Astrophytum CV Fukuryu

I quite like the forum of this plant and it was grown well over winter.

Astro's are just stunning! Nice HN, thanks for shairing.

~Kanda

My pleasure my friend

how old was it when grafted, and now how old would you say it would be?

Grafted as a 20day old seedling and is probably 12months on from then, so have grown very fast. A plant on it's own roots could take 6 years to reach this size.

A very nice plant!
I think your plant is a Hakujyou Fukuryu Banjyaku.

I grafted 5 of Fukuryu seedlings last month.
I hope they grow well as like as yours.

Cheers for the info Hanazono

Tried selecting for koh-yo fukuryus, Some are looking like they'll be ok.

Ohhhh nice !!

Out me down for any seed

Yeh I gaze at them and get lost sometimes...fukuryu is really wonderful. The colours should get stronger in the cold months. The best one was a bright red just a month ago. If it goes back to that colour and passes the trait to it's offspring when bred with similar plants then we may have the making of a 'Red Dragon Fukuryu'.
Here's the seedlings before their appointment with Mack(my grafting knife).

Are these easy to get a hold of as seed or better yet cuttongs

As a short answer. No. The exact opposite, extremely difficult to obtain, not so much the seeds but the plants expressing those traits.

I got seeds about six and a half years ago of normal fukuryu. Back then it was very hard to get seed and very exy.(still is for the real thing) Few of the plants grew with really good fukuryu but I grew many so I got some that were good. After 4 years I started to get seed off the good plants. I sowed them all as part of my breeding program. After two years I selected just these few plants because of their colour. I have also selected about a dozen elite fukuryus and a monstrose form from this breeding. To get quality it is a matter of putting through large numbers and picking out the cherries.
Here's the monster(shame it not halloween!). I'm calling him "Bizzaro"

Awesome, and yeah ^^^ that is the point I was trying to make above. It's not a matter of getting a particular variant of seed, growing them out and you will have a heap of the labelled plants. It takes hundreds of seeds and careful selection and cross breeding to create these beauties.

Massive props to you Crypto!!

Ohh, I understand now, lol. Way, way outta my league!

Good friggen work Crypto.

So in lomans terms, they're not always coloured, or even at all at times?

Would love to see updates of these in the future

Just wondering would you cut Your monster (Bizzaro) off the graft when it is older, and do you cut your other grafts off.??

Hi JK. Actually I am using "Bizzaro" as a stock plant and have already taken nearly a dozen pieces off him. It is possible to degraft but I don't have a problem with grafted plants and I love to watch them grow: which happens a lot more slowly on own roots.
Just googled Bizzaro and turns out he's a mutant version of superman, who knew?

cryptocarpa wrote:

Hi JK. Actually I am using "Bizzaro" as a stock plant and have already taken nearly a dozen pieces off him. It is possible to degraft but I don't have a problem with grafted plants and I love to watch them grow: which happens a lot more slowly on own roots.
Just googled Bizzaro and turns out he's a mutant version of superman, who knew?

Hehehehehehe classic

Kandahar,
I don't believe these sorts of plants are out of yours or anyone else's league. While they are unarguably elite genetics, it is so simply because of the work I did in selecting as Hn points out. In a way I am fortunate that I decided to dedicate my working life to Horticulture so I have the facilities and a professional interest that allows me to pursue projects such as this. I saw these kinds of plants years ago overseas and was just stunned that such lifeforms exist. I feel that collector's in Australia, because of hassles with quarantine and our isolation, have really missed out on what are in my opinion some of the most remarkable natural objects to have existed. I consider it my job description to rectify this.
In effect cultivar forms are a collaboration between humanity and nature. In the process of selection evolution is accelerated and a new symbiotic relationship between humanity and plants starts to exist. Imagine....all the cultivar forms represent just a few decades of selection.....consider a thousand generations.... where will it go by then? and after that......
I have to say though, that sometimes, after more than half a decade of perseverance and dedication to this sort of goal, I look at what's been achieved and I wonder if it's been worth it?
So, perhaps that's what it takes for such things to be within your league.....an irrational dedication to a goal that the majority of the population consider totally superfluous. The longer you can keep yourself in denial of this fact the further you will go down the path of your own obsession...where that path ends I can't tell you.....but I do know that 'any journey of a thousand miles begins with the realization that the first step is right beneath your feet'(Lao Tzu).......

A very insightful post and one which I feel I need to reply to in-depth, however I don't have the time at present. 'Lao Tzu' is probably one of the most influential people in my life and has taught me so much. I consider Lao Tzu and his writings pure wisdom.

Wow so true Cryto.

Well I kinda paraphrased Loa Tzu a bit but I think that's what he means.. I recently heard that line translated as "even the longest journey begins where you stand" but it is more common to here the "with a single step" version which actually detracts from Lao Tzu's intended meaning. He wanted to emphasizes that the journey begins with the realization that it lies before you and the impetus to begin it. Having said all that I must say I feel foolish to even try to comment on The Way and that I do so with great humility.
Hn(bro), I have also learned a great deal from Lao Tzu, In fact all the Tzus (Wen Tzu, Leih Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Sun Tzu) however the essence of wisdom comes not from from Lao Tzu but from the "The Tao". Since I first read "The Way that can be spoken of is not the true Way..."(first line of the Tao Te Ching) as a teenager I have been a lifelong student of The Way and it has enriched my existence immeasurably.
All of this is totally off topic I know but in some indefinable way the cultivation of cacti and the plants themselves have their own Tao....

Crypto,

We really are two peas in a pod, so to speak. The Tao Te Ching is basically what I live by, I never even imagined another person, especially on this forum, would bring this up !! I really believe in Lao Tzu and his philosophy and writing, and feel it has made me who I am today. I could go on forever about this topic, and about Taoism in general but lets keep on topic



I have another CV Fukuryu which I took a few photos of today, I will post it up soon

It is a remarkable coincidence HN.
Back on topic... some more Fukuryu plants for everyone to enjoy..