Creating variegation......

Hey,

As you all know cactus blah, blah, blah, anyway in my readings I have run across refferences to use of bleach on seedlings to induce variegation. I have not tried this on any plant but have read it several places. Has anyone heard of this or tried it on Neps? I am curious as to whether it would result in variegated plants. It might also kill them. From what I read, the dillution is 1tspn per glln of distilled water. It is then misted onto 1/2" and smaller seedlings. I only read of this done with cactus. Might it work for Neps?

Joe

I'd think it would result in death. The bleach might induce temporary variation, but nothing lasting. Variation is the result of a tempory mutation due to something affecting the plants growth. True variation is deep in the plants genes I believe. Tony can help out more here, its his area of expertise.

Varigation is usualy caused by whats known as a chemera,wich is esentialy two plants DNA put together into one. One of those being normal and one being pigment free.