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[intotheimpossible]

yea ill keep an eye on that one and see what it ends up doing.

1 Like happyconcacti likes this.

[happyconcacti]

I've done similar to New Wisdom's suggestion above to graft one scion at a time from the donor. So from a rooted and growing plant, I'll cut off the 2" tip and graft it, wait a week, cut off the next 2" and graft it, and so on. That way the scion only has a fresh cut on one end at a time.

I've been doing this method over the past couple weeks and it's been working incredibly well!

I've been using 1" cuts from the mother plant. I've been letting the mother plant completely scab over before taking another cut.

Overall, this approach is much slower than doing a whole arm of scions at once. It seems like cacti like everything to be slow  But it essentially guarantees the success of each scion.

Thanks again Solaritea for the idea,
Hcc

P.S.
Per recommendation of Kada

We now keep ours in about 50%+ humidity for about a week (depends on species) then slowly acclimate them to drier conditions over 2-3 weeks before putting them with the rest of the cacti outside (or in your greenhouse/grow room).

I've been keeping the grafts in 40-50% humidity, low light and temps in the 70F to 80F (21-27C). The grafts are healing very nicely with little to no shrinkage of the the tissue. Some are coming out with slight discoloration but aren't rotting.

[New Wisdom]

That's great to know that the method is working well.  It's kind of what I was suggesting, but I didn't even think of using a rooted plant as the scion donor.  Thanks solaritea! Also great to know that 40-50% humidity wont cause rot with trichocerei. I have always wondered about that, but I didn't want to try it out and loose one!! 

You're doing everyone a favor by testing this stuff HCC. Thanks so much!
New Wisdom

[intotheimpossible]

I brought all of my cacti into the garage today and the peruvianus graft is still holding on and that pup has grown. Honestly im surprised its still on but I guess we will see how it turns out in a few months.

1 Like happyconcacti likes this.

[happyconcacti]

I'm starting to think that "hard-grown" (meaning in sun, outdoors) scions work better for this than scions grown under flourescents. The skin of hard-grown scions seems to be thicker and more resistant to dehydration.

Any thoughts on why this may or may not be true?

Hcc

[marshmellow]

How long do they usually take to start growing, I grafter 3 chunks of a crested padro about a mounth and a half ago and thylook good. Just wwondering.

[happyconcacti]

Hmmmmm, good question. If only I took notes and recorded the dates. Well, I'll do my best at estimating times.

I think it has more to do with the quality of the stock more than anything. Good stock is fat, healthy, well-watered, and not woody. The best PC stock is about the top foot to foot and a half of a column. Below that, it gets pretty woody.

It also seems to depend on whether it's rooted stock or not. Un-rooted stock seems to focus on root formation before scion growth. Can they decide like that? Either way, once they start forming roots, the scions start growing. Rooted stock will show scion growth much faster, perhaps a week or so.

I've left un-rooted grafts in a cool, dark box for about 2 months before without any trouble. Once I popped them into some soil and put them under lights, they started rooting and a couple weeks later the scions started growing.

Pup scions seem to be the fastest. They show signs of growth consistently within a week to 2 weeks.

Tip scions usually start showing signs of growth in 2 weeks to a month.

Center cuts have taken anywhere from 3 weeks to 2 months. I'm guessing because they have a lot more "work" to do.

I've only grafted three crests and I don't remember how long that took. Probably close to a normal tip.


Happy Grafting,
Hcc

1 Like TBM likes this.

[marshmellow]

Cool mine are none crested parts of the cactus , so I'm waiting to see pups.
Thanks for the in info I'll take some pics of them.

[happyconcacti]

Hi All,

I no longer recommend using the "wet-top" method of grafting center cuts. I had a number of failures with the original cacti in the pictures. I dropped a tray of grafts and lost 3/7 of the grafts in the pictures. Of the remaining 4, the tip graft did fine and the other 3 "wet-top" scions shriveled up and died.

You can do it and you'll probably have some successes but you'll probably have a number of failed grafts as well.

As solaritea and New Wisdom recommended, taking scions from the mother plant at intervals that allows the top to dry seems to be the best method.

I'll have pictures and a write-up of the new method when time allows.

Hcc

3 Likes New Wisdom, Frog Pajamas and Greentoe like this.

[bezevo]

This is interesting how  about a long term up date ?

[Chicsa]

One question pops up to me now as i start grafting... It looks like you dont need to have the root stock rooted?

mine hasn't grown much lol