Post your Smallest grafts here if you dare

[Elrik]

Thanks

Since I mentioned hypocotyl grafting [which many people seem to misunderstand] I took this as a chance to repot my first such grafts to check their progress and get some photos.

If the size of the stock counts then these are my smallest ever successful grafts. Lophophora williamsii seedlings grafted to Echinocactus texensis seedling hypocotyls [the portion under the cotyledons, before the first areole]:

No pressure was applied.

The upper left plant died shortly after this photo, the others grew. This is after several years of growth in regular potting soil with a little sand added:

My purpose in these grafts was obviously not speed. We've all seen taprooted lophs and we've all seen degrafted lophs that formed secondary roots. This was an attempt to see lophs with 'natural' primary root systems lacking a taproot. They just have a short anchor root and a mass of surface feeder roots and, apparently, they had no problems at all with rot.

I cant wait to try using Opuntia compressa hypocotyls to give plants an indestructible taproot.

Also on my long term to-do list is Peniocereus gregii hypocotyl grafts to give a taproot that can grow to weigh kilograms!

Grafting doesn't have to be traditional

[Inyan]

5 hours ago, Elrik said:

Thanks

Since I mentioned hypocotyl grafting [which many people seem to misunderstand] I took this as a chance to repot my first such grafts to check their progress and get some photos.

If the size of the stock counts then these are my smallest ever successful grafts. Lophophora williamsii seedlings grafted to Echinocactus texensis seedling hypocotyls [the portion under the cotyledons, before the first areole]:

No pressure was applied.

The upper left plant died shortly after this photo, the others grew. This is after several years of growth in regular potting soil with a little sand added:

My purpose in these grafts was obviously not speed. We've all seen taprooted lophs and we've all seen degrafted lophs that formed secondary roots. This was an attempt to see lophs with 'natural' primary root systems lacking a taproot. They just have a short anchor root and a mass of surface feeder roots and, apparently, they had no problems at all with rot.

I cant wait to try using Opuntia compressa hypocotyls to give plants an indestructible taproot.

Also on my long term to-do list is Peniocereus gregii hypocotyl grafts to give a taproot that can grow to weigh kilograms!

Grafting doesn't have to be traditional

 

I agree that this style of grafting works and can work without pressure or parafilm.

 

However, that style of graft does have a higher success rate when pressure is applied and an increase of humidity is achieved.

 

The fact is you can graft seedlings with a single set of cotyledons vertically or horizontally to one another with ease so long as you can keep the connection between them secure and humidity is kept high enough to ensure the seedlings do not dry out too fast.

 

Whether you are grafting a single areole or a seedling that has just sprouted its first hypocotyl... the basics are much the same.

 

One need only listen to what your cacti are trying to tell you and you will soon succeed. 

 

Excellent work my friend.

Edited June 21, 2018 by Inyan

[Elrik]

It came time to repot another of my smallest.

I couldnt find a baby picture of this one but about 2 years ago I grafted a tiny L. w. caespitosa pup onto a couple-centimeters-tall Trich seedling. The seedling had been established in a tiny pot and pressure was applied to the graft with a 1 cm strip of cling wrap taped to the pot. It now has a new pot and the stock is fully subterranean.

[Inyan]

On 6/24/2018 at 3:04 PM, Elrik said:

It came time to repot another of my smallest.

I couldnt find a baby picture of this one but about 2 years ago I grafted a tiny L. w. caespitosa pup onto a couple-centimeters-tall Trich seedling. The seedling had been established in a tiny pot and pressure was applied to the graft with a 1 cm strip of cling wrap taped to the pot. It now has a new pot and the stock is fully subterranean.

 

As nice as this graft looks I would not of suspected the stock was any bigger than 1.5 cm tall. Very nice work.

[Elrik]

That one is growing quite well this year, its been one month since transplant and its already visibly larger. It just reached 40 mm in diameter, I like hidden baby trich stock.

I noticed a few more pups forming at its base. I've never seen it said in words but I've assumed from many pictures that the fastest way to get caespitosa to flower is to keep cutting off the pups until they put out several flowers. Has that been anyones direct experience? From what I remember of cactus porn the primary head gives its first flowers around, what, 5 cm?

[hostilis]

I grafted 3 of the scopulicola x c. peruvianus seedlings. They were probably under 1mm thick and like 1-2mm tall.  Two failed just by the humidity bag falling onto them and the third one took and is now growing. It has gotten bigger than it was when i did the graft. Was very difficult.  The only smaller grafts I've done have been aztekium seedlings, but I have no pictures.

[Inyan]

1 hour ago, hostilis said:

I grafted 3 of the scopulicola x c. peruvianus seedlings. They were probably under 1mm thick and like 1-2mm tall.  Two failed just by the humidity bag falling onto them and the third one took and is now growing. It has gotten bigger than it was when i did the graft. Was very difficult.  The only smaller grafts I've done have been aztekium seedlings, but I have no pictures.

 

Now that one is a tiny girl. Now, if you had of wrapped those three with parafilm their would have been no humidity bag to fall and they would all three be growing still. Still, nice work. One of the dangers of grafting without parafilm is any little bump and you can lose your graft. My grafts... you can literally toss across the room and as long as the scion doesn't get smooshed against a solid object I'm golden. 

 

Still, I must say you have skills. I'd love to see you come over to the dark side of grafting with parafilm. Downside... many leave the parafilm too thick before they put it over a tiny seedling such as the one you've done. The smaller the seedling, the thinner the parafilm must be pulled prior to placing it on the seedling as it can smash the seedling very easily.

[hostilis]

My grafting technique normally gets around 99% success rates so I have a hard time switching to that. I've tried pressure grafts and gotten much lower rates of success and more cases of scion rot. This was kind of a freak accident with the bags as I usually do not even touch them after I put the bag on. But maybe one day I'll try it out again.