Pereskiopsis on Opuntia subulata monstrose

masscactus · Post by **masscactus** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:20 pm

Fun - this is pretty ground-breaking stuff!

Understatement!

Irradiating plants to induce mutation? And here I am simply trying to grow them.

The "Radioactive Boy Scout" comes to mind.

Lewis_cacti · Post by **Lewis_cacti** » Sat Sep 13, 2008 7:00 am

Interesting stuff Stanislas.

i look forward to developments

stanislas · Post by **stanislas** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 5:24 pm

An update on the grafted Pereskiopsis:

Ken1983 · Post by **Ken1983** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 7:37 pm

What the. It might become a christmas tree just in time.

It is a really good way to get more stock plants. But will the harvested stock lose the monstrose effect when rooted? Otherwise the grower will probably go crazy cutting off the side branches.

TimN · Post by **TimN** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 8:31 pm

This thread (among other things) got me intersted in the book Teratopia which is all about cristate and variegated succulents.

Cristate, monstrose and chimera are all caused by a variety of different things and behave differntly depending on the species involved.

There is apparently a lot to this stuff.

Lewis_cacti · Post by **Lewis_cacti** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 6:44 am

Cool!

it mirrors the growth style of the subulata!

Arzberger · Post by **Arzberger** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 10:11 pm

I understand that this kind of Opuntia subulata is not a real monstrose form, altough it is infected by a Mycoplasma-like organism (MLO). This desease is transmitted to the scion by grafting. Such cacti are mass-cultivated as they are atractive for sale.
There is also a way to cure such infected cacti. You can put them for 10 minutes into hot water (55ºC), then leave them for some days at a shady place and repot. I don´t know if it works with all cacti, that was just for the O. subulata.

Best regards
Alex

Lewis_cacti · Post by **Lewis_cacti** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:03 am

^^ well thats a revelation.

Tony · Post by **Tony** » Sat Oct 11, 2008 12:23 am

Lewis_cacti wrote:^^ well thats a revelation.

Yes it is!

stanislas · Post by **stanislas** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 12:46 pm

Indeed an eye opener!
So I've infected my Pereskiopsis with a mycoplasma-like organism? So it will stay that way, even on its own roots? Very interesting... although a bit scary as well. How infectious is this mycoplasma-like disease? Here at work, we do our utmost efforts to keep mycoplasma infections out of our cell cultures. One or two of those weird cacti is fine, but having a Frankenstein collection is less appealing to me

More info about the spiroplasma that might be involved:
http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf ... arnr=568_9
http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/doi ... 183.000333

btw. It seems that treatment with tetracyclin will also help.

phil_SK · Post by **phil_SK** » Wed Oct 15, 2008 3:37 pm

I'd like to see if a cutting from the scion continues to grow this way.

Arzberger · Post by **Arzberger** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:45 am

Theorically, a cutting of the scion will stay infected until you cure it with the above described method. I´ve never tried that by myself. The informations I have are from the magazine "Kakteen und andere Sukkulenten" from Germany.
You may try it and post the results...

Best regards
Alex

stanislas · Post by **stanislas** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:16 am

Well, the scion is now on its own roots (or better said is in the process of growing them). I'll keep you all informed!

Yet another thing has been looming over my mind since a week now: how infectious is this MLO? It has been standing between its normal Pereskiopsis sibling. Even more, the knife I used to remove unwanted side-branches is being used one many of them, including the 'experiment' subject... I do not want to end up with a curiosity cabinet of cacti

blossfeldia · Post by **blossfeldia** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 2:09 pm

stanislas wrote:.... How infectious is this mycoplasma-like disease? ....

If O. subulata monstrose is caused by MLO, I would say it is not very infectious. At least not very infectious to Opuntia compressa.

In 2005, I grafted some seedlings of Opuntia compressa on other opuntia pads to accelerate the growth. At that time, I wondered if O. subulata monstrose could help me to induce more bud on scion or not. Therefore, I did a very simple experiment as the following:

Part C is an opuntia pad. On top of it, I grafted a 1cm slice of O.subulata monstrose, and a thin slice of Opuntis compressa seedling. Both of the scions and grafting stock fused up readily and new growth produced in the top.

blossfeldia · Post by **blossfeldia** » Tue Oct 21, 2008 2:17 pm

later on, Opuntia compressa did grow like a O. subulata monstrose, offset freely:

Simple control experiment, O. compressa grafted on opuntia pad only: