=^-^= My first grafts ( it's shocking )

[Eutow_Intermedium]

[ Contains personal embarasment to myself ]

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After all these years of of being interested in Cacti. I have yet again given grafting another go.

I'm sure I tried and failed with Trichocereus Bridgesii in the past.

I used five of the rooted pups from the recently donated Echinopsis ( Barcellos ) , now very much more healthier looking and green to graft the most hideous plants imaginable . Yes you guessed it , Gymnocalycium Mihanovichii ( hibotan ) Moon cactus.

< < GASP > >

Well it's a start. The origional one is now bereft of pups and solitary on the usual Hylocereus stock. I found the flesh of the Echinopsis to be very moist and slimy and in my opinion that must be good for the plants I just attached. The stock plants are small and I am hoping both they and the orrible Red gymno's on top will grow accordingly. Having small stocks I am hoping the plants will become big enough that I cant see the graft and it may be possible to burry it slightly deeper.

Also if Echinopsis works I dont know how this will effect the growing Gymno's as apposed to a normal Hylocereus graft. Might grow at a different rate , or be more likely to flower and maybe be more long lived.

But it's not all bad

I chopped the top off of another Echinopsis stock and stripped all the areoles off the ribs with a sterile scalpel blade and popped on the top a truly --> minuscule <-- seedling of a recently emerged Gymno Gibbosum that was very pink indeed. If this one does settle , it may or may not turn out to be a chlorophll free plant. But if it is there may be a chance that it may revert back to it's normal state in time.

But overall my thinking is , if I can grow successful grafts off these echinopsis. I can probably do more of this in the future and hold some plants aside for this.

I have three plants of what might be Echinopsis oxygona in the Greenhouse over the allotment , and these have been producing pupping like crazy and fast too along with their own roots. And I have continued to pot these up. So I am going to have lots of Echinopsis. Not just the limited ( Barcellos ) ones that I took off the donated plant.

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