cactus seedllings on Pereskiopsis - UPDATED 07 Jan 2010

[Süleyman]

Hi friends
Some cactus seedlings grafted on Pereskiopsis.







more pics.

[DaveW]

I presume you graft them on to more permanent stocks later Süleyman, or simply root them down eventually?

Afraid I am a bit too cold for Pereskiopsis so have to use other stocks, but they don't grow quite so fast.

DaveW

[iann]

Those steady surgeon's hands are very useful

[Süleyman]

Thanks friends
DaveW : The other seedlings are growing in the propagator, later I will distribute them to friends.
The aim of grafting of those ones is to see their rapid growing and flowering I am not so patient as a cactus collector. The second aim is to complete some favourite genera in the collection. I will not regraft them. It is possible to shorten and re-root the Perskiopsis stocks.
This plant is a cactus but indeed it is not a cactus !..>:D< You can treat everything with them like ordinary house plants even weeds.
So, they will be invisible, probably a year later.
My wintering serre is a heated one, thus the cold weathers is not a problem.
Iann: Thanks, I am not a surgeon but surgical pathologist. Using a scalpel is very easy for me

[Succulentimon]

very cute Süleyman!

keep us updated


simon

[IanW]

Here are mine from November, the rightmost is Arrojadoa (Pierrebraunia) bahiensis this one took a while post graft to do anything because the growing point died, what you see is a whole new offset grown in around 2 weeks. The next one left at the back, the tallest is Micranthocereus hofackerianus, around 3 - 4 weeks grafted after being grown from seed about one month prior, in contrast the small spindly plants next to it in the pot to the left show Micranthocereus hofackerianus from seed, they grow thin like this as they establish their taproot, which of course the graft needn't do so has gone straight into full growth. To the left again, and at the front on M. geometrizans stock are both Cipocereus crassisesepalus. I'm not sure whether these are too thin and whether they're not too happy growing under lights like the other or if this is how they grow- they do grow relatively thin from seed for the same reasons above as M. hofackerianus. Finally the last Pereskiopsis graft is Astrophytum caput-medusae. I'm not sure the status of this one, the arms fell off of it that it had as a seedling, however the graft itself is still showing some growth so it's not a complete failure yet!

[img]http://www.xest-net.org/misc/ghouse/18- ... grafts.jpg[/img]

I did some more grafts just over a week ago now- 6 in total on Pereskiopsis and all seem to have taken so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I've perfected the technique at last and will do some more over the next two weeks as I'm on holiday from work!!

[Vic]

They look great Suleyman, fine plants and some real specialities(tu)

Looks like you've done exceptionally well too Ian, coming along a treat. I shall have to have another dabble at grafting next year, so far my few attempts have been failures!

[IanW]

I had a lot of failures at first with Pereskiopsis Vic, the easiest stock I've tried so far is definitely M. geometrizans, you don't seem to have to do anything more than shop it, chop the scion, and put them together- as long as you do it within about a minute or so, that seems to be good enough. Just elastic band it on, or build a stack next to it for something to lean onto it to apply a bit of pressure and it seems to fuse together in only around a couple of days.

Of course, it's a stock that's much slower to grow and build up than Pereskiopsis and doesn't seem to push plants along as quick as Pereskiopsis, so here's how I've (hopefully) perfected Pereskiopsis grafting. Where I went wrong with it was both patience and humidity, it's not as fast to fuse as M. geometrizans and seems to fail if it's not in a humid area, or extremely small scions will dry up before it fuses if humidity isn't right. On the same note, you can't have the plant pot itself watered else it pushes out so much sap it puts the scion off. If like me you're grafting awkward or very small seedlings (i.e. those spindly M. hofackerianus seedlings shown above!) then applying pressure just isn't an option either.

But anyway, a picture paints a thousand words, so here's 3 thousand words:

[img]http://www.xest-net.org/misc/ghouse/18- ... rafts2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.xest-net.org/misc/ghouse/18- ... rafts3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.xest-net.org/misc/ghouse/18- ... rafts4.jpg[/img]

As you can see, I got these nice tall pots with cloches that came with them (I got them from my garden centre, but you can get them online: bell cloches). I place them in drip trays and put just enough gravel in such that when the drip tray is filled with water the pot with the grafting stock in inside the green pots is above the water line so the soil doesn't get wet, but so that when the cloche is on top the water comes through the bottom of the pot to create perfect humidity. The lids have little vents on top so you can just open these up to adjust if need be. In the 3rd pic (top right in the 2nd pic) you can see what so far, seems to be a succesful side graft as well as the top graft- in this environment it was just a case of chopping the areole off and placing the scion against it.

Preparing your stock beforehand is important- having it in growth seems to matter but before grafting ensure the pot has been dry for a few days to avoid the sap issue.

I use wilkinson's razor blades to chop them (If like me you're too lazy to go to the shops, then Amazon sells packs of 10), scissors absolutely don't work they crush the plant, and an extremely sharp scalpel worked, but not quite as well as the razor blades I felt.

A week or two later and you should have fused scion and stock, you can remove the cloches and just treat them like you'd treat Pereskiopsis in general. I've not found that the point as which you chop the Pereskiopsis off matters, some people say you have to chop only an inch or two from the top, but in the above cases I chopped about 6 inches down because they were far too tall for the pots and they seem to have worked perfectly well- the 6 inch top parts have already rooted down and are ready to act as grafts themselves now!

I hope that helps, hopefully it'll at least prevent you from making the mistakes I did- like not enough humidity, being impatient and checking them too often rather than simply just leaving them be for 2 weeks and such and also finding the ideal containers to do the grafts in! I tried doing some in a normal propagator and just having pots of water in there but it just didn't seem to work- again, humidity too low, scions dried up. This time of year I have the pots in the drip trays on a heated propagator base too to help keep them warm, but in the summer this shouldn't be needed, and in fact I'd imagine they need some shade- this time of year there's not enough sunlight for them being sat near my window to be a problem

[Botanist]

Here a look how fast seedlings can grow on Peireskiopsis.

[img]http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/6814/20080824013.jpg[/img]
24 08 2008

[img]http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/9159/20091009018.jpg[/img]
09 10 2009

[Süleyman]

thanks to all for nice comments

Botanist : great work, incredibly well growing of Uebelmannia, congrats.

Vic: This practice is not difficult. Only needings are great attention and Pereskiopsis )

IannW : Very nice works:) Use a clear plastic vessel with tight lid and a little water in it for humidity. It is very easy way for humid chamber. As to me, 7-8 days is enough for adhering the scion without drying.
The height of the Pereskiopsis stock is not important. Mines are only about 5 cm tall. Some have 2-4 leaves, some have no leaves !.. and the final result is excellent.. That Pereskiopsis is a cactus botanicaly, but it is not in practice. The pots can stay for days in the water and it does not any bad effect to them...

Simon : I will