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How to keep Hibotans alive as long as possible?

Posted: Sun May 08, 2022 1:03 pm
by Mrs.Green
I bought four grafted Hibotans, grafted on Hylocereus stock ( possible undatus?). All with different colours on the Gymno’s. First question; I am pretty sure that I read a comment from Hanazono on the forum, that Hibotan translates to red peony? I f this is so, the other colours as the yellow one f.ex. wouldn’t be correctly named hibotan?

Everything I have read about this graft, indicates that they are shortlived, 2-3 years as an average. The reason for this is often given to be that the scion and graft splits, due to different growing rate. Is this really true? I would have belived that the difference in preferred growing conditions would be the main culprit?

Which leads to the question,what to do to maximize the lifespan? No low temperatures and no or little direct sun to keep the colours on the scion and not to much water, ‘all’ seems to agree on when it comes to cultivation. But much of this info seems to be more or less copypasted from one page to another.

The pots they came in are small( 5 cm) and the medium seems to be a mix of cut choir and ‘potting soil’. From what I have found so far, Hylocereus should have a pretty rich substrate( as in organic)? I am thinking of repotting them in slightly bigger pots but should I go for a less organic mix? I have no personal experience with grafted cacti, but I would belive that taking care of the stocks wellbeing so to speak, is the road to longeviety of permanently grafted cacti?

Re: How to keep Hibotans alive as long as possible?

Posted: Sun May 08, 2022 3:30 pm
by Aeonium2003
Hylocereus (which was moved to selenicereus recently), is not a permanent grafting stock. To keep them alive as long as possible, you would probably have re-graft them to a permanent stock, like Echinopsis (trichocereus).

Re: How to keep Hibotans alive as long as possible?

Posted: Sun May 08, 2022 10:11 pm
by Hanazono
If you wanted to keep an own-roots Hibotan, you should select a Hibotan-nishiki.
Hibotan is 100% variegation but Hibotan-nishiki is partially variegated, e.g. 80%.

Hibotan-nishiki will reach to 10 cm in diameter with own-roots.

I am not sure hibotan-nishiki is available or not in your countries.

Re: How to keep Hibotans alive as long as possible?

Posted: Mon May 09, 2022 12:12 am
by BryanT
You should be able to get Hibotan-nishiki in EU.
Something like this pictures (own root). They grow much slower, but grow as normal plants.
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P1050413.JPG (64.25 KiB) Viewed 2342 times

Re: How to keep Hibotans alive as long as possible?

Posted: Mon May 09, 2022 1:11 am
by Aeonium2003
Are the purple ones considered Hibotan-nishiki? From my understanding, they have enough chlorophyl to survive own root.

Re: How to keep Hibotans alive as long as possible?

Posted: Mon May 09, 2022 2:50 am
by BryanT
Aeonium2003 wrote: Mon May 09, 2022 1:11 am Are the purple ones considered Hibotan-nishiki? From my understanding, they have enough chlorophyl to survive own root.
Yes. Most of the time they are sold as f variegata.
They are different percentage of variegation. As long as they can produce chlorophyll, they can survive on their own root.

Re: How to keep Hibotans alive as long as possible?

Posted: Mon May 09, 2022 7:15 am
by Mrs.Green
Aeonium2003 wrote: Sun May 08, 2022 3:30 pm Hylocereus (which was moved to selenicereus recently), is not a permanent grafting stock. To keep them alive as long as possible, you would probably have re-graft them to a permanent stock, like Echinopsis (trichocereus).
Thank you Aeonium2003 :) I am aware of that, but for someone who have never tried grafting anything, the thougt of re-grafting seems even more difficult than grafting. ( from what I have read ) If I had a vast number of Hibotans and was already skilled in grafting, loosing a few wouldn’t be a concern.

I would prefer the original graft to live as long as possible, in the meantime I may have gained a bit of practice with grafting. One of the reasons for buying these , was the pups on one of them. Thinking that I could use these as learning material.

Hanazono wrote: Sun May 08, 2022 10:11 pm If you wanted to keep an own-roots Hibotan, you should select a Hibotan-nishiki.
Hibotan is 100% variegation but Hibotan-nishiki is partially variegated, e.g. 80%.

Hibotan-nishiki will reach to 10 cm in diameter with own-roots.

I am not sure hibotan-nishiki is available or not in your countries.
Thank you Hanazono :) I have seen partly variegated Hibotans for sale here but they were pretty expencive and to be honest, I didn’t found the uneven variegation on the plants, very attractive.

If I don’t remember wrongly, You commented in another tread that Hibotan means red peony? What is the name for a all yellow cactus then ? :)

As mentioned, I have no experience with grafting but I find the topic interesting. In theory I would be tempted to belive that grafting a Hibotan on another ( normal) Gymno would be the best match? If not , why? Is a Gymno to slowgrowing to keep both itself and a scion alive or are there other reasons? This question isn’t just about Gymnocalyciums but about all more or less clorophyll lacking specimens. Wouldn’t the best stock be a normal plant of the same species or at least the same genus?

Re: How to keep Hibotans alive as long as possible?

Posted: Mon May 09, 2022 10:05 pm
by Hanazono
G'morning Mrs. Green,
You commented in another tread that Hibotan means red peony? What is the name for a all yellow cactus then ? :)
You are correc.

Hi: red
botan: peony

Yellow one is also called as Hibotan in Japan.

Frank

Re: How to keep Hibotans alive as long as possible?

Posted: Wed May 18, 2022 5:11 pm
by Mrs.Green
Hanazono wrote: Mon May 09, 2022 10:05 pm G'morning Mrs. Green,
You commented in another tread that Hibotan means red peony? What is the name for a all yellow cactus then ? :)
You are correc.

Hi: red
botan: peony

Yellow one is also called as Hibotan in Japan.

Frank
Thank you Hanazono :)