Pereskiopsis growing methods

[ausrpned]

Yep, it very possibly was taken from feral plants. I've seen them in Florida growing higher than houses. I've wondered if it's a breeding population. They DO flower when they get really tall, but if it's all the same clone, they're probably not breeding. It seems to be one of those things which is extremely under-studied and under-documented. Florida has so many wild/feral/invasive species, that I think Pereskiopsis just gets overlooked. It's not nearly as "sexy" as pythons, parrots, and Persian lime trees.

Mine flowered early this year.

From experience the plant should be trained so it is a minimum of 2 meters in length, be at least 2 seasons old.

Had one at approx. 5.5meters long and it flowered for a considerable length of time, some smaller plants also flowered.

Tried to set seed, no joy, tried some Austrocylindropuntia vestita pollen, again no joy.

I think I have two different clones, have done a graft of one to the other in the hope of successfully doing a cross pollination in the future.

Pere flowers 22119 sml.jpg (53.03 KiB) Viewed 4218 times

Successful Pere to Pere graft15419.jpg (67.88 KiB) Viewed 4218 times

Cheers

[Shane]

I got home from my trip and discovered my Perioskopis growth was much improved. It looks like the main issue was excessive light intensity. The jury's still out on whether increasing the humidity is helping

My pereskiopsis growth has been much improved over the last few months. I'm not sure what's made the difference. Excessive light was definitely NOT the cause of slow growth. If I had to guess, I'd say either low night temperatures or insufficient water

The last few months, they've been growing in morning full sun and afternoon shade. It's also been hot (100-110 air temp in the sun). I've been watering a lot too; I don't ever let the soil dry

[ausrpned]

One thing I should have mentioned, my plant is more than just likely, to be P. porteri.

Cold here now, frost already at 9pm last night, certainly slows the Pereskiopsis growth down.

Cheers

[Pereskiopsisdotcom]

One thing I should have mentioned, my plant is more than just likely, to be P. porteri.

Cold here now, frost already at 9pm last night, certainly slows the Pereskiopsis growth down.

Cheers

Where are you located that there is frost already this time of year? I did some experiments with Pereskiopsis here in Ontario Canada and did find that growth was severely stunted outdoors in the fall due to the cooling temperatures. However, contrary to popular belief potted plants have survived frost and temperatures below freezing for short periods of time.

[ausrpned]

I'm in Muckenburra, Western Australia, we're just moving into Spring, late frosts this year.

Haven't lost any pereskiopsis but those plants exposed, even under tree cover, never look happy over winter.

Probably -5degrees C, would be the worst case here from my experience.

Cheers

[Carbo]

Anyone growing peresk. hydroponically? I'm trying it out during winter, so far it's been about 2 weeks and they've grown roots and started growing new leaves as well.

[ausrpned]

I have seen others in the past but they, from memory, were using bottles/flasks.

Your method looks to be superior to the ones I recall.

Please keep us updated with your work, looks most interesting.

Cheers

[Pereskiopsisdotcom]

Hydroponics should work well. I always found it to be too much of a set-up for a plant that largely grows as a weed. I put cutting in cups of water and often forget about them for days, weeks, and sometimes even months. More often than not, they've grown roots and definitely lived. If I put them in a large tray of individual test tubes (40-50 in a group) and change the water weekly they grow roots and thicken up very well.

[wilsontucker]

Yea, i've thrown lots of pieces back into my tubs of water i set the other pots in, and they all grow roots and start growing in just the water, but like pereskiopsis said above, they grow like weeds so I'm not really going to put more effort into something that grows like crazy in any slop bucket of dirt you put it in.

[Carbo]

Hydroponic growing seems more convenient to me for growing indoors. There's no soil, no watering, all I have to do is add a bit of fertilizer and switch the light on and off. In theory they also should grow faster then soil and seedlings grafted on them should also grow faster. I have also many pereskiopsis cuttings growing in soil under artificial lights so we'll see how they compare after a while.
I have a theory tho that pereskipsis would grow at it's fastest possible speed if grown aeroponically, the abundance of oxygen in root zone would lead to even faster growth then hydro, as well as reducing risk of rot. This would be really useful for mass production and I'd like to try it for the sake of experimentation but it's a bit complicated and expensive at the moment for me.

[Pereskiopsisdotcom]

Hydroponic growing seems more convenient to me for growing indoors. There's no soil, no watering, all I have to do is add a bit of fertilizer and switch the light on and off. In theory they also should grow faster then soil and seedlings grafted on them should also grow faster. I have also many pereskiopsis cuttings growing in soil under artificial lights so we'll see how they compare after a while.
I have a theory tho that pereskipsis would grow at it's fastest possible speed if grown aeroponically, the abundance of oxygen in root zone would lead to even faster growth then hydro, as well as reducing risk of rot. This would be really useful for mass production and I'd like to try it for the sake of experimentation but it's a bit complicated and expensive at the moment for me.

How many are you looking to grow for the purposes of experimentation? What are you looking to find in your experiments? I'm also curious what your definition of mass production is. I ask because it's something I'm always interested in and testing with my own plants but I always run out of room (approx. 900 rooted healthy stocks) to run meaningful studies beyond the superficial.

[Carbo]

How many are you looking to grow for the purposes of experimentation? What are you looking to find in your experiments? I'm also curious what your definition of mass production is. I ask because it's something I'm always interested in and testing with my own plants but I always run out of room (approx. 900 rooted healthy stocks) to run meaningful studies beyond the superficial.

I'm not a mass producer by any means, just a hobbyist though I would like to make a living out of this someday. I have 32 pereskiopsis plants growing hydroponically and I've never grown them this way, trying it out for the 1st time.
Basically the goal is to find out if growing hydro peresk. is any better then growing them in soil. Mass production is I guess producing thousands of plants for large scale sales or producing agriculturally important cacti (prickly pear etc.) faster.

[ausrpned]

Hydroponic growing seems more convenient to me for growing indoors. There's no soil, no watering, all I have to do is add a bit of fertilizer and switch the light on and off. In theory they also should grow faster then soil and seedlings grafted on them should also grow faster. I have also many pereskiopsis cuttings growing in soil under artificial lights so we'll see how they compare after a while.
I have a theory tho that pereskiopsis would grow at it's fastest possible speed if grown aeroponically, the abundance of oxygen in root zone would lead to even faster growth then hydro, as well as reducing risk of rot. This would be really useful for mass production and I'd like to try it for the sake of experimentation but it's a bit complicated and expensive at the moment for me.

I'm not a mass producer by any means, just a hobbyist though I would like to make a living out of this someday. I have 32 pereskiopsis plants growing hydroponicaly and I've never grown them this way, trying it out for the 1st time.
Basically the goal is to find out if growing hydro peresk. is any better then growing them in soil. Mass production is I guess producing thousands of plants for large scale sales or producing agriculturally important cacti (prickly pear etc.) faster.

Carbo, thought of using an aquarium air supply to aerate the medium, preferably by recirculating it with an airlift pump?

Cheers

[Carbo]

Carbo, thought of using an aquarium air supply to aerate the medium, preferably by recirculating it with an airlift pump?

Cheers

I'm not sure what you mean? Something like nutrient film technique? An air pump is already bubbling the solution and so far it seems enough oxygen is dissolved, I don't see any root problems.

[ausrpned]

Hi.

I'm not sure what you mean? Something like nutrient film technique? An air pump is already bubbling the solution and so far it seems enough oxygen is dissolved, I don't see any root problems.

In the aquariums I've had in the past used a subsand filter to process fish wastes and oxygenate the water.

Main advantage is there is a positive water exchange between the lower levels of the tank and the top.

You could use the same concept, without the sand as you don't need to create a substrate for bacteria which process wastes.

Haven't looked but there should be sand filters with the bottom section and an attached airlift pump, available. They were readily available here previously though I always made my own with some small holed plastic sheet and fitting your own airlift tube.

If you're unable to find a store bought one to use as an example to adapt for your system, let me know and I'll make a sketch.

Cheers.