Multiple stem cuttings

Multiplying your cacti vegetatively.
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Urchin1987
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Multiple stem cuttings

Post by Urchin1987 »

I know that stem cuttings can be taken from a cactus as well as tip cuttings, but am interested in how much a plant cut be sliced up and still achieve rooting success. Is it enough to just leave, say 5cm, of stem for each cutting, ensuring that there is at least one areole on each section? I have attached a picture as an example - I am not planning on butchering this plant but am just using it as an example of my question.

If a cut was made across each marked line, and each section was a reasonable length - I'm saying 5cm but would be interested in other ideas - am I likely to get rooting success from each. I assume that only the apical cutting would continue to grow and look like a 'normal' plant, whereas the others would bud and produce growth from areoles around the edges of the cutting?

If so, does anybody have experience of this propagation with globular cacti, such as Gymnocalycium? Can these effectively be sliced up to produce new plants? I am looking at this from a commerciality perspective as opposed to ornamental and so am not worried about the aesthetics of what would effectively be stock plants...

Many thanks :)
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esp_imaging
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by esp_imaging »

For long thin plants, this will work well, I'm sure (say) 5cm long x 1cm wide cuttings of Aporocatus, or 15cmx5 cm cuttings of Trichocereus will root fine.

As the slices get shorter and fatter, the size of the cut surface to lose water, callous and get infected increases so reducing the chances of a cutting rooting successfully. Plus it causes proprtionately more damage to the remaining plant.

For a globular or short columnar plant, you may be better off decapitating to get a single cutting and forcing the stump to offset, or even just killing / removing the growing point to force it to offset, so you leave a substantial, and relatively unharmed, mother plant.

In addition to survival and establishment of the cuttings, the growth rate is also a factor. Growth of offsets should be fast from a healthy well established plant with a good stem area for photosynthesis and good roots, compared to from a short fat slice of plant with no roots and little healthy skin to photosynthesise.
Last edited by esp_imaging on Sun Dec 18, 2016 11:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Urchin1987
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by Urchin1987 »

Thank you - that makes sense!

Would an alternative idea be to graft the shorter and less viable slices to a rootstock? Would this eliminate the issue of the potential for water loss and reduced rooting success as the stock would take over these responsibilities...?
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by esp_imaging »

Perhaps!

I'd guess the graft success will decrease the fatter the cactus and the thinner the slice. Plus you may need some seriously fat stocks.
Another issue may be that the growing point of the cactus produce a hormones which discourages other growing points forming. Grafted slices without a growing point may have an increased tendency for the stock to produce pups below the graft.

Tubercle grafts can work for Ariocarpus etc, smaller slices of rib with an areole may work better than full-width slices for larger cacti.
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greenknight
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by greenknight »

I agree totally, I wouldn't try to make more than one cutting out of a plant like the one pictured.

Other points about offsets - they root more quickly, and produce more natural-shaped plants. The tissue of the joint is adapted to producing roots, so a cutting taken off at a joint will root faster as well as having a smaller wound to heal.
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Urchin1987
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by Urchin1987 »

OK, so using that photo as an example, where would the most appropriate place to make the cutting be - would you take just the top off i.e. the first cut marked on the picture, giving a small cutting and a large stump, or take the bottom cut, taking the majority of the plant as a cutting and leaving a short but rooted parent?
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by esp_imaging »

I'd either take a big cutting, or maybe just try to remove the growing point. I wouldn't mess around with a thin slice.
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by adetheproducer »

I have heard driving a nail or similar object down into the apical meristem should effectively kill the growth point and cause it to offset and then keep its shape.
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greenknight
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by greenknight »

Here's a page that shows what cutting a globular Cactus looks like - http://www.cactusinfo.net/propagation.htm

I would have taken a larger cut than they did in their example, I'd consider their cutting the minimum. You bevel the edge of the cutting's base to prevent cupping - the interior tissue of the cactus will shrink more as it dries than the skin does, if you leave it flat you'll end up with a cup-shaped base that makes it hard to get good soil contact. Note how little is left of the cutting after they bevelled it, a bigger cutting would have been better.

The stump has roots, so it doesn't have to survive on the moisture stored in it - you can leave it a lot less tissue and it will still grow. The only worry with it is that rot might get in the cut, dusting it with sulfur or other fungicide is a good idea.
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snarfie
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by snarfie »

Here's my two cents: i think it's possible to make all cuts and let them callous and root, but you have to take special measures to achieve it. I have been experimenting with this kind of stuff for a while now, and i have found ethanol, perlite and clingwrap very helpful to let small cuttings callous without too much loss of water. One method i've used in the past to callous myrtillocactus tops, 2-3 cm wide and also 2-3cm high, which leaves a relatively big cut surface, and combined with the fresh growth that means it's almost inevitable it will dry out of you just let it dry somewhere in the shade. I desinfected them with a 50% ethanol solution after cutting, and then used the clingwrap to cover the cut surface. The sap from the cactus will make it stick to the cactus. After one to two weeks it will lift a bit from the clingwrap, which isn't bad, as there already is a thin callous layer by then. After that you can either take them off the clingwrap and let them callous on their own, or plant them in soil.

Another method i'm working on is planting very small cuttings in pure perlite. This method i have only used on schlumbergera areole cuttings so far (1/8 of a mature schlumbergera segment). From the three cuttings, two already rooted and one is doing nothing. First you make the cuttings, desinfect them with a 50% ethanol solution and then you lay them on top of damp perlite. Make sure you use fresh perlite or perlite which has been microwaved for one or two minutes to kill the bacteria that can induce rot. After you have placed the cuttings on the damp perlite, cover the container/pot with a lid, so the air humidity will be high. Then you have to wait until they're calloused and plant in soil when the first roots start to show.

Both methods, however, are not very interesting from a commercial point of view because it will take a long time to grow decent size plants from it, and the growth will be uneven, as some will start growing after two weeks, while others take six months before they show the first signs of growth.
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greenknight
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by greenknight »

Interesting technique, I'll have to remember that for cases where only a very small piece of a cactus can be saved - but as you say, it's going to take a long time to develop into much of a plant. You'll probably get large plants sooner from offsets.
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Re: Multiple stem cuttings

Post by DaveW »

In theory you only need a few cells to reproduce the plant from, hence tissue culture. As many of the above have said all cuts should root, the problem is if being small, or having such a large cut surface they dehydrate and die before rooting. That is often why grafting is used for very small propagations, such as seedlings or even individual tubercles, in order to keep them hydrated and then degraft again when larger to propagate.

You can root large tubercles from Dolichothele longimamma etc directly into the soil, but the smaller tubercles of most Mammillaria's would dehydrate before rooting, hence the method of saving them below. It's not the case in your example for propagating healthy quite large plants, but for saving small sound parts of rotting plants often grafting is the more reliable method.

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