How-to: Slab Grafting

[Gimli]

Was asked to do a write-up on "Slab Grafting" cacti as there is not one here nor much info online (even though the name pretty much speaks for itself). This style of grafting is a good way of really bumping up your numbers of a particular scion with only a small amount of material and gives great results.

 

This is the grafting stock I'll be using. I now prefer straight cuts but in the past I used to bevel the stock before placing the scion

 

This is the scion I'll slab

 

Cut the material into slices, as thick or as thin as you want

 

Then cut the piece in half

 

Line up the now vascular line with the ring of the stock and hold it down by whatever means of pressure you prefer

 

This was actually done a few weeks ago, not the scion above but you get the idea. TPM x Scop starting to pup

 

Play around with the method. You could cut the piece into quarters so it goes further

[Halcyon Daze]

Awesome stuff man, I'm keen to give it a go now

[Infinity]

That's amazing. I've never seen that done before. Nice work Gimli.

[Strontium Dawg]

You can make even more from a piece you'd like to propagate by doing wedges rather than flat slabs. If you slice a section longitudinally into 4 quarters rather than in half you end up with a wedge. Cut a v shaped piece from your stock with matching angles (say both pieces have a 90° angle) and fit them together with pressure.

This actually increases the surface area for the union of the vascular bundles too so you often get fast growth sooner.

Good technique if you have a super rare but small piece of a plant you'd like to increase quickly.

[MountainGoat]

yeah, the wedge is awesome but it really does need plenty of pressure to keep it in place. Also the water content of both scion and stock are important because swelling or deflating will cause issues... I did 12 narelle wedges this season and lost all of them.... had great success with others, but have found vari's difficult to wedge. It may be my high humidity though....

 

[Strontium Dawg]

I've had pretty good success with wedges. They're especially good for unusual shaped pieces of crests.

[MountainGoat]

55 minutes ago, Glaukus said:

I've had pretty good success with wedges. They're especially good for unusual shaped pieces of crests.

nice idea, i hadn't thought of that.... have you done any vari wedges G.?

[Strontium Dawg]

10 hours ago, MountainGoat said:

nice idea, i hadn't thought of that.... have you done any vari wedges G.?

No, I tend to kill variegates!