Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

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SoilSifter
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Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

I had an Escobaria missouriensis. A combination of recent weather, overspray from the sprinklers in a flower bed, and my own over watering caused the cactus to rot. There is one pup that looks like it might survive if I cut off the bottom of it and graft the healthy part on to another cactus. I thought I read some cacti will grow new plants from the tips of tubercles. Can I graft the healthy tips of the tubercles from the main plant?
Onzuka
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by Onzuka »

You might stand a chance of success if grafting the whole offset, but single tubercle grafting needs some practice to get right.

Steve
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snarfie
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by snarfie »

When i started grafting with proper equipment, areole grafts weren't that difficult. Just make sure that you use razor blades and keep them in humidity longer, even if it seems like they've shriveled. My succesfull areole grafts are ariocarpus agavoides, gymnocalycium, and copiapoa variegata. Failed areole graft: pachycereus pringlei variegata
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Copiapoa areole with new growth
Copiapoa areole with new growth
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Young professional amateur in Schlumbergera and Rhipsalidopsis growing and hybridizing
SoilSifter
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

Thanks for the advice. I've tried grafting only a few times and only a couple times I had short-term success. The grafts grew together but the plants died from infection weeks later. By the time I sat down to graft the offset of the Escobaria it had too much discolored or mushy tissue to graft. A lot of tubercle ends from the main plant looked OK so I grafted 5 of them on to Pereskiopsis. I don't know how people can put little bags with ties over small grafts and still have everything in place. My scions weren't sticking on the root stocks so I used some super glue to keep the scions in place. I accidentally glued my finger to the spines of a scion. However, looks like super glue doesn't stick to cactus epidermis for very long. I might upload a photo after a week.
SoilSifter
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

That ^ failed. The failure was my fault. At first everything looked OK. Then I saw some orange gunk growing on a scion so I removed the plastic cover from my humidity boosting enclosure. I left the cover off too long and the scions shrank. I thought maybe they didn't shrink too much so I put the cover on again. Then I saw some fungal filaments growing from another scion and removed the cover again. The scions shrank again. I put the cover back on. However, in the end, the scions dried up too much. The cuts on the rootstocks calloused without joining with the scions and the grafts failed.


I lost all of the Escobaria plant that rotted but wanted to try grafting again. I remade the cuts on the rootstocks. I took a tubercle tip from a healthy Escobaria and grafted it. I grafted a small division from another cactus plus a few pups from a mutant Gymno. This time I liberally applied super glue. The first time I used the glue I didn't use a lot because I worried it would never come off, look bad, or mar the growth of the cactus. While watching my earlier failed grafts I saw the glue wouldn't be permanent and using more glue might help avoid grafts separating because of shrinkage. Also, this time, I have only a small opening in the humidity cover and I'm keeping it that way. I used a peg-in-the-hole graft for two of the Gymno's. The other grafts were flat. The grafts are about 1 week old.

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Escobaria and something else grafted on to Pereskiopsis
Escobaria and something else grafted on to Pereskiopsis
IMG_2690.jpg (40.52 KiB) Viewed 3283 times
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Grafted mutant Gymno's on Pereskiopsis
Grafted mutant Gymno's on Pereskiopsis
IMG_2691.jpg (56.35 KiB) Viewed 3283 times
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Pot inside humidity enclosure to keep grafts hydrated
Pot inside humidity enclosure to keep grafts hydrated
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snarfie
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by snarfie »

Let's hope they make it
Young professional amateur in Schlumbergera and Rhipsalidopsis growing and hybridizing
SoilSifter
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

One of the peg-in-hole grafted mutant Gymnos became infested with a fungus and died so I removed it. I grafted something else in its place. I made a flat graft for the replacement. The grafted division covered with small white spines (sorry, don't know its name) already has growth. The two remaining mutant Gymnos are still alive but there's some browning tissue by the grafts. The highest grafted Gymno's rootstock is struggling. Its one leaf shriveled and fell off and the stem looks like it needs water. The stem probably had very few roots and I bumped it. The grafted Escobaria tubercle tip looks OK but hasn't changed. These rootstocks likes more water than most cacti but I'm concerned the rootstocks have been moist for too long. I might try putting a bag over the grafts and take the pot out of the enclosure so the soil can dry a bit.
SoilSifter
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

The rootstock sent down a new root. :o I planned to make a cutting of the rootstock below the graft and root it so I will have a grafted Gymno by itself on a rootstock. However, I can see the green part of the rootstock below the graft is too short. Almost none of it can be seen in the picture. Eventually I should graft the mutant Gymno to a fatter and taller rootstock.
descended_root.jpg
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Below is a current picture of the Escobaria tubercle tip graft. Little has changed but that is OK. The scion hasn't separated from the rootstock. I removed some of the superglue. The lower graft that isn't an Escobaria tubercle tip is only slightly attached to the rootstock. Surprisingly, it shows the most growth of all my grafts.
escobaria_update.jpg
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snarfie
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by snarfie »

I think you shoud wait and see. The tubercle looks ok, but i think you should remove the side shoot, so the energy will go to the tubercle
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SoilSifter
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

I agree. I'll remove it. Too bad my first 5 tubercle grafts didn't work. That would've been awesome. I have another full-size Escobaria and some more Pereskiopsis starts. I might try another graft. I started gradually reducing the humidity in the enclosure shown in the 4th picture in this thread. I'm watching the grafts for signs of trouble. There are no problems, yet.
SoilSifter
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

A couple days ago the flat grafted Gymno fell off its rootstock. It was in the third picture from the start of this thread- your upper left corner of the picture. There was a section of green growth the Gymno was grafted on to. The lower part of the rootstock was older. First the one leaf fell off then the green growth below the graft rotted and the scion fell down with the mushy green part still attached to the scion.
SoilSifter
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

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I repotted my grafts. Now I see I over potted them so I'm trying to dry the soil by putting the pots in a place with more air circulation.


No change but that's OK. I won't be surprised if the Escobaria missouriensis tubercle doesn't grow until Spring.
mamm_and_escobar.jpg
mamm_and_escobar.jpg (52.03 KiB) Viewed 2925 times

This one didn't like repotting. You can't see it but the mutant Gymno is still grafted to a little piece of stem that grew a root before repotting. Then that piece of stem separated from the main stem of the rootstock (on the left) after repotting. The separation probably happened because I kept the soil too wet and part of the main stem rotted. I'm not sure this scion will survive and continue growing.
gymno_on_a_stick.jpg
gymno_on_a_stick.jpg (90.69 KiB) Viewed 2925 times

I saved the rootstock tips from my earlier grafts, rooted them, and used them for more grafts. All of them look OK to me. Upper left is Escobaria leei, upper right is Echinocereus triglochidatus, lower left is E. triglochidatus, lower right is a tubercle of Escobaria missouriensis from a different plant than my earlier E. missouriensis grafts. The scion of the newest E. missouriensis graft had a central spine before I clipped it off. The scion of the earlier E. missouriensis graft lacked a central spine.
esco_echino.jpg
esco_echino.jpg (85.25 KiB) Viewed 2925 times
The soil was too moist so I didn't keep them inside the large glass enclosure with high humidity in my earlier pictures. My Pereskiopsis rootstock seems to survive being kept moist but doesn't like it. I used some small pieces of plastic wrap to cover the grafted tips and put everything in a large plastic zip-lock bag with an open top. Yesterday I removed the plastic wrap.
SoilSifter
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

Months later ....
SoilSifter
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Re: Rotted my Escobaria. Save by grafting?

Post by SoilSifter »

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penio-01.jpg
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About 1 week ago I found one of my Peniocereus greggii seedlings had a rotten base. That probably happened because I over watered it. I cut off the soft tissue and grafted it on to an Opuntia. For some reason my Penios don't grow. I haven't figured out how to grow them. The left side of the Opuntia pad had an Escobaria missouriensis graft that failed.



mamm-01.jpg
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This Mammillaria graft is still growing even though it is barely attached to the root stock. The graft is poorer than it looks in the picture.




All the achlorophyllus Gymnocalycium mutant grafts eventually failed. Some of the grafts were OK for a while but I think the root stocks were too short and I had some root system problems after I repotted the last surviving grafted plant.



escob-01.jpg
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The Escobaria leei scion hasn't grown bigger but it grew a couple short roots out of the graft. They aren't visible in the picture.



escob-02.jpg
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The Escobaria missouriensis scion isn't looking good. I had high hopes this one would pop but the root stock might have dried out too much during the hot weather. The root stock lost its leaves. Since then it plumped up again but the scion hasn't replumped.



echino-01.jpg
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This Echinocereus triglochidatus looks unchanged but seems healthy. I'm probably making my root stocks too short.



echino-02.jpg
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This E. triglochidatus scion popped. :D




Is there a kind of glue I can use for grafting that works as well as super glue but will break down after a few months?

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