Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

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EliWhitney3140
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Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by EliWhitney3140 »

I was curious how you encourage your tufts/ trichomes to look more natural in cultivation? Is anyone experimenting with different methods? Perhaps applying wet clay or flooding your lophs in a clay bath? Just looking for any advice if anyone is doing this. thank you all.
DaveW
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by DaveW »

What do you consider as looking natural?
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jerrytheplater
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by jerrytheplater »

I have to ask what a clay bath is.
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EliWhitney3140
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by EliWhitney3140 »

The first photo is obviously a cacti in habitat but this is what I would consider a natural looking trichome on a Lophophora. The second photo is what I would consider very domesticated and not the aesthetic I am interested in.

I guess I am just tossing out ideas as far as the clay bath goes. I have seen photos of Lophophora and Astrophytum completely submerged in water in clay beds. I imagine many things effect the look of trichomes in habitat and I have to guess that clay or other substrates play a key factor. I am just curious if anyone plays around with this or if people just enjoy the trichomes they have.



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Aeonium2003
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by Aeonium2003 »

Maybe top water them, get a little dirt on the trichomes...
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ohugal
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by ohugal »

Aeonium2003 wrote: Fri Mar 11, 2022 3:13 am Maybe top water them, get a little dirt on the trichomes...
Occasional trip to the barbershop?

Is it similar to spines on other cacti which are encouraged by the amount the sun they get? I did hear once if you mist a cactus often it reduces the density of the spines. Never tried it though.
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MrXeric
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by MrXeric »

I second water from above like in habitat or at least mist with a spray bottle. I used to try to avoid wetting the fuzz on my Ariocarpus plants but I've since abandoned the idea and periodically spray them down completely like the rest of the collection to wash away all the dust that accumulates.

I see that your plant is grafted and I wonder if that promotes voluminous growth of fuzz? Frank (Hanazono) often shows grafted plants of various species and states that some of them grow fuzzier than the own-root counterparts.
DaveW
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by DaveW »

The second picture looks like an untypical selected clone. There are "growers and showers", in the case of plants the show fraternity look for pretty but often untypical specimens. As has been said, in the wild all cacti get watered overhead which removes all loose wool and if the soil splashes up dirties it. Overhead watering with a little bit of dirt mixed in the water should gradually produce the result you want, also as the trichomes age they dull down themselves.
EliWhitney3140
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by EliWhitney3140 »

Thank you for all of your replies. Neither of these plants are in my care, I just wanted to show the obvious difference in the trichomes.

Do you think most natural clays would be safe to apply to cacti?
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loyall
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by loyall »

I tried to look-up the meaning of trichome, but it is not listed in the CactiGuide glossary.
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One Windowsill
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by One Windowsill »

loyall wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:12 pm I tried to look-up the meaning of trichome, but it is not listed in the CactiGuide glossary.
From the OED (www.oed.com):
Botany. The general name for any outgrowth of the epidermis or superficial tissue of a plant, as hairs, scales, prickles, etc
It is from the Greek meaning a hairy growth. One hair is a trichome. There are very many different types of trichome in plants.

Missouri Botanical Garden has a good glossary: http://www.mobot.org/mobot/research/apw ... q_z.html#T
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loyall
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by loyall »

Thank you One Windowsill. I did look up the general botanical meaning of Trichome, but I was hoping that the CactiGuide glossary would give a more specific meaning as used in cacti, such as in the discussion above on Lophophora.
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One Windowsill
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Re: Natural looking Lophophora trichomes

Post by One Windowsill »

loyall wrote: Sat Mar 12, 2022 10:57 pm Thank you One Windowsill. I did look up the general botanical meaning of Trichome, but I was hoping that the CactiGuide glossary would give a more specific meaning as used in cacti, such as in the discussion above on Lophophora.
I think most of the ones found in cacti are just hairs. In other plants you get branching, stinging, bristly, prickly. Other plants have oil, gum or resin secreting trichomes, some of which are long and some of which are so short you would only notice them with a microscope. Plectranthus can have four or so different types of trichome on one plant.
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