Shlumbergera life expectancy

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esp_imaging
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Re: Shlumbergera life expectancy

Post by esp_imaging »

stefan m. wrote:So to those who want an update, no, the truncata from earlier is likely NOT 20 years old, but several clones in order.
This whole thread seems quite strange, but I'd be exceptionally surprised if individual Schlumbergera (etc) STEMS can't survive for a few decades, let alone a whole plant (which is obviously capable of regenerating its parts). Im fairly sure my mother's plant is essentially the same plant, ca. 40 years old, and hasn't been restarted from cuttings at any stage. Many other cacti can have individual stems living for decade (including in my collection), so I can't see why that shouldn't apply to epiphytic species as well.
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stefan m.
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Re: Shlumbergera life expectancy

Post by stefan m. »

But the question is(now anyway), is it a truncata, or a buckleyi (which lives longer-and this we confirmed).
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Re: Shlumbergera life expectancy

Post by esp_imaging »

To turn this thread around, is there any reason why modern hybrids wouldn't live for decades? I can't see one.
I'm not sure what a life expectancy on website would mean, or why it would be believable, for a long-lived perennnial.
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stefan m.
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Re: Shlumbergera life expectancy

Post by stefan m. »

Well, we dont know that. Im literary searching for data or proof in hopes that at least someone on this forum, has gotten hold of a truncata(or at least its flashy modern hybrids) when they first appeared and keeps track of it.
And life expectancy, lifespan, whatever you want to call it, for cacti at least, means how long the live, of course.
For some, like setiechinopsis and fraliea like you said, its short, while for other, like echinocactus ingens, it could be thousands of years. So yeah, by that i mean death by old age of the plant.
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Re: Shlumbergera life expectancy

Post by toadstar »

I think that given proper care, they'll out live most people. I see articles from time to time about a massive Shlumbergera plant handed down from grandma.

http://www.am-news.com/content/collard- ... tus-blooms
http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op ... sid/67055/
elieestephane wrote:Well it helps speed up the growth even more and it will be awesome looking!
That first one looks a bit ridiculous. :lol:
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stefan m.
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Re: Shlumbergera truncata life expectancy

Post by stefan m. »

Before anyone post another link, please check out Plant of the month november 2017-schlumbergera truncata.
Its called thanksgiving cactus, while all the links about "140 year old plants" refer to sclumbergera buckleyi, the christmas cactus. For the buckleyii, the long life expectancy hypothesis has allready been confirmed.
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Re: Shlumbergera life expectancy

Post by DaveW »

It all depends what you call the original plant? We all know by taking cuttings that clone can go on living long after the parent plant dies. The question then is what constitutes the original plant? I would consider it is one still on the roots it formed when the original cutting was inserted. However if the plant say looses it's roots, or rots at the base and needs to be cut back and re-rooted does it still count as the original plant, or a very large cutting from it?

I would think, given hybrid vigour, that hybrids of true species would be likely to live longer than their parents, but may be wrong?
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stefan m.
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Re: Shlumbergera life expectancy

Post by stefan m. »

All right, ill define this properly- no cutout clones, just regular root loss and and reroot, rot cutting include, as long as it stems from the same base, and a not split plant(original stem). I know some of this plants live very long, even without the reroot thing..., but , a clone is a imperfect replica of the original thing. Wheter or not the original is alive or not, its a separate plant.
Its not a bamboo or a birch, so "the one whole big interconnected plant" does not apply here/
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