Welcome Craig Fry!

[mughal113]

Wow... such a joy to read through this thread and watch the photos. Thanks a lot for sharing the amazing plants.

[Fatich]

I'm just about to give up on Yavia crytocarpa

Just too much disappointment
You get your hopes up for a nice plant, maybe some flowers!
and the next you look, it has split into something no one wants to look at

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Will it grow roots if you degraft it ?

[C And D]

No, no one can get them to root and live on their own roots.
You have to grow from seed and be able to keep them alive to have a rooted plant.

I've had some cuttings root, but the roots quickly rot after planting, I finally gave up on the quest.

The plant is still growing, I will put up a photo of it , below.

[C And D]

Here's some of my favorite Opuntioids
All were started off a single ball.

Maihueniopsis bonnieae minor

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Maihueniopsis bonnieae major
2 plants of the same clone

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Maihueniopsis minuta

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Maihueniopsis ovata

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Tephrocactus molinensis ash colored spines

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Tephrocactus molinensis copper colored spines

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Tephrocactus alexanderi, few downward pointing spines

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Tephrocactus alexanderi, grey spiny balls

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Tephrocactus alexanderi, super big spiny balls

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Tephrocactus alexanderi geometricus
2 different forms

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[Pushrestart]

The spherical Opuntioids are the best, especially Maihueniopsis bonnieae. Hopefully you'll have some listed on your website shortly !

[C And D]

I just made a bunch of Maihueniopsis bonnieae cuttings
They should be ready around the beginning of September

[C And D]

I get accused of posting too many ugly plants on my thread.
"Why bother with that crap, post more flowers!"

I hope some people are interested in some of the more advanced subject matter on cultivation and rare plants

Yavia cryptocarpa
The latest split has healed

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Some other offerings
Notice how small the graft connection is, it's very weak and needs support,
and Yet!, they still build up too much water pressure and split every year.

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Close up of the fur

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[Steve Johnson]

I get accused of posting too many ugly plants on my thread.
"Why bother with that crap, post more flowers!"

Hi Craig,

Sorry that I haven't chimed in here before, but your thread is excellent. Just incredible to see all the cacti and succulents you have in your pics, and it's "value added" since I had the pleasure of seeing your setup live and in person over 2 years ago. Count me as one of those who enjoys and appreciates the more advanced subject matter you offer.

[Robb]

Do you happen to have any photos of the Yavia as seedlings, Craig? I sowed some Yavia seed that I ordered from succseed a year and half ago and the seedlings are looking suspiciously similar to the Cintia seedlings of the same batch.
Fabulous photos, by the way!

[C And D]

I grew a batch of seeds about 6 years ago,
2 of my big plants are from those seeds.
They looked different than you'd expect, I posted photos of them somewhere here on cactiguide.

I was able to graft a couple on Pereskiopsis that I then grafted on to bigger stock.

The ones that I didn't graft succumbed to the usual unknown seedling death a couple months later.

[C And D]

The one long stemmed Yavia grew over it's meristem and sealed the top from future growth.
Is the name for this occurrence?

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But of course, many new heads are sprouting off the side.
The new heads look like the seedlings, with bigger golden spines

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Nice Mammillaria schumannii flowers

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Some of my grafted plants
I have updated my grafting thread, here:
http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtop ... 22&t=22745" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Astrophytum caput-medusa
The plant on the left never produces seeds after direct cross pollination with the other plant, since they often flower at the same time.
So either it's infertile, or the other plant has infertile pollen.

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Turbinicarpus rioverdensis and Turbinicarpus hoferi
difficult to grow into adults without grafting

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I grafted the top part off this grafted plant on Pereskiopsis and kept enough on the stock for it to stay alive.
This is after one year. The T. hoferi will not offset.

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This Discocactus horstii was a sweet 2 headed seedling, but trying to graft at that small connection point would be too difficult
Mostly because the Pereskiopsis graft causes some unnatural growth above the connection point, so you have to cut way above that zone

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[C And D]

Here some more Astrophytum caput-medusae fun

4 year old seedlings after re-planting in April
They flower mostly on the same days

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Big Plant
Growth quite a bit since last time I had a photo here

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You may ask, "what about that Astrophytum caput-medusae hybrid"
Last week

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And now!

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More Astrophytum hybrids

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These Astrophytum caput-medusae seedlings are only 2 months old!

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Astrophytum caput-medusae is one of the hardest species to graft IMO, since it's so thin and delicate
This is a one year old seedling.

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[C And D]

Here are some other interesting seedlings

1 year old Euphorbia gymnoccalycoides
about the same speed as Astrophytum asterias

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2 month old Euphorbia tulearensis

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[Grimm]

Awesome plants Craig and Denise!

I was curious, has anyone every tried grafting Yavia onto slower growing stock? Say an Astrophytum root or similar?

[C And D]

Astrophytum caput-medusa

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3 year old seedlings

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Astrophytum asterias nudun variegated

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Monstrose growth on Mammillaria crinta

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looks like plastic