Commercial Peyote production technique?

[thesleeperawakens]

So, here is what happened.  And why it may be Commercially applicable.

Last Winter, I placed my whole cacti collection in the dark.  Or so I thought.
A light source was always left on by negligent people I lived with.
So, I draped the only blanket I had over their location.  A blue blanket.

The light pollution continued, and what happened shocked and scared me.
Very fast white growth began in all the peyote.  Which grew  in a gradually thinner (pointy/conical) columnar fashion!

So, you know in the spring, when they grow quickly, and the new growth appears white.
This happened at an alarming rate.  Under very low blue light.  
I may have watered them thrice that winter.

When I returned and found them this way I was upset.
I thought they were dying . . .I took no photos at the time . . .
I still have the mutant specimens, and all recovered their colour.  
Grafted, Rooting Grafts, and standard buttons all showed this growth.
They did not seem sick at all.  Only bleached.

I have not reproduced these conditions this season; however,
I have since purchased a blue spectrum LED light,
and noticed excellent growth rates during winter months.

Others should note these findings and try to reproduce them!

on the occult side . . . I dreamed of a six-foot peyote,
resembling my finest graft, in a twighlit greenhouse.

Lesson: they want BLUE LIGHT.

[Anonymous]

Awesome!!!

[Kada]

that is called etiolation, and is caused by too little little light.  this is generally considered a bad thing.

lophs that are getting enough light will often be a lighter green and will grow flatter than taller (usually).  water also plays a huge role in this as well...many diffusa tend to grow tall even under full sun when watered a lot.  lophophora with good light should grow out and up about the same...if your getting towers, they need more light.

one may think this is good, but it creates weaker plants that die easier.

blue light is good, but there is no doubt that they need red light as well.  i'll try and get a pic of a paper strip i did showing the different pigments (acetone)

peace

[thesleeperawakens]

Excellent Post Kada

Thank you for teaching me etiolation.

Why do they do this?  suppose it happens when they get covered in sand?

As for being bad for the plant . . . none of mine died . . . but surgery revealed a thin spine.
That could account for the potential weaknesses.  
It would also mean that using for grafts would be bad, and rooting would be harder.

But could it still be used to increase mature production rates

spans of etiolation for part of the winter say?

[Kada]

they stretch for light.  much like a morning glory grows up and up with few leaves until it reaches the "canopy" where it will spread and send out dense foliage under the full light....obviously cacti are much less obvious, but similar idea.

you can grow peyote really fast without making them stretch.  They are C4 plants so if you keep their temps lower and the light not too intense they wont close their stoma, or as many, and you can grow them in slightly moist conditions with 24 hour light.

you will get 5cm plants in 2 years...which is amazing!  but these plants are worthless and weak as hell as they are bloated and susceptible to bugs, disease and basically the wind.  whether they are as potent or not, that would certainly make for a good experiment as it would certainly help make peyote commercially sustainable, but as far as collecting or keeping the plant long term, its a really shitty way of growing them!  the feeling of loosing a 13cm plant because its so weak and grew so fast, hurts a bit  :cry:

[thesleeperawakens]

I love it . . . it sounds like you really know your stuff.

right now my grafts are growing like that . . . cool-warm temps, soft LED light.  

I find that lopho grafts have robust spines . . . due to the columnar scion thickening the thin lopho spine.

I also really mess with their lighting schedule . . . stress them good.

The others are in darkness.