How do I identify variegated seedlings?

Both the red seedling, and the pale loph have turned the proper green colours. I did get a variegated astrophytum seedling, that had distinctive stripes on it, but some rotten little pest ate it right off the root stock last night along with nearly 20 other grafteds.

Surely you can produce some variegated cacti on your own.
Simply select every seedling that looks a little differently and graft it.
And cross some cacti that dont suit. For example Ferocactus and Leuchtenbergia.

I have been doing just that. Some of the seedlings that were eaten last night were from the unusual ones that I had found in batches of regular seedlings. Nice job on those that you have there - how long have you been working on them to get those?

What a great range of variegated grafts Torro.
I was going to ask if they are all yours and then I click on your website link and wow so many variegated cacti absolutely stunning.

My first graft I did was a trich that was very pale/albino but as it grew it reverted to only having a very small amount of variegation. I have recently grafted a near white loph that looks like it is going to be variegated just unsure how much at the moment as it is starting to show some green on the new growth.

IXOXI I am sorry to here about you loosing so many grafts it must be very frustrating.

Cheers
Midlife

IXOXI : I had the idea of producing/creating/finding one variegated seedling about 3 years ago.
After diving in to this topic there came out some more...

Not all of the variegated ones on my website are created or collected by me myself.
We are 3 guys who collect them and I also try to create them.

midlife crisis : You could try to obtain a scion from a variegated part of the trich.
The variegated cacti in the pictures above all "created" by me.

I currently have 2 seedlings of Trich pach, and I think I will delay grafting them until they are a bit larger (or maybe not graft them at all), because it has seemed in the past, if I grafted a variegated, or albino seedling too soon, that the pereskiopsis seemed to make it green up.

I went to Bunnings this morning, and bought dozens of the clear domed seedling trays, and have divided up all the grafted plants between them. If the thing that was eating them was hiding in a pot, it will vbe limited to how many more it can eat, and I will know exactly which tray it is in, and be able to dispose of it. If none of the seedlings get eaten over the next few days, then I will know it is somewhere else in there, and can try to find it that way. At least the seedlings will all be safe.

Later I will get pics of the 2 variegated T pachs, and post the photos.

Torro - Fantastic macro photos, what kind of lens are you using?

Ixoxi : It is nothing too special. A Canon with a Close-up +4 lens

Strange thing with your seedlings - I can feel the pain.

Grafting does not make seedlings go green. I guess it makes the process only
faster. Some seedlings simply "wake up late". They produce the chlorophyll later.
Some start with sun protection - i.e. red or yellow color before they start producing
chlorophyll.

We have a cacti nursery in europe - poland - that specialises in variegated and
crested cacti.
2 weeks ago we visited it:

One of my goals is to eventually have a collection that looks like that. I have a LONG way to go. Too bad it's so difficult to ship plants like that here.

Torro wrote:

We have a cacti nursery in europe - poland - that specialises in variegated and
crested cacti.
2 weeks ago we visited it:

Just curious, -is it a Mirosława Licznerska nursery??

IXOXI wrote:

One of my goals is to eventually have a collection that looks like that. I have a LONG way to go. Too bad it's so difficult to ship plants like that here.

It looks like it is a common problem...Here it is prohibited to import/export plants too but we do it anyway. Same problem in Japan... but I found a person who can send the plants from there...

numan : Yep, it is http://www.kaktusy.com.pl

At least you need a CITES certificate and variegated plants grafted on Hylocereus
are listed as an exception. It is allowed to import/export them.
But you have to pay for the CITES paperwork and phytosanitary certificate too.

I grafted one of the T pachs. It seems to have taken. I will get around to photographing them. Funny thing, the 2 that may possibly be variegated were side by side in the pot, and in a batch of Astrophytum, 3 variegated seedlings turned up, and THOSE are all next to each other as well. I wonder what is causing this clustering.