On another forum where I had posted photos of my seedlings--two of my seedlings are albinos and I have nothing to try a micro-graft with.....another member posed a question that I thought might be a viable solution. She suggested that maybe the albino seedling could be grafted onto another more vigorously growing green seedling side to side, much like Siamese twins, and keep both root systems. I have seen photos of conjoined seedlings that look exactly like this.....could this be possible to do? I think I might try it, only because I have no other option at this point and I know both of my albino seedlings will eventually die anyway.....and I certainly have lots of other healthy seedlings to work with. Any thoughts from anybody on this?

Mike in MN

Several ways come to mind.

Use a tiny but long rubber band, maybe cut a wider one to a thinner width, cutting the band so it's like a piece of string?

Another thought, to use super glue. Wear thin plastic gloves!!

One thing for sure, you will be amazed at how your normal hands change into all giant thumbed hands that shake uncontrollably!

Oh, with a brand new blade in your Exacto knife, shave just a bit of each seedling. Put the cuts together.

I saw the discussion on the Yahoo group. Welcome here, too!

I did exactly as you said--shaved a bit from the facing sides of each and put them together....except instead of rubber bands I used strips of plastic from a plastic shopping bag--you know, when they ask you at the checkout, "Do you want paper or plastic?". Then I placed each in a zip-lock baggy. I didn't want to mess with Super Glue for something so tiny. As for shaky hands.....I've learned to brace my elbows against something, like the table top, or whatever......I do the same when I'm painting extreme detail with my airbrushes. Here's a photo of the "patients" in post-op before placing into baggies.....I used "Black Giant" arabicums to graft the albinos onto--one albino is also a "Black Giant", the other is a Thai soco S1/Golden Bell.

Looks great! (but I bet they're cussing at you!)

Very cool Idea. I hope this works! If it makes it that will be one interesting addy.

I already lost the first one, the "Black Giant" albino.....but it appears that the second one, the Thai soco albino, was successful--at least neither the albino nor the green "Black Giant" it's grafted onto hasn't rotted like the first pairing did.....yet, anyway. We'll just have to give it time and hope for the best.

Mike in MN

Any luck with this?