A couldn't resist picking up a pachanoi at the garden store six weeks ago because it was showing signs of forming buds.

The first flower opened yesterday but it rained really hard and I couldn't collect any pollen. Thankfully, the second (and only other) flower opened up tonight and I was able to get some.

So I ended up grafting a few at the middle of June, but some failed a couple times and I have been retrying. The good news is that there are grafts at various stages to photograph at once.

You can see the starting seedlings are about the size of a sugar smack or a grain of rice and the grafts that took are getting to the size of a bouncy ball.

There is so much food in the soil and the pereskiopsis is so good at moving moisture that they literally cannot grow any faster and have put energy into throwing pups, too. They're just beginning, but the largest one is throwing two!

Potted-up the pereskiopsis rootstock this morning. When it shows some growth, I'll graft some of the seedlings above to these little leafy cactus dudes.

Soil mix has a lot of perlite, some vermiculite, home made worm castings, some kelp, plus a base of organic sea forest mix (fish, shellfish, some more kelp).

The idea is to have more kelp and plant-available calcium to help with roots and immunity.