had to share it tee hee, grew it from seed , in 2008, first ever graft to pereskiopsis i did , then first ever graft to thicker pach stock and now i have flowers ....how rewarding..its been through alot, mites, sunburn, mice attack, lol ...but has out grown the scarring to pup a nice unscarred pup and now flower...now for some seed, i have another about to flower on peres so hopefully i will do a cross

Congrats mate! she's a beauty!! Amazing what you can accomplish in a few short years. Thanks for sharing

-A

Looks great. I have just one question. If you grew it from seed, why did you need to graft it? Couldn't it just grow itself?

lol , im impatient as hell...but now i have in my collection some specimens of girth i am now doing just that ....

That's a nice, healthy looking graft. Is it a williamsii or is it something else?

Grafting tends to speed up growth Emma, it's very common, just up to the grower.
I don't think I'm ever going to try it myself, but it does get good results.

Oh and pretty flower They're so sweet

yes lachy it was L.williamsii seed from vlado viglasky,it has an interesting rib formation, probably due to being grafted on peres, the pup has a more star shaped appearance. The black stuff you may have spotted is bitumen paint or pruning paint , i used it to seal up the side of the scion where mites decided to do a bit of excavation work

So does grafting and growing the seeds also make it into a new type of cactus?

No. Grafting is done to speed up the growth of slow-growing plants, particularly slow growing species from Mexico. This also encourages the plant to flower earlier and to therefore produce seed that can be sown. Another benefit is that grafting often makes plants that are difficult to grow much tougher and less inclined to rot.

To grow a hybrid cactus pollen from one species of cactus will be donated to the flower of another species. This is a hobby in itself, and many people who grow Astrophytums have created all sorts of interesting variants this way.

Congrats!!!!! Looking great man! I have yet to see a bud!!! nice healthy stock too !!

Many many years ago, in another place and another time , I bought a small (about 1.5cm diametre) williamsii ownroot and got it to flowering size in 3yrs (about 4cm diamtre). Sulked for nearly two years and then bulged and flowered and then started pupping. Never been a fan of grafting to speed up growth and I never found williamsii needed it... isn't that much slower than a lot of tradiionally ungrafted cacti. Wouldn't mind another williamsii now I'm more settled down here in Tas too... hmmmm... time to seek out some seed I think, awesome flowers

Darren, I said I will compete, but I never stood a chance, also, I did very hasty grafts, one of 3 lopho seedling took. Also, it doesn't help at all we have completely inverse seasons. I guess the grafting comp is more for ozzies

But regardless of the competition, you will be seeing many graft photos of mine in the near future. None of my lophos are really big, but I have also some other grafts