 small woody bits I picked up about 18 months ago, and I would say that there's been easily 50m of growth in that time... (and there was plenty of grafts done in that time). It loves the tropics... I grow mother plants, and then sort out trays of cuttings that i grow up for grafting, i also wait for the pups on grafts to get big enough to take and grow them on too. The mothers are in 20cm pots, and I feed them regularly. The grafting stock is in 8cm square pots, i can fit about 30 in a tray. They get watered as often as I water my 'regular' plants... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Change Posted October 14, 2016 Like MountainGoat has pointed out, its really important to grow the stock where the grafts will be living, so the stock doesn't need to reacclimatise and loose most of the leaves. I grow my Peres in a greenhouse with filtered light. These ones in the pic below are moving inside to be grafted under LEDs then they will be straight back out where they came from. Another tip i learnt last season was, its a waste of time trying to propagate peres in the cold, Much better to wait till the plants are actively growing before chopping them up to increase your stock number. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sagiXsagi Posted October 14, 2016 I have a very strong motherplant of pereskiopsis.. It has flowered.. In fact it needs pruning now.. But I haven't grafted anything for a while.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zelly Posted October 15, 2016 I had 3 very large & bushy pereskiopsis growing in 3 gallon buckets; all three had recently flowered. I chopped them all down to nubbins & tossed them in the dumpster.. easy come easy go. like a weed, they'll grow back wih a vengence. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
theuserformallyknownasd00d Posted October 15, 2016 I feel like moving to the states zelly so I can start a collection based on what you throw into the bin each week ;) 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
zelly Posted October 16, 2016 no need to move mate, just get on my mailing list, have em delivered to your door 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
