That's great news!

Will this include grafting onto Trichocereus areoles? That's something that would interest me greatly.

With any luck I should be securing some Pereskiopsis before too long anyhow.

Here we go... some grafts to areoles.

A brief description. Cuts were made first downwards in a vertical direction just past the areole. Next cut was made horizontally just under the areole. You should hopefully be able to make out the growth ring in the pictures. If not, it will be a while before I can make an update.

I also made a short video, but not sure how to upload it and not sure of the quality yet to be honest as I haven't even watched it myself yet to be honest.

Thank you Wakinyan.
I think I was doing it incorrectly. So am I supposed to see the ring, but here vertically, in contrast to grafting onto the top, where the ring is horizontal? If so, I was likely cutting the areole in wrong way, too much. I think I just cut the vertical vascular bundles and was grafting there. I was just asking myself, why is it supposed to be done at the areole, when such cut could be done anywhere on the stem. Now it makes more sense

You are 100% right Pete666. You could indeed take two cacti for instance and cut them straight down the middle vertically and then bring them together and graft that way if that was your desire. I've done that and I believe I've posted pictures of that with small seedlings in this very thread. Size really doesn't matter though other than if you do it with small seedlings the scar line will be invisible as the seedlings age.

Ok I have 2 trays with those "areole" grafts, I will leave them for two weeks, maybe some will take. Those refused will be regrafted as you described.
Currently I have another rootstocks with off shoots almost ready for grafting, so I will continue with this technique atm

Wakinyan & pete666, I must say I am very impressed by your work. Good job and thanks for sharing.

Today I decided to give the parafilm-method a try and grafted 2 KimGiaxSS02 and 2 SS02xKimGia onto pereskiopsis. The seedlings are 4 months old.

I was surprised by how smoothly this all went for a first time. The scion doesn't move and stays firmly attached by stretching the parafilm a little just before wrapping it around the stock.

I do have a question though: when pulling down on the parafilm, the scion has the tendency to center itself onto the stock, making it difficult to maintain the off-set position. I'm afraid this might result in a non-union. Since your succes-rate with this technique is so high, could it mean that even when the scion is more or less centered, the vascular bundles will still find eachother? Perhaps by the pressure that is applied by the technique, or the fact that the joint-region is sealed?

Or am I merely dreaming and will my grafts still fail when not properly attached off-center?

Thanks for the advice!

An1cca, thanks for your kind words. This sacred medicine definitely deserves sharing.

I am just a grafting beginer, so my word is not as important as Wakinyans, but he is away over month without contact here, so I will react to this. I am almost sure the rings have to cross somehow. They can touch each other even when centered, but the probability is lower, therefore I believe the common rule calls for off-setting. I have quite a lot of experience with 2-5 weeks old seedlings and quite wide peres stem and only few with grafting older seedlings, but if I had to graft older/bigger seedlings, I would rather use wedge grafting. I have tried it with about 2cm seedlings covered by parafilm and it works very nice.

But if I can suggest you, 4-5 week old seedlings are perfect for grafting and correct positioning is very easy for them. The take-rate is very high if it is done properly, Wakinyan was right anyone can do that.

Thanks a lot pete666, then I will look into wedge grafting for the next batch.

This afternoon I cut a small triangle out of a SS02xKimGia graft on peres, now only 11cm tall and there already was a definite bitter taste. For comparison, multiple grafts of 20cm of LumbxPsych taste just like cucumbers.

Before march, I'll do some DCMQ on these little friends, to see if bitterness correlates with potency...

Perfect
I have tasted some degrafted scions from stocks with multiple grafts but the taste was bitterless. They were just 2-3cm tall though, so maybe it is too early for alkaloid production.
I am targetting just mescaline, so I believe the taste should guide me. If you are interested, you are more than welcome to share your endeavours in this thread. I am aware you were inactive for long time, but I know you from your posts. And I guess I owe you for the nitrazine usage, am I right?

That might be true for Trichocerei, at least that's what we all hope. Although when I tested the full-alkaloid extractions of T. pachanoi, peruvianus and bridgesii, the mescaline concentration of dry alcoholic extract was somewhere between 65 and 85%. Stupidly enough, I never actually tasted the leftover goo after recrystallization to determine whether or not it contained any bitter substances as well. Something on my list...

For Lophophora, I think the screening method based on bitterness will not be valid. It seems many more alkaloids are present that might have a bitter taste as well. That's why I'll be forced to do biopsies of my small collection (65 individuals, 10+ years of age) of LW and do a DCMQ (about half an hour of work for every specimen) to establish the hall of fame .




You're welcome, I'm glad it helps. And yes, the title of that thread sounds like our common goal

I'm only here to profess my love for Wakinyan and his sharing of this masterful technique-- wherever he is, he is deeply appreciated.

Trichocereus terscheckii x T. scopulicola...the saga continues. More seed grown in full sunlight. I fill the container here with miracle grow soil with my seeds sprinkled on top and tamped down. I then place that container inside of another container which stays filled with water. My aim, to keep those girls wet and in full sun so I can get some fat thick growth or so I hope.

This is quite amazing Wakinyan, thank you for sharing your methods and results. I'm planning on doing something similar soon..

I'm new to doing botanical lab work though. Could you (or someone here) recommend a TEK or a good non-psychedelic-focused primer on how one approaches this work from ground up?

eg. I'm not sure how I should get from seeds to graftable seedlings - what kind of soil to use, how to water or mist, what kind of lighting -, how to maintain optimal conditions for the peres, etc.