Mealy bugs ?

Something built a nest on some of my cacti. Not 100% sure what it is, but the usual suspect is mealy bugs. After googling around, it seems that isopropyl may be a good solution. Luckily I had a bottle of ESSO Fuel Condensate Remover (thanks, ESSO). I simply put the pipe from a spray can into the 100% proof isopropyl, and gave them a shower. Isopropyl, like most alcoholes, evaporates quickly. So far this seems to be a good treatment, repeating it once a day for a few days should do the trick.

Degraft massacre

For various reasons, beeing the Pereskiopsis stock loosing all its leaves, or to avoid the scions to pup too wildly, I decided to degraft some of them. They are approx. 6-7 months old now:



After laying on that dry soil for 3-4 weeks, they should be ready to get rooted & potted. The main head of the biggest one on the top-right, is measuring 4.2 cm..

Grafts revisited

Here is an update from previously posted grafts:

Eriosyce sandillon. I consider these quite successfull. Pereskiopsis grafts tends to make the scion produce pups, often too wild, but these can be removed before rooting.



Astrophytum myriostigma "onzuka": I decided to degraft these. They got a bit elongiated from the not so very intense light in my growbox, combined with wooly surface that prevent them from getting enough of that light. They will be better off on their own roots in ful sun, at least I hope so.




Astrophytum asterias "superkabuto". Not so sure about the look of these, wish some of the pups werent there. Still I think they got potential.



Finally, L. Williamsii "decipiens" from this post:


Compare dates, and you will have an idea how fast they grow..

Flowering degraft and potting

Allmost 4 weeks after beeing degrafted, this little fella decided to flower:


It also started to develop roots, which means potting-time. Here it is, together with a well rooted Decipiens:



Allthough beeing grafted to Pereskiopsis, they still has potential to get a natural look.

Diseased

A while ago one of my Lophphoras started getting some tiny dark spots, and getting a paler color:



As days passed, it got worse. It started to develop large cracks, I suspect was a fungal attack.. it looked scary, so I decided to decapitate and throw it away. A pity. I would like to get my hands on a good fungicide..

Caespitosa

Here are some L. Williamsii v. Caespitosa, started from seed in mid october 2006. This particular variant is known for growing into clusters, some of the pups have even started growing new pups. The only annoying thing is, that when grafting on pereskiopsis, the pups at the bottom encloses the scion's stem, which again will make degrafting a tedious and painful operation. At some point I will try to graft these on Myrtillocactus geometrizans

Premature pup flower

For some reason, this specimen decided to put its first flower on a tiny pup. Probably the grafting that makes it behave oddly ?