I'm a big Astro fan - so I REALLY wanted these guys to do well.
They have been rather easy to grow so far - far easier than asterias - which I seem to kill 4-5 of every winter.
Well, spring came and it warmed up. Last to go out was the caput-m's - I DEFINITELY didn't want them exposed to cold & wet that IS April / MAy around here.
Anyway. I put them out in mid may - they were growing well - when we had a HUGE wet / cold spell. Low 40's at night - rained every day - High's in the 60's. I brought them back in several times...but ONE FRIGGIN' NIGHT I was not home and it got REAL cold and REAL wet. It then started warming - but the damage was done. When I checked them 2 days later, the bases had rotted and I was left with 3 little "fingers".
I was depressed - since they would never root - and I kill everything I attempt grafting. But, what the heck, I may as well try as they were "already dead".
I did the first the day I found the rotten bases. I used a sterilized dremel to drill into the meristem of some Pereskiopsis. I did my best to "strip" the Astro. It was hard as they are only about 1mm wide. But, I tried to make an "inverse cone" on the bottom. I stuck it in the hole, stuck it in my humidity chamber and hoped.
Being depressed - and knowing they were dead, I didn't bother with the other one - as it was already dessicated to some degree - It had never really filled back out much from it's winter dryness.
About 3-4 days later, I said, what the heck, and tried to graft that one also. It was "2 fingers" - one longer than the other.
For these, I sliced down the center of the Pereskiopsis, made a wedge (as best I could) at the bottom of the Astro, and inserted it slightly diagonally into the wedge - figuring that the meristem HAD to touch somewhere.
Well, the first was done on May 25, the second on the 29th.
The smallest "finger" dried up within a week and fell off.
To my suprise and delight, the other 2 actually seemed to take. At least they are still alive - and we have been having temps in the high 90's all week....so I can't imagine they are not getting juice from the stock as just walking outside this week was enough to cause total dessication.
Anyway, here's my photos - my 2nd and 3rd successful grafts (knock on wood) of all time (out of about 200 tries - really!!) And, they worked when it mattered most!! Yeah.
Here's some crappy photos as I can't really do macro with my Olympus.
That is the first graft - it is about 1 inch long - and VERY corpulent.
That is the second one. It is still a bit thin...but has definitely filled out.
So, not only do they NOT die....but I might even get blooms by next year now!!!
