G'day guys...

I've got a small pup of L. williamsii caesp. grafted onto Pereskiopsis. I grafted the pup about three weeks ago, and it seems to have taken. However, I've noticed it seems to have taken on a slightly different colour in recent days - namely, a brownish tint is visible in the folds of the skin. Now, I know lophs can do funny things with their colour when grafted, but this looks a little bit suss to me. The graft seems to be firmly attached and there doesn't appear to be any softness in the scion.

So what's the verdict? Normal growth or *gulp* orange rot?

i think it's fine from the pic.. i;ve got heaps that are a purple red colour, outside udner shadecloth, right next to them are bright green lophs...

Well that's a bit of a relief. I'm pretty new to this grafting business.

Hey Lachy,
I think it will be fine. Several of mine have done the same thing soon after grafting. Sometimes it does go on to become orange rot but it is usually gone in a couple of months . Sometimes they go quite yellow/ orange then grow out to a lush green. I have got excited once or twice thinking a verigate was developing. No such luck! My guess is it is something to do with infection in the graft union as plants often have patches of dead tissue in the graft union when you pull then off. Eventually new tissue grows through and around it and normal(if you can call it that on perry) growth starts.
Might be to do with graft incompatibility too.

Well, I've returned from work this weekend to see that the graft is powering along quite happily. At this stage, I would say that the graft is most likely a success.

looks good to me looks light related.

i would say about 95% of my pereskiopsis grafts go "sunburn colour". i *think* its light related, but it seems no matter what light level i use they still do this. i have talked to many others that see this as well, especially with pereskiopssi. anyway, yours does look healthy and not liek orange/rust rot

Well, it's definitely not rot. It's getting to be quite a chubby little loph now.

As it appears to be my first successful pup graft to peres, I've done a couple more to keep it company. I've had very poor results with seedlings, however these pups do seem a lot more resistant to rot and other such things that have plagued me in the past.

Just a quick update on this little bloke...



It seems that there was no rot, and instead the loph is powering along quite happily. It's now approaching 3cm and is cranking out pups of its own. My only dilemma now is figure out whether to allow it to grow as a caespitose form, or to start grafting the pups. There appears to be a small orange spot just under the skin, but since it doesn't appear to be growing in size I think I'll just keep an eye on it rather than doing anything too drastic.

A seedling loph that I grafted some time ago and spent about two months doing precisely nothing... now, in the last week or so has taken off and is growing so fast it has actually split. The cut seems to have healed quickly, so again I think I'll just leave this one alone and see what transpires.

Looking good lachy! yeah i have some that pupped as soon as they took and some that didnt , all from the same batch of seed. Wonder if it has something to do with how much of a connectin to stock was made. I dont really want to cut the pups off ,yet anyway but might have to in future.

Cheers for the advice... as far as I can tell, the little orange patch is simply a scar of some sort. I don't see any signs of it growing.

Given that the loph's skin is its only defence against rot, is there a safe way to remove pups for grafting without introducing pathogens to the plant?

Yeah it is safe to remove them just use a thin blade, make a small cut and keep them dry. winter is probably not the best time to do it.

Yeah, I thought that would be the case. At any rate, the pups are too small to remove right now. I think I'll wait a while before grafting them.