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[Ian Morris]

Growing from cutting…check.
Growing from seed…check.
Cultivating more difficult specimens…check.
Nourishing and loving seedlings into mature specimens…check.

I had earned my stripes and did what I needed to do with a  plant that is not only my birth flower but one I strongly identified with.  This isn’t to say the relationship wasn’t reciprocally rewarding but I was ready to try the next step and set my hand to grafting.  I have always been keen on this new challenge but for whatever reason the opportunity never presented itself.

One of the kind and gentle members here sent Lawrence Welk to my house and I knew the circumstances were changing.  I was so excited to have Lawrence Welk as a guest I couldn’t wait to let our relationship grow naturally, I wanted to skip right to the kind of relationship where I can call him up and we can spend the weekend together whenever the mood strikes us, real arm in arm kind of stuff I have with other less famous, tho equally fabulous celebrities.

I was given some grafting stock and established four aggressive pereskiopsis plants and two t. peruvianus. 

Lawrence Welk was sort of fickle and only answered four of my initial phone calls to come over and hang out but most importantly he was finally hanging out.  Since I had already selected six scions, two t. bridgesii seedlings were also selected.

I read a handful of grafting guides, again to make sure I was doing it right.
I cleaned off my work space.
Selected a new x-acto blade and went to work.
I prepared the tricocereus scions with a clean kitchen knife and cut the tops of the four pere.  After each cut I sterilized with an alcohol lamp and wiped off the carbon with a new spot on the paper towel.
Without much delay I cut the bridgesii seedlings and used chopsticks to place them on to the two peruvianus scions.  The gifts Lawrence Welk left me were each cut and fit perfectly atop the pere.  Again after each cut I sterilized with an alcohol lamp and wiped off the carbon with a new spot on the paper towel.
I put the entire collection into a plastic humidity chamber with a mason jar full of water and covered the side that would be exposed to light with a white towel.  During the wait I could clearly see high humidity.

I waited and waited, eager to see my celebrity friend again.  After a week, I opened the humidity box and the two bridgesii looked to be healing and grafting as expected. 
Lawrence Welk was no where to be seen.  I mean each pere. was healed but it had callused, the small LW top was gone. 

Any ideas of what went wrong?  I am zero for zero grafting LW and only two for six in grafting period.  Obviously if I really want famous friends, I have to get better at this one.
 I know some guides recommend putting tape over the grafted portion but the sticky ends of each and the fact that the pere and the LW were exactly the same size kinda gave me the impression that high humidity was enough…

[nobody]

The humidity box should be opened once a day to exchange the stale air, also a good time to check the graft progress. I have tried many methods but using a small amount of Vaseline to seal the junction between the stock and scion works well for me, normally I get a 95% + success rate. On average I graft around 200 LW a year(for the past 3 years). Grafting with Trichocereus is a little more forgiving than LW, I have no idea why though.

Also, LW grafts hate it when the temp drops below 75f, 80f seems to be the sweet spot.


nobody

1 Like Psylover likes this.

[New Wisdom]

What went wrong? It's your first time grafting.  I've done hundreds of grafts and now I get around 95% success, but at first it was more like 5% success.  It takes a while to get your own method down, but once you do it's a piece of cake.  Keep on trying. You'll have casualties, but it's all part of the learning process.

Did you look around the ground for the loph scion? It may have gotten knocked off.

1 Like Psylover likes this.

[Ian Morris]

Sounds reasonable.

Practice, learn and apply.  I was legit too busy to check on the grafts daily and exchange the air in the box.  The gravel I used in the Pere pots (it needed something to keep them from blowing over outside) looked blue and green.  Any number of those little rocks could have been shriveled LW. I poked around but nothing jumped out at me.

I am going to apply vaseline to the clothes pin tek Desert Dweller demoed in another thread, that way I can look at them without disturbing anything and the plastic holds the graft in place better.

Could extreme heat have been an issue?  The week never dropped below 100F as a high... didnt consider it until now being it wasn't exactly Texas hot here.

All great ideas, thanks guys.