This KK339 Blue Clone is a fast growing cactus and one of the fastest in my garden. But first, what exactly does “KK339” mean, and what is it’s relevance when identifying a particular type of cactus? To put it simply, KK339 refers to the Chan Chan area in Ecuador. It means the seed that this…
Category: Cactus
Grafting Cacti Part 4
Grafting Cacti to Rapidly increase your Collection There are lots of reasons for Grafting Cacti. This article is about how to use grafting to quickly increase the quantity of a particular cactus or clone. I’m going to use Trichocereus Bridgesii clone, “True Blue” as the subject/scion. It’s one of my favourites! It has a nice…
Grafting Cacti to isolate variegation Part 3
The grafts in this post were actually performed before the grafts in the previous article, part 2 the Wedge Graft. However I wrote them in this order because I thought part 2 followed part 1 from a continuity perspective. In this post I initially used 2 areole grafts and 2 slab grafts making sure I…
Grafting Cacti to isolate variegation Part 1
From time to time you might notice some variegation has appeared on the new growth of your cactus. In this instance my Trichocereus KK339 Pachanoi clone threw out a new pup with some variegation along one of the ribs. Therefore, if you wish to isolate the variegation and produce a pup, with even more variegation,…
Micranthocereus Purpureus – Variation or Mislabelling?
About 12 months ago there were Micranthocereus Purpureus seedlings available in some nurseries. It’s quite an attractive cactus with its yellow spines against the blue. Here’s one I purchased last year. The problem is it looks a lot like a Pilosocereus Azureus. However, I was curious and over time I purchased a couple of other…
Haageocereus Pseudomelanostele – Seed Grown
I came across this seed grown Haageocereus Pseudomelanostele at a well known specialist cactus nursery in Melbourne’s South East. It makes for an interesting story about purchasing seed grown cacti. So I thought it was worth writing about. But then where the story was nearly told . . . . . an interesting twist! So…
Grafting Cacti Part 3
Grafting Cactus Seedlings Pereskiopsis is often used as a rootstock for grafting cactus seedlings. It is a commonly used method, but this article is not about that (there’s lots of videos on YouTube) . It’s about an alternative method which I came up with after writing the previous article about grafting cacti. If you haven’t…
Buying Seed Grown Cacti
Whether you’re new to growing Cacti or been at it for a while there are many factors to consider when making a choice on your next purchase. Many of which are quite obvious. However, there are a couple of considerations I’ve discovered over time that I now use. So read on because hopefully I can…
Pilosocereus Azureus – Blue Torch Cactus
Pilosocereus Azureus aka the Blue Torch Cactus is one of my favourites. They are fairly hardy in Melbourne’s climate and are quite an attractive, Blue Cactus. They’re also readily available in retail nurseries that carry cactus around Australia (and probably elsewhere worldwide) and usually seed grown, so you will find some variation in appearance, hardiness…