In Pursuit of Blocky Cacti, Breeding and Selection
I’ve been messing with plant breeding for a while now, mostly apples and daffodils. I’ve always had plans to breed trichocereus cactus when I can get enough to flowering size. This year, I’m going all in on collecting breeding stock and pushing it to flowering size as fast as I can.
I have had some ideas about what I want to work toward in breeding San Pedro. At first I thought I would do pure bridgesii and pure Pachanoi separately. Later I realized how genetically mixed up a lot of them already probably are and had the epiphany that I should chase morphology, regardless of species labels, which are often controvertial and dubious anyway.
Morphology: The form and structure of an organism or one of its parts
There is a huge range of possibility that could be realized in this group of cactus, when it comes to form and other characteristics. They are a very diverse group of species and variants. They also just tend to throw quite a bit of morphologic variety in seed batches. Since they all hybridize readily, there is great potential to find traits and encourage them toward some end. That end may not even be known yet. Some new and interesting trait might show up and we could pursue that in offspring and reinforce those over time. Thinking in this way, it would be possible even to create new phenotypes or something like a species or landrace. That is not necessarily my goal, it’s just interesting to think of it that way, because it shows the breadth of possibility and endless potential.
My interest in Bridgesii and any other really spiny trichocereus has waned steeply. to the point where I’m going to start purging much of what I’ve collected. If a cactus is not a type I really want to be growing, or breeding with someday, I’ll be thinking about getting rid of it completely. I’m not a collector type. I don’t need to drag around and babysit a bunch of plants just because they exist and I ran across them. I am somewhat interested still in Bridgesii that go thornless and actually have 3 of them already, SS02, Bald Bridge and Poots. But an actual, or nearly, thornless bridge, if it is even possible, is a project that might take longer than I have left on this earth. I’ll keep them and get some more if I can find them, but…
What I really want to do is breed cactus that are
LARGE
FAST GROWING
BLOCKY
SMALL SPINED TO SPINELESS
Important among those traits is blockiness. Blocky is what I call it anyway. By that I mean cactus with nearly flat sides and very little to no V groove. The choicest of these so far is a seedling I grew out called King Tubby, a cross between Mark Albert’s Scopulicola #9 “The Queen” and Juul’s Giant. The cross was made by Mark and our Mutual Friend Will Tomlinson, a great spreader of cactus genetics who has given me a shit ton of interesting seed over the past two years. King Tubby is extremely blocky, short spined, and so far 5 ribbed. It looks cool as hell. I can’t imagine he will not be a popular clone once I let him off his royal leash.
King Tubby showing heavy blockiness. while many trichs will go blocky over time, it is the cactus like this one, which are filled out and blocky even near the tip, that I am looking for. This trait could probably be selected to the point where they start to actually round out and the sides stand proud of what used to be the ridges. I don’t want that. I just want very flat sides. Just sayin’ though.
Imagine a scenario with cactus in the ground, producing cuttings and regularly, handling them and processing them. The above traits become very, very desirable then. Imagine cutting and handling a pile of Bridgesii, Perus or even spiny pachs, vs cactus where gloves are somewhat optional, and where the can be stacked like cordwood and barely even damage each other. I’m looking for the handling and processing friendly morphology that would fit into that scenario, because that is the future. They also look hella cool.
On this section of Juul’s Giant, the sides are still fairly indented. In that respect, King Tubby is more Juul’s than Juul’s. Although this degree of blockiness is still very acceptable, why not improve it to be flatter?
One of the fun parts for me of growing thousands of Cactus seedlings, is that I get to sort through them and select out stuff with certain traits. One thing I look for most is blockiness. I do a fly over of the flats looking straight down to find the cactus with only 5 to 6 ribs and minimal V grooves. Blockiness is not a very uncommon trait, but it is not a common trait either, especially in the more extreme cases. All of my favorite seedlings show a pretty high degree of blockiness.
I spotted King Tubby when he was only about an inch high. I could tell that cactus was special and kept track of it from that point on. I even took pictures when it was very young so I would have them for later reference. To give you some frame work regarding how uncommon what I’m looking for is, last year, I selected out probably 300 or so seedlings to grow on and observe, consisting of many different crosses. Out of those seedling cacti, I saved only 15, only 3 of those are fairly exciting. Those three are all blocky. This year, I probably pulled closer to 400 seedlings to grow out. I will feel lucky if there are any King Tubby level blockheads in there. There may very well be some cactus that are as blocky, but it becomes less and less likely that I find what I’m looking for when I add to the list of traits I want, such as small spines, vigor and other things we want in cacti.
King Tubby at two or three inches high. Its potential was spotted much younger than this. Blockiness is not even extreme at this age.
But that is where intentional breeding comes in. I know how to do this and it is simple. Start with good parents which have the traits you want and start crossing them together. If I cross Juul’s Giant with a peru or bridge or deeply ribbed pachanoi, those are all sending me in the wrong direction. I may get lucky and I could possibly take that offspring and then steer back toward what I actually want, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense. If I cross Juul’s with a blocky Scopulicola, or back cross King Tubby to Juul’s then I’m taking steps toward flats of seedlings that throw much higher percentages of what I’m after. As the generations pass, those flats of seedlings will be more and more toward type. We cross those together and with other stuff that comes into the mix with the desired traits generation after generation. That is the simple version of breeding in a nutshell.
I bred this improved red fleshed apple in one generation for one simple reason, good parentage. Having now accumulated experience in breeding plants, I have personally observed the difference selecting the right parents can make. It is an improvement on my predecessor Albert Etter’s work. He laid the foundation using a fairly primitive red fleshed apple and I basically took one of the best of those and crossed it to a very high quality heirloom. Bottom line, choose high quality parents with the traits you are aiming for. If both parents have the trait or lean in the right direction, your chances of getting what you want should improve each generation. Yes, it’s fucking delicious.
And it is really that simple. Sure, you can learn about dominant and recessive traits and which to use as the pollen vs the seed parent if that appeals to you. But it is not going to be necessary to be sophisticated about the thing. Simply bringing things with desirable traits together and then selecting toward desired forms and adding those to the breeding stable will get the job done. Backcrossing, which means basically inbreeding back to the same genetics, is a very common tool in plant breeding. Much of plant breeding is actually inbreeding over generations in an attempt to reinforce traits. I tend to avoid doing it a lot and instead try to find varied parents that have the traits I want and cross those. But back crossing is done a lot for a reason, it works.
My daffodil breeding project, like my apple breeding project, is totally unsophisticated, even more so. I never label crosses or keep track of parents. I decided I wanted a pink rimmed double, so I crossed doubles and pink rimmed daffs. I’ve only flowered two double daff seedlings. Both have the trait and both are worth growing as a garden flower. With cactus I feel pretty confident in saying that we don’t need to be sophisticated, but randomness will not often get you where you want to go if there is a goal involved. Simple observation and stacking the traits you want over multiple generations should do the trick.
I will try to get the Tubster to flowering size as soon as possible, because it is exactly the direction I want to head in when it comes to breeding. The most promising cactus I have collected otherwise, in terms of those traits is Bob’s Collosus. I also have my eye on blocky spineless scops and those blocky bitchin’ looking, small spined Ecuadorian Pachs that are out there. Juuls Giant will definitely stay in the mix for both it’s morphology and other traits. I have a few others that may be worth using in breeding, including a few seedlings. I want more though.
I’m looking for suggestions and cuttings of cacti that fit the following profile
5 TO 6 RIBS: A tendency to grow 4 ribs is great, 7 is tolerable if it is very blocky.
VERY BLOCKY: I mean almost flat sides. The real test is whether you can take a knife and slice off the entire side of the cactus in an 1/8 inch slab of green stuff, with one straight cut. But as long as the grooves are at least very shallow, and it has other desirable attributes, I would consider adding it to the breeding stable. I just picked up a cut of Yogi for instance. It does not have all the traits I want, but it has some and it leans in the right direction. Juul’s is also leaning heavily in the right direction, so it’s okay that it is not perfect. If there were a bunch of cacti which already had all the traits I want, I might not be trying to create more.
SMALL SPINES: I will consider cactus with slightly larger spines, like a slightly longer pachanoi spined cactus, but it would need to have some other really great attributes. The smaller the spines the better, all the way up to spineless.
Of course there are other attributes most of us commonly want in our cactus, but for the most part, I’m worrying about the morphology first. Once that is well established, it will be easier to drop in other traits and either avoid changing the morphology much in the wrong direction, or easily steer it back with further crossing.
A very blocky seedling I named Gordita. Note that the blockiness starts in the young part of the cactus just below the top. gordita threw small spines in spite of being it’s parentage of Scopulicola x (SS02 x Berkely Botanical Gardens pach). But what kind of spines will come out in it’s offspring with SS02 lurking in there? I really don’t know, but I’ll be finding out. But it really necessary to put SS02 in there to get what we want from a cactus? Having bumped my head on both Juul’s Giant and SS02, I’m inclined to think not. If you went to a market in peru and found stacks of cactus, I’m guessing they are by and large big fat, friendly pachanoi types.
Gordita next to a fairly blocky Scop x Juuls cross. Note that while the sides of the cactus on the left are flattened out lower down, near the tip they are still pretty groovy. Many cactus will flatten out, but I’m always looking for the ones that are blocked out near the tip. The cactus on the left is the kind of thing that is close enough to what I’m looking for that I might consider using it in breeding and certainly consider growing. It has five ribs, the spines are not very small, but not large by any stretch and it blocks out pretty good as it matures. But it’s not “there”. I can probably use better parents than it. Gordita is close. It is blocky, and has quite small spines, but it is 7 ribbed and not the most vigorous grower. It is a cactus worth naming and growing though.
Please shoot me suggestions for stuff to add to the breeding stable in the comments. If you can get me a cutting of whatever it is, let’s talk turkey. Get me the genetics and I’ll do the work. By the end of this season, preferably over the next month or two, I’d like to have a bunch more cuttings of stuff with the traits I want rooting, so that I can get them flowering as soon as possible and not stretch that acquisition process over too many years. Seeds are of interest too, but I don’t really see the kind of crosses that I would make myself. You can contact me through the links on this website.
What I won’t be making much or are spiny x not spiny hybrids. Even though they often turn out nice and small spined, I don’t want those spine genetics biting me in the ass by showing up in later generations. I might be tempted someday to throw blocky Bridges like SS02 and bald Bridge into some crosses, but if so, then sometime way down the road. I’m inclined to think that it won’t be necessary though.
I guess the last note is that numbers can really help in this game. It took me literally thousands of seedlings to find that one King Tubby. Numbers are a powerful tool here, but not as powerful as thoughtful genetic selection. Combine the two though and things are going to get very interesting a lot faster.
If you can help me get this project off the ground with suggestions or material, hit me up. Like all my projects, this is not about me, it’s about the cactus and the community that forms around it. Happy Growing :D