This post was inspired by a recent poster who shared their lost collection, I shared a similar story about getting kicked out of my house and having to rescue my cacti from an abusive housemate.
Fortunately, a close friend let me rehome them behind his shed. 12 months no fertilizer, no water, down in Australia and they love strong. I will post the Cultivars down in thee comments, happy to say all my personal grafts survived and are now thriving.
by SeaOfSourMilk
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All the plants featured are proud Aussie genetics! Grafting became my passion project 3 years ago, started with me using my eldest cactus (rescue PC) that survived multiple moves, becoming an etiolated beast I deemed ‘el wonky’ repurposing it into a pump house of a graft stock (see pic 3).
Then I moved on to grafting Variegates, and exploring methods of isolating marbling and experimenting with various root stock. Here are a few of my favourite trichos.
1) ‘Kobra Kai’ grafted onto ‘Monarto Short Spine (MSS OP) OP’ root stock from misplant nursery. Favourite of mine, peppermint tricolour Whiora OP cross with origins during the Covid Lockdown
2) ‘CC Variegated Peru’ on MSS OP root stock
3) 2x ‘CC Peru Crest’ on PC (thick af arms from El Wonky). 3 years old The revert in the foreground is actually the base of the full crest in the background, turned one graft into 3. 3rd not pictured
4 SASS on Spachianus – South Australia Short Spine is by far one of the most incredible Australian varieties, you can barely see the graft chunk now, it’s hard to say how quickly it’s exploded, but it was the size of a tennis ball 🎾 6 months ago.. spachianus is hanging on for dear life with the top heavy load 😂
5) Dr Funkenstein on Spachianus, – Another Aussie classic, this is another great cultivar from the Covid Lockdown passion projects. I know I should have terminated the Spachianus pup, but we’re experimenting here! Let it ride! Despite the Spachianus partially degrafting the Dr. Funk, The Funk won and the Spachianus is sending out aerial roots as it begs to be chopped 😂
6) Lost tag coloured flower hybrid on Spachianus, possible Whiora cross. last couple are my most recent grafts done 1.5 years ago. Tbh i didn’t expect these to survive, completely forgot they existed. I’ve got photos with the tags in my email somewhere, just have to go through the catalogue at some point and maybe consult with the council.
7) Lost Tag, likely Dan x HNBD on PC/ Noid(Hello Nasty Big D!CK)
8 & 9) No ID coloured flower on PC – Lima flower genetics likely this was in the grass in wire basket, gonna have to revamp this one.
10) Bonus seedlings : I forgot these seedling were from the grafted plants, I’ve connected it the pic 7, and it is showing HNBD genetics. These troopers are the headless rootstock of the seedlings, they’ve doubled in size now.