Seeds sown 29 Sept 2013, from Mesa Garden.
This IS kind of a tricky one. From an original set of 12 germinations, I now have 5 small plants.
For the first few years, the plants are so poorly rooted, it's laughable.
On the other hand, perhaps if I had a soil medium superior in some way, they'd have better root systems?
Cheers
Barry
North-central Californian grower
Re: North-central Californian grower
I'll grow it as long as it doesn't have glochids. Gaudy flowers a plus.
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Re: North-central Californian grower
Did you ever try to graft any of them? I have a few currently that have 1-2 tubercles and you are right they have very nearly 0 in the way of roots, but I have a couple grafted ones that I'm just waiting on them to flower.
Re: North-central Californian grower
Nah. I prefer plants on their own roots. I graft plants usually only for emergency purposes (like getting past rot) or propagation. But I'd rather keep a plant on its own roots if possible.
Cheers
Barry
Cheers
Barry
I'll grow it as long as it doesn't have glochids. Gaudy flowers a plus.
Re: North-central Californian grower
My Ariocarpus are in mass flowering mode..
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I'll grow it as long as it doesn't have glochids. Gaudy flowers a plus.
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- Posts: 3194
- Joined: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:44 pm
- Location: Grand Isle Co., Vermont
Re: North-central Californian grower
Nice show indeed. I've tried to grow them--no luck.
Catch a falling star--but don't try it with a cactus!
Trimming Astrophytum asterias roots
Hey guys
Following the protocol of some of the experienced Astrophytum asterias growers here, I tried trimming the roots on a few batches of seedlings.
From my pilot data, the procedure appears to have no beneficial effects.
I divided two batches of seedlings into equivalent subsets. I trimmed the roots in one subset for each batch. About a year has gone by, and here's what I found in terms of plant diameter:
Group 1
Trimmed: 26.9 mm
Not trimmed: 27.7 mm
Group 2
Trimmed: 26.9 mm
Not trimmed: 31.5 mm
So, while trimming roots may help for some folks, it apparently has no benefit for me. (There were no significant differences in survivorship, either.)
I'll upload photos shortly. (It seems this new version of cactiguide requires images to be really tiny.)
Following the protocol of some of the experienced Astrophytum asterias growers here, I tried trimming the roots on a few batches of seedlings.
From my pilot data, the procedure appears to have no beneficial effects.
I divided two batches of seedlings into equivalent subsets. I trimmed the roots in one subset for each batch. About a year has gone by, and here's what I found in terms of plant diameter:
Group 1
Trimmed: 26.9 mm
Not trimmed: 27.7 mm
Group 2
Trimmed: 26.9 mm
Not trimmed: 31.5 mm
So, while trimming roots may help for some folks, it apparently has no benefit for me. (There were no significant differences in survivorship, either.)
I'll upload photos shortly. (It seems this new version of cactiguide requires images to be really tiny.)
I'll grow it as long as it doesn't have glochids. Gaudy flowers a plus.