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Hello cacti peeps,

My grafted aztekium is forming a few of pups at the top (see pic). Visually, I am less than thrilled with this behavior. There's nothing I can do about it now, but is there anything I can do in the future to prevent this from occurring?

Grafted Aztekiums offset far more readily than plant on their own roots, as you can probably tell. Maybe try regrafting the plant onto a rootstock which causes the scion to grow closer to their natural form. Hylocereus is meant to be good for this. If that doesn't work, then you could graft onto a slower growing rootstock, such as Cereus jamacaru.

Not sure if either of those would help, but I hope it gives you some ideas.

Very nice job, Evelyn! Might have to rethink my opposition to grafting since I germinated some hintonii back in Jan. -- tiny round balls that have grown a "tiny" bit since then, right up there with columnars & living long enought to see a real plant or flowers on columnars!

neat cactus! keep up the good growing

I have two aztekium grafts that are pupping like crazy. My theory is that since it's naturally a slow grower, once it's reaches a certain size it will start pupping as the grafting stock keeps trying to push it to grow. Maybe less watering and fert, plus a slower growng stock will reduce the chances of pupping?

Yeah, yall must be right. Even though he's a happy cacti, I'm bummed about the pups. What happens as they grow? Is it possible to chop them off without too much scaring on the mother plant?

If you pamper it less it may grow slower and pup less. Aztekium have a relatively dry stem and have a lowish grafting success rate, I would try to graft the pups but not regraft the mother plant.