Mertzi graftlog 2015

[Mertzi]

Hey there!
This is my first post on here beeing a new member!
My interest in cacti and succulents is quite recent and it's only about a year since I really got hooked. What interest me the most at this point is by far grafting. My pereskopsis have been sitting around since last fall waiting for the season to come and now when it's finally here, I thought I'd give it a try! Below are some pictures of my two first ever grafts about week after slicing still sitting in high humidity. As far as my untrained eyes can see, the neoraimondia seems to be doing okay but the trichocereus is showing a little rust coloration altough it seems to have stuck to the stock. Should i worry? What to do? None of the two show any new growth so far, when do you think I can expect that?

I'll try to keep this thread updated whenever something happens and hope that you'll want to follow it and give a beginner some advice along the way!

*edit
Changed picture of t. Pachanoi.

Neoraimondia Gigantea



Trichocereus Pachanoi

[george76904]

Congrats on your fist post. I'm no expert grafter (by any means) but both grafts look good. The t. Pachanoi looks fine though.

[Mertzi]

Thanks! I just realized that I posted wrong image for the t. Pachanoi. I edited it and now you should be able to see the lifting around the edges. What do you think?

[snarfie]

Your grafts look nice, it usually helps to put a little pressure on a scion, to keep it from lifting, i only had two grafts to take so far. Probably the result of a not so sharp knife.

[Mertzi]

Thanks Snarfie, good to hear

Not much progress with the actual grafts yet altough I think the n. Gigantea is starting to plump up a bit. I keep them in a really sunny south facing window still in high humidity (bags/chamber), trying my best to keep them out of direct sunlight. Is this is a good location or should I move them? I have a north facing window that only recieves direct sun just before sundown. The stocks are also starting to put out new shoots. Can I keep this until they are big enough to root or will my grafts suffer from now cutting them off immediately?

I have also been discovered an odd looking seedling, slightly more pale than my other t. Pachanoi and with a less 'distinct' shape. The areoles are not as pointy. Could it be a monstrose or is it nothing? See the comparision picture below.

While waiting for the grafts to start growing I started to build a monitoring and logging system for the tiny aquarium I use as a humidity chamber for grafts and pereskiopsis. Currently is displays time, temp and humidity on the LCD and stores the data to an SD card every 10 min. I plan to develop it to include atleast one camera inside of the chamber, taking photos and meassurements each hour, hoping that one can learn some from watching the resulting timelapse along with the logged data I'll probably try to automate ventilation when the temperature gets too high too. What do you think is good threshold for pereskiopsis and pereskiopsis grafts? No warmer than 30*C?

Pictures!

n. Gigantea plumping up a bit.
[/URL]

Odd looking seedling to the left, normal t. pachanoi to the right.


Pereskiopsis cuttings rooting after ~12 days, soon ready to graft onto. The odd seedling in third row, sixth column, right next to the small pereskiopsis cutting.


Monitoring system for my humidity chamber (Arduino).

[snarfie]

Cool system! As for the odd trichocereus, i wouldn't think too much of it because seedlings are pretty sensitive, and usually also have different genes, and that results in different plants

[chirpie]

Wow, can you tell us more about the arduino monitoring system? Is there a kit for that?

[Mertzi]

@snarfie
Thanks! I'll just wait and see then! You're probably right even though I still think it looks rather odd compared to the others.

@chirpie
This is not a kit but it is not very diffucult to build and code (most of the different modules come as kits with instructions of how to solder, some are readymade), I've been thinking of developing a kit for it for fun though. If you're (or anyone else for that matter) interested in making one I'll can list the components for you and share the code. If you're only interested in certain functions then some parts and code can be taken away to make it smaller and cheaper. I've added some more stuff now and the camera should arrive any day now, altough it may take some time to install. I'll upload some updated pictures later!

Yesterday tinkering with the stuff I recognized that my mealybug problem seemed to have moved into my N. Gigantea graft pot. No wonder it has been a bit slow progressing? Threw all the old soil away, cleaned the entire plant thoroughly, first with soap and then isopropanol before repotting with new soil. Let's hope it recovers quickly!

[snarfie]

The only thing i do about mealybugs is checking my cacti thoroughly and just squish them if i find any. Also a part of my new additions usually have them(about one in five) and those are also checked for them. But i haven't got any real problems with them

[Mertzi]

Not much have happend with my two grafts yet and they're now about two and a half weeks old. Grafted them on the 18/5. They've stuck to the stock indeed, but seemed to have stalled a bit. n. Raimondia is still doing better than the otherone and looks a bit more plump. Right now Im keeping them in a sunny window facing south, with only part shade through the day. Could this be the cause or am I just very impatient ? Should they have less direct light to start pumping?

Also adding a few more photos of what my arduino growbox currently looks like. The camera have arrived but have not yet got it to work properly. So far, it logs temp and RH every half an hour, stores it to an SD card along with the current date and time. When temp goes above 30C or humidity above 90RH the fan kicks in so the box doesnt overheat and so that humid air is not trapped inside for too long. I'll upload the statistics in the coming days. It would be really nice to hear some of your thoughts on the threshold values. Could it be warmer, cooler, more/less humid, etc. What other factors do you think could be relevant to track in such a box? Light, airpressure etc..?

n. Raimondia to the left and t. Pachanoi to the right


Arduino growbox, and whats inside

[george76904]

Man that is a wicked cool setup! you said that they are getting most sun throughout the day correct? Especially if you want to extend the growing season I might look into some sort of additional lighting (nut as a substitution for natural lighting) but just to avoid etoliation, and better control light variables. As far as temp and humidity, I wouldn't know what to change, my grafts just go in a misted box with a clear plastic lid by the window.

[Mertzi]

No signs of my t. Pachanoi and n. Gigantea grafts starting to grow yet so I attempted another graft today, a. Myriostigma, possibly columnaris (not sure which ones which in the pot). I took the weakest of the four a. Myriostigmas i had, hoping that it would do better as grafted as it was doing by itself. The seed was sown in september, but as winters here i Sweden are rather dark, I suppose that it's slightly underdeveloped for it's age. Also attempted to graft the bottom half of the seedling (what is this type of graft called?) Fingers crossed that it takes!!!

I have also got the camera for my arduino incubator project to work and below is one of the first pictures! The picture is taken night, but I wouldn't think too much of the quality during daytime either. It will do for analyzing growth speed in relation to data though. I Still need to implement it in the main code which I think will take some effort (I'm not an experienced programmer), but so far so good!


Grafting setup


a. Myriostigma (columnaris?)


First picture with the camera (LS-Y201) for the incubator!

[Onzuka]

Hi Mertzi.

On the 1st picture above of your latest graft, the joint surface between the stock and scion seems to be very wet with sap. In my experience, this situation detracts from successful grafts. I always use Pereskiopsis stocks that are pretty dry at the roots to avoid this happening. Just a tip, FWIW.

Steve

[Mertzi]

Thanks Onzuka, I'll keep that in mind for my coming grafts!
I know that excess sap can push the scion off. I did put some preassure on it with some plastic wrap and a rubberband after I took the pic. Hopefully it'll work we'll just wait and see

[Mertzi]

Unfortunatly, the astro grafts did not make it. I suppose you were right Onzuka, the stocks were putting out too much sap and since I left them for 6 days after grafting they had both succumbed to brown sludge in the joint by the time I returned to watch over them.

There is also no or very little progress with my t Pachanoi graft as you can see. It has now been 5 weeks and the stock is putting out alot of shoots. Should I risk regrafting it or am I just beeing impatient?

no growth in t Pachanoi scion yet. Pere putting out funny looking sideshoot

IMG_0160_1.jpg (21.19 KiB) Viewed 3534 times

The n. gigantea is however presenting some truly pleasant progress, nearly doubbling in size over the last week!

n Gigantea comparision of last 5 days

IMG_0139_1 ~7 days growing.jpg (26.16 KiB) Viewed 3534 times

IMG_0133_1 ~7 days growing.jpg (26.51 KiB) Viewed 3534 times