Grafting Cacti

Peatmoss

Carnivore
I've been messing around with micrografting cactus seedlings onto Hylocereus undatus, and some of the grafts are coming along pretty well now. Seems like some species do better on this stock than others. From left to right here are Rebutia violaciflora, Echinopsis sylvestrii, Ancistrocactus brevihamatus, and Astrophytum myriostigma. I got a whole pot of Hylo seedlings for 14 bucks at Canadian tire, which had over 140 plants in it, so I picked the best looking ones to graft on and I've been pleasantly surprised by how fast the growth is, seedlings on graft are growing about 5x faster than those on their own roots.

13233
 
Sure - here are some resources I found helpful:

This is something like the technique I use:
(I think Pereskiopsis would probably be the ideal stock for what I'm doing here, but Hylocereus are far easier to get, and I like that they don't have leaves, it makes for a nicer looking plant)
This list is great for getting the ins and outs of how different stocks behave: http://www.kadasgardens.com/Cgraftingstocks.html

I've had fairly good success rates with getting grafts to take, the biggest factors I've noticed that seem to affect success are:
1. Removing plastic wrap too early will result in a bad joint between the graft and the scion, often the scion will still live and grow, they just don't seem to work quite as well, this could also just be due to me not nailing the alignment between the vascular bundles.
2. I seem to have better success grafting scions that have already started producing spines (so that don't just have the seed leaves, so it's probably best to give the seedlings more of a head start than you think they need.
3. Sanitizing equipment seems to be important, I use alcohol wipes on the blade I cut with (usually a scalpel), and I make sure to let the blade dry off before I cut so I'm not getting alcohol on the exposed tissue. Any method should work fine, but I think it's important to try and both clean off pathogens (fungi, bacteria, ect), as well as debris, as either could compromise graft success.

Otherwise the genera that seem to be performing worse on Hylocereus for me are Frailea and Neoporteria, everything else seems to be growing at a decent clip, but things may change once the summer growing season kicks off. The grafts pictured above were done in late September, so that's fairly impressive growth through the winter season (temps are fairly cool where I have them, so I'm happy the very tropical Hylos are still able to grow well). I'll be curious to see if they speed up over the summer. Long term I'm hoping to use this on really slow genera like Ariocarpus, and stuff that I won't be able to grow on their own roots like Blossfeldia and Aztekium, but I thought it best to practice with cheap and plentiful species for now.
 
This would be great for TC cacti. Got to get some Hylocereus undatus. I guess I can just buy a fruit and plant some seeds and have a snack too!

Seeds should work great, if you don't go that route I can certainly send some cuttings your way, I'd be curious to hear how this works for TC cacti!

Wow! I would love updates on how fast they grow!

I'll make sure to try and keep this thread updated as they grow out, I'm hoping for some flowering sized plants by the end of 2021!
 
Looks fun to do !

I've read that Hylocereus do not live much more than 2 years after being cut in small pieces. Do you know anything about that ?
Do you have to take the head off periodically and graft them back on another plant ? or are they shooting roots ?

Thank you.
 
Pereskiopsis spathulata.
Very nice, hopefully they do well for you!

Looks fun to do !

I've read that Hylocereus do not live much more than 2 years after being cut in small pieces. Do you know anything about that ?
Do you have to take the head off periodically and graft them back on another plant ? or are they shooting roots ?

Thank you.

I would imagine I'd need to change the stock periodically for grafts on Hylocereus, I know some stocks are longer lasting (Trichocereus is one that comes to mind), so if I prefer having something on graft (like a slow growing or rot prone species) I'll probably re-graft the scion onto those, otherwise I'm just planning on degrafting and rooting the scions to grow on their own once they get to a decent size, which should happen before the Hylocereus they're on die off.
 
The leaf that fell off has rooted quite well. Now I'll have to see if it grows a stem.
Evidently the leaves root but never grow! Weird. I applied some Keiki paste with BAP to see if it will grow a stem.
 
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