Since I bought my first cactus in 1957 (!!) I have acquired some grafted plants on the way - most commonly in my youth those red, and rather short-lived Gymnocalyciums, invariably grafted onto tender Hylocereus stocks.
All the many and varied plants I have grown from seed have been raised on their own roots, I have not really been an admirer of grafting plants simply to make them become larger faster.
However, having said that I have acquired some rare specimens that are grafted, as they are deemed to be so difficult to cultivate on their own roots. And some of these will soon need to be regrafted onto taller, more vigorous stock.
So I decided to have a go at my first ever graft, to see if I can make the method work, using test materials that cost virtually nothing.
I had a good read through various people´s guides to grafting, in the first instance. All authors agreed on the importance of good cleanliness and hygiene, the use of very sharp cutting tools, and ensuring that the vascular cambiae of both stock and scion make good contact.
However there were large differences in recommended methods of keeping the joint held securely together, the lighting, humidity and temperature to which the grafted plant should be subjected, whether the grafted plant should be watered or not, and how long the fixings (if used) should remain in place. That is, when these particular important aspects of care were addressed at all.

So, the scion is a Astrophytum asterias, one of several I sowed about a year ago from seed that I traded. The stock is an anonymous small ribbed cactus that I bought in a garden centre for a massive 70 cents, both stock and scion were in active growth at the time of cutting, 3 days ago. I followed instructions, sliced the two plants and carefully joined the scion to the stock, securing the join with a couple of rubber bands.



I left it in the dark the first night - come the morning the scion had settled a little into the stock - hopefully a good sign. Currently it is under a 6500K 40W tube during the day.
After two days it was a week since both the component parts had been watered, so I followed the advice of one author and gave it a watering.
I will keep the bands on for a week (researched advice varied between three days and two months), and (provided it doesn´t all fall apart!) will gradually reintroduce the grafted plant to sunlight after a further week. I will keep you posted.

Hope it takes for you

I'd recommend cutting the scallops further down on the stock, as it dries out the flesh will settle leaving an un-even surface for the graft, sometimes causing it to fail

I'm not familiar with either of those cacti, but with trichocereus stock i never water until the graft is well stuck and growing. In fact i've grafted to un-rooted trichs many times with good sucsess

Good luck on your first graft! I hope they grow into a nice new plant.

Spanishfly, it's always interesting to see the cacti you are growing. Looks like you have quite the collection

Thanks for your good wishes.
But, as I said, I read so much conflicting advice I had to make my best guess as to whose advice to follow.
We will see how it goes.

Very kind of you to say so, Nathaniel - I do enjoy dabbling with different species.

And they said you couldn't teach an old dog new tricks...
I hope the graft takes! I've decided to attempt my first graft some time soon as well.

I've got a couple pieces of advice. The first being that you don't just want vascular cambium contact, you want the rings to be intersecting. Also with columnar grafts where the scion is already mature (not a tiny delicate seedling) you don't have to worry much about humidity and light. I would just put it in shade for 2 weeks and refrain from watering. After the two weeks put it back in it's regular spot and watering schedule. What I use to hold down the graft varies on pot size/type. If it's plastic I will poke two holes in the sides and use a shoe lace that is laced into the holes that can then be tightened down on the scion. Everything that you did looks good to me! Just as long as the rings were intersecting.

Good luck!!

Hi Hostilis- yes, I saw lots of diagrams showing the right and wrong ways to align the vascular cambiae - one thing all the authors I read agreed upon.

The shoe laces look a very good idea.

And your fourth pic down - showing the cristate - do you have any close ups of that? I am going to have to regraft a rare and expensive cristate, in due course (Toumeya papyracantha).

I have a n00bish question about grafting.


Does the stock continue to grow as well as the scion? Or does the stock not grow any taller since you cut the tip?

I was just unsure about how this works exactly.

I have a Aztekium ritteri grafted onto a Myrtillocactus geometrizans stock.

No, the stock has not grown any taller in the 3 years or so I have had it. It has, however, occasionally produced an offset, which I have removed - on the assumption that any offsets left to grow will tend to reduce growth of the scion (which is imperceptibly slow, anyway). The removed offsets can be rooted and use as further stock plants.

That is one of my seed grown trichocereus crests. I got some mutant hybrid seeds that yielded TONS of crests and monstrose trichocerei. Tomorrow I can go take a picture of it and my other seed grown trich mutants in the sun for you. It's grown a bit since I grafted it a month ago. Stay tuned.

Well a week has gone by - I carefully removed the rubber bands - and the scion stayed stuck in place !!! Otherwise doesn´t look a lot different.

Looks great!! The scion will always stick to the stock when the cactus snot dries out. This doesn't particularly mean that the vascular tissues have fused. Once it starts growing that is when you'll know for sure that it has taken.

Here are those pictures I promised. The first plant is a Trichocereus peruvianus monstrose x N1 (bridgesii) grafted to PC pachanoi. The second plant is a T. pachanoi crest x T. peruvianus monstrose. Sorry for the blurry pictures, but you can still make them out. These crosses gave me so many awesome mutants. I have a ton more on their own roots. Can't wait till they're older.

Great pics, hostilis. Thanks a lot for them.

First attempt FAILED - scion fell off this morning. I will get another going tomorrow. Do it a bit differently this time. I have some M. geometrizans stock to play with.

Aw dang. Sorry to hear about your graft! What happens to both plants after a grafting failure? Can they still be used/salvaged?

I binned both parts and started again - see the exciting new thread Second Grafting Attempt.