purchasing cactus from thailand on Ebay

TimN · Post by **TimN** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 4:20 am

Good news! Congrats on your success!

Post by **daiv** » Thu Jul 28, 2011 2:28 pm

Fantastic!

Jefff · Post by **Jefff** » Fri Aug 05, 2011 5:08 pm

I received my Thailand cactus as well!

I did end up paying for the stupid papers but now that I got the cactus it was worth it.

tudedude · Post by **tudedude** » Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:00 am

me too! Arrived today, from thailand to southern california, with cites and phyto certs. Yay

Jefff · Post by **Jefff** » Sat Sep 03, 2011 4:48 pm

tudedude wrote:me too! Arrived today, from thailand to southern california, with cites and phyto certs. Yay

So what did ya get?? Pics??

tudedude · Post by **tudedude** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 1:58 am

I got an aztekium hintonii cluster grafted onto a harissia stock. I gave up grafting aztekiums myself after about a dozen failed attempts.

It arrived in okay condition. There wasn't much roots left. The guy trimmed them down pretty aggressively. I wonder if this was because of a pest infection or root rot? So I went ahead and chopped the graft stock about and inch above the roots. Hopefully it will root before fall.

Sutremaine · Post by **Sutremaine** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 7:23 pm

Why cut if there were roots left and no apparent problems? Now you don't have any roots at all.

Root trimming is sometimes done on cultivar Astrophytums to make them produce a fan of fast-acting fine roots instead of the single slow-drinking taproot they'd normally produce. I would have thought that Harrisia would naturally produce enough fine roots to make this more trouble than it's worth, if that is indeed the reason for the aggressive trimming.

tudedude · Post by **tudedude** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 7:34 pm

It was paranoia I suppose. There were only about 3 or 4 dead looking roots and the stock wasn't firm, kinda soft, but not squishy. just the day before a couple of cacti kicked the bucket from pests and rot. So OCD kicked in and I cut it off.

Sutremaine · Post by **Sutremaine** » Sun Sep 04, 2011 9:05 pm

Could just have been water loss then, especially if the plant was sat in Thailand's heat for any length of time.

I wonder if it would be worth grafting the stock onto something with vigourous roots, just to get some roots going right now? Don't take that as anything but a question, I've never successfully grafted anything.

Jefff · Post by **Jefff** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 2:51 am

I didn't know root cutting was common, but that explains why 4 out of 5 plants that I got this summer (from both Hungary and Thailand) had almost no roots.
Here's a thread I made recently about a rootless euphorbia Abdelkuri I got.
I reeeaaly prefer my plants to have roots when I get them.

http://www.cactiguide.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=22574

tudedude · Post by **tudedude** » Mon Sep 05, 2011 5:04 am

Sutremaine wrote:Could just have been water loss then, especially if the plant was sat in Thailand's heat for any length of time.

I wonder if it would be worth grafting the stock onto something with vigourous roots, just to get some roots going right now? Don't take that as anything but a question, I've never successfully grafted anything.

Yeah it was probably water loss. Harrisia jusbertii roots pretty quickly so I don't think a double graft is necessary. You should try grafting, after a few successes it gets addicting. I've been grafting everything in sight.

Jeff, I guess this is the norm then. I wonder if it's to lessen the chance of confiscation, or rot, during transport.