A large graft

Just thought I would share my oldest graft (second graft I ever did, the first failed), it is a bit distorted, well alot! This one I am very sentimental about, It is also my first loph flower ever. Another bud forming.

I was inspired by gillgan's thread.





It's about 6 years old and the stock is T. pachanoi, it would have been larger by now but I actually had it growing in almost full shade up until the beginning of this season. It has rewarded me by fattening up alot at the apex and has flowered. It has two pups, and it was smaller than the pup you can see in the pic when grafted. About 3cm. It has more pups but I removed them for cuttings and it was looking a bit crook so I removed them to give it less stress. It hasn't looked back since then.

Nice lophie there, mate.

I also noticed the Obregonia denegrii in the corner... nice plant.

Grin.. I was gonna say the same thing about both Lachy...

My obregonias are about 6 months old, long way off yet...

Hopefully the loph speeds up for the next 6 years!

Nice graft

I can see the love it's received over all this time.

mighty fine man!

Very envious - fine looking specimen Trig!

I totally forgot about this thread.

Thanks guys!!! A bit of an update. Well I got a fruit from one of the flowers, but it disappeared, I suspect ants as the culprits. Also had a few rogue crickets that decided to chow down on a couple of lophies last week, baskets! One of the pups on the big graft got chomped. Suffice to say, those crickets are now in insect heaven

Regarding the Obregonia denegrii, had that one for a while and it has grown a few mm, sooo slow, it has suffered a bit and wasn't in the best condition when I got it. Hopefully it will pick up next season, otherwise I might have to graft.

Here is another graft that I did last season. It is on a Cereus peruvianus stock and has really picked up recently, it has been grown this season in almost full sun, the only shade it gets is from the chicken wire (possum proofing), that is on some nearby trichos. It's about 4cm wide.

Hi Trigonus!!

How long did you have to wait for the loph. to flower? dis you grow it from seed?

I grew Loph. willia. from seed, and its being 6 to 7 years now and still no flower. Do you know of any tricks to promote flowering?

thanks

astro

The large graft was about 4 years old when I grafted it, around 4cm wide. It has been grafted for around 6 years and I only got flowers this season. It was grown in almost complete shade and is grafted to T. pachanoi, a species which can be reluctant to flower normally. I put it down to mainly the light issue and neglect, no feeding and little watering etc; I put it in my greenhouse in a few hours of hot sun a day and then bright light for most of the day after that. Now I have it in full sun half day and bright light the other half, outside.

The second one was about 3 years old and 3cm wide and was grafted early last season. I water it quite a bit (more than my own roots lophs) and give it a feed with some cactus feed. I think the C. peruvianus is much more keen to flower that the pach. It depends what stock you use as well as environmental factors and climactic factors as well and a good feeding/watering regime.

None of my grafted lophs have been grown by seed by me personally, although they were originally grown by seed. My loph seedlings aren't even at 1cm yet

That said I have a few other own roots lophs, largest being nearly 5cm, none have flowered yet and are showing no signs of flowering anytime soon. So I guess the best bet is to graft or wait. Or you could try and alter the climate and feeding/watering regime, be very careful if doing those three things though, it could be disaterous.

If anybody else has any good suggestions on encouraging lophs to flower, please don't hesitate to post them here. i would love my own roots ones to flower, next season if possible.

Do you guys use gypsum in your mix? If not give it a try as this seems to promote flowering.

cactusjack wrote:

Do you guys use gypsum in your mix? If not give it a try as this seems to promote flowering.

No, I actually add a bit of crushed Gyprock when making up a Mexican cacti potting media It should work just as well, so I hear. Might try some gypsum next time I make a mix up. How much is advisable?

I learnt the Gyprock trick from Ramon & Rev. Arios seem to love it.

Plenty! I dont think it will harm your plants, infact a large plant i top dressed with gypsum instead of scoria as the scoria was marking the plant. Get a handfull and put decent amount around the outside of your plant on top of your mix and water in. Or add it to your mix when repotting.

Also plenty of sun and heat will bring flowers, all my lophies are constantly flowering this time of year.

THis is all advise for own roots plants. Do the plants in question have wool in the centre? If so there is a good chance that the plants will flower this season.

cactusjack wrote:

Do the plants in question have wool in the centre?

Not yet. I was sure my largest own roots one was forming some wool this season, but now I am not so sure. Maybe next season it/they will mature to flowering stage.

The second grafted one in the pics above had no wool at the beginning of the season and now is very wooly. Grafting is great, but there is nothing like own roots lophs flowering.

Again,
nice looking plants, trig - got to be happy with flowers and fruit too.

calycium wrote:

Again,
nice looking plants, trig - got to be happy with flowers and fruit too.

Cheers mate, I would be happier if the ants left the fruit alone though haha

I really like the second graft trig. Lophos seem to do best when they get full sun for a least part of the day. I used shade cloth over some of mine and they didn't put out great growth.