PART FIVE: Customizing Your Cactus

Now that you’re practically an expert at raising succulents from seed, let’s talk about making the most out of what you raise. There is more to this than meets the eye. Rather than just acquiring any old seed and saying you raised a plant, why not be more specific? Through careful pollination you can preserve the characteristics of a certain population of plants.

For instance, if you obtain seeds for Lithops leslei C358 how can you be sure that you haven’t received some hybrid of Lithops leslei C358? If the person distributing the seeds allowed the seed to set by itself (open pollination) then you run the chance that a roving moth, fly or bee may have brought pollen from another Lithops. Why do you care? Random crossing rarely produces wonderful new patterns and colors, instead, what you get is a muddle of characteristics that seem dull in comparison to the original.

In our hobby I have noticed something that seems rare among other plant societies. There is a passion for retaining the characteristics of wild populations. When a new population of a cactus is found, even though it may differ by only a few minor characteristics, it comes into the hobby as is. It is not crossed with more robust or colorful forms to make it more ‘desirable.’ Though there are hybrid succulents to be found (Adenium and Echinopsis seem to be the most popular) these are not a major part of the hobby (certainly not like in Rose or Iris Societies).

So then, how can you be sure of what you’re getting? Many seed suppliers will let you know where the seed came from. But, more than likely, you may just have to put your trust in one and see what you get. If you are collecting your own seed from your collection there are ways to insure you’re getting what you want. The best way is to isolate your selected plants from others that may cross with it. This can be done by physically moving the plants to a distance that pollinators are not likely to travel (the other side of the greenhouse or patio is not far enough!). You could remove all the flowers from the plants likely to cross (probably not an option). An easier way may be to cover the flowers with cloth or paper bags to prevent pollination. Whatever you do, you will be responsible for pollinating the isolated flowers. Once the flower withers, the isolation can end.

It is a wise idea to mark the flowers that you have selectively pollinated. After several months of fruit maturation you may forget what you have done, especially if you have several plants that have been pollinated. Marking can be done in several ways. What I do is tie a small colored thread to the base of the fruit/flower and then mark down in a notebook what pollinator was used and the date. Sometimes the thread can be laid across the flower and it will ‘tie itself’ as the flower shrinks and withers (this is good with Cacti that have wooly crowns like Ariocarpus). If you always cross plants from the same population, your Lithops leslei C358 with other C358, then a string may be all that is necessary to show you which fruits have the ‘pure’ seeds.

Now let us consider that you may want to create new and wonderful varieties. You could have been inspired by all the wonderful Schick hybrids of Echinopsis or you just may want to raise the fattest Euphorbia obesa. Whatever the reason, the procedure is the same as above but the strategy is different: you want to protect your plant from being pollinated by itself or others like it.

Once again, isolation is the important part, with one added remark; if the plant you are pollinating can self-pollinate (use it’s own pollen to produce seeds) you need to isolate it from itself. This is done by removing the anthers from the flower you are pollinating and then preventing the flower from being accidentally crossed (bagging). The anthers will need to be removed before the pollen is produced – this usually means operating on the flower before it has opened. Don’t worry about hurting the petals. You may want to bring pollen to this flower over several days as you may not be sure when the stigma is ready. When the fruit begins to form and the stigma has withered, you can remove the bag. Since most succulents don’t self pollinate you won’t be confronted with this very often.

To create your new and wonderful varieties you must give some thought to what you are doing. If you want an orange flowering Echinopsis you might want to cross a red with a yellow. Be aware that the intricacies of genetics do not always produce a mixture of traits. Crossing a yellow flower with a red flower may produce an orange flower, but then again, if red is dominant, it may only produce red flowers. I guess you’ll find out.

You need to figure out what you want, then devise a plan on how to get it. An orange flowered Echinopsis may not be enough, you may also want it to produce large quantities of huge flowers that bloom in the daytime on small fast growing plants. Adding this many traits will take several generations and may require several different parents. This can easily get out of hand (as if you needed another reason for your collection to get out of hand). Each generation will need to be scrutinized for the traits you want to keep with the undesirables tossed out of the gene pool. Then you must decidewhether to bring in more genes and add another trait or you could strengthen an existing trait by back-crossing it with one of the parents. This could end up taking years. I guess that’s why not too many people do it.

But it isn’t always as time consuming. If you’re not trying to do too much, good results can be had in a relatively short period.

A robust, large flowered red Echinopsis crossed with a short yellow flowered Echinopsis will probably get you a medium sized orange flowered Echinopsis. And when you have that orange flowered Echinopsis you can give that special name like ‘Maynard’s Marvelous,’ or ‘Ed’s Extraordinary Echinopsis.’ After all, it’s your child.