a picture--picture this

what is that stuff they graft the little strawberry cactus to at walmart?

a cluster of peyote, 55 heads. they zoom out from a nexus buried deep within atop a stock of said material

having come a long way the stock has seen better times. some rigid core retains a semblance of life. the flesh, however, is flabby and thin. at the bottom, little shaven roots of xylem ring the dry, wilted, skinny graft stock.

recommendations are welcome.

would one perhaps suspend this dry and empty graft above a container of water, just barely dipping the bottom of the stock into the water and hoping for rejuvination?

if one were to graft such a piece to a pachanoi
ah, and this pachanoi, less than a meter tall, has suffered such severe etiolation that to imagine cutting it back at any length would produce various diameters with which to mate to the graft

to graft pachanoi directly to lophophorae would prove very diffcult, being so many heads twisting about one another in so many different ways. why, one could even imagine it would be best to cut back some of the heads to even so access the inner matrix, as I would imagine the various xylems of the numerous polyps to be arranged in so many different directions that to find a point where they would converge into a single nexus to be very difficult indeed.

otherwise, perhaps a stump of grafting material could provide a medulla with which to attach to the pachanoi, though the health of this grafting material seems dubitable.

from here I leave off to my fellow people here at the forum to ask me questions further or to even so prompt me to post pixxx

I saw your picture in chat, but i don't have the grafting experience to know the answer.

I think you should post the picture here, too

Good luck

The stock for the "moon cactus" is Hylocereus (dragon fruit).

You should post a pic of the grafted loph and the pachanoi you are thinking about using as stock, it would help a bunch.

perhaps the best course of action would be to graft the 55 heads to 55 stocks

time is of the essence. of the two specimens involved, the stock has decayed on the one and the other is fading fast.

of the first specimen, the graft was carved back and out into the base until it was proven that the original stock was dead even unto the point where it connected to the scion. this was done in a crude manner. some alcohol was used to sterilize, but ultimately the cut was a nasty butcher as deep into the core as possible, with stumps of corked hylocereus xylem protruding from the active site. The trichocereus was cut and although the two look pretty together with the one on top of the other, they are not properly mated.

during the course of this process, stray heads feel left and right from the scion. Most of them were just cute little buttons. they were set into the soil surrounding the trichocereus because they looked surprisingly intact and fitting there. nonetheless, how freely these heads fall from the cluster prompts one to consider simply picking the entire head apart and grafting all 55 buttons to 55 separate stocks. In the literature a few preferred stocks are recommended but since time is of the essence picrel is being considered for some of the smaller pieces.

All cactus are succulents, but not all succulents are cactus. The pic you posted is a crassula species (a non-cactus succulent), it won't work for grafting cactus. It looks similar to pereskiopsis, but it's different. You need another cactus to graft cactus onto.

You could graft every pup onto stock if you wanted. Rooting scions can be tricky IME, you need to do it on top of a dry surface or the chances of rot will greatly increase.

That--that died a lot.

When the specimens were received, they were not immediately taken care of. They were left for about a week, and the stock died. Although the attempt to graft the first was a fiasco, the second is still intact.

Everything started rotting fast. The rotting parts have been excised, but there is little hope for the forty five. The largest of the heads, about an inch in diameter, with pups a plenty, has been treated with alcohol and a second graft was attempted. Sulfur mist be obtained. Sulfur hasn't been used.

It seems that the second specimen should be treated likewise: the best head should be grafted, and the rest harvested.

Once a specimen is compromised very little can be done to bring it back. They're finicky like that for some reason. Best bet is to do the 55 grafts and learn through that process how they respond to the conditions you have them in to see what works best. It really is sink or swim for scions once degrafted and put into soil to root so be prepared to lose some but once they root they take off pretty quick. They like deep pots and to be bottom watered once rooted so they're main tap root pushes deep into the pot which is how to get the top bigger quicker. Otherwise if watered from top the roots stay at the top and get thin like hair. Gotta consider planting them and treating their tap root like a carrot. Best of luck!!

Hold on