HOW VACCINATIONS ARE DONE ON CACTUS?

Seemingly, why plant cacti?

They grow and grow

Among cacti there is even an unwritten rule: "Hands off vaccines!»

And yet it is better to own such a vaccine. Sometimes there are situations, when grafting onto a reliable unpretentious stock with a trouble-free root system – the only way out. There are at least five such cases.:

Multi-colored chlorophyll-free forms are not capable of photosynthesis and generally cannot exist in an ungrafted form.;
Cristal (comb-shaped) and monstrous ("rocky") forms on a high rootstock look much more attractive;
Rare, predominantly desert cacti grow slowly on their roots and are prone to death from all conceivable and unimaginable causes;
It is necessary to quickly propagate or grow to large sizes and bring new seedlings to flowering., particularly valuable species or forms;
When dealing with cacti, lost roots in autumn or winter.

Grafting cacti – pretty easy operation, but in order to be successful, it is necessary to follow a certain sequence of actions.

First, choose a rootstock, taking into account that, Will this vaccine be temporary? (for growing seedlings) or permanent. Seedlings are most often grown on hybrid echinopsis, but very tiny, aged one month or less, usually grafted onto Peireskiopsis. Permanent vaccinations are best done on more durable and strong Peruvian cereus, eri-ocereus Jusbera, the world of geometric tillocactus or Trichocereus Paciano, Spaha and others. Selenicereus and trihedral chylocereus serve as universal rootstocks.. It's better anyway, so that the diameter of the rootstock is at least slightly larger than the diameter of the scion.

Rootstock must be healthy, with a well developed root system and, what is most important, be in a state of active growth. You can hold the stock in a dark place for a week or two before grafting, then the tissues of the top will become softer.

Desirable, so that the scion is also in a state of active growth. Usually, young tissues with a good metabolism grow best. old, large cacti with strongly lignified shoots, as well as plants in a state of winter dormancy usually grow together with difficulty.

A cloudy day is chosen for vaccination, at least don't work in the sun. Wipe a very sharp and thin knife or a new safety razor blade with alcohol, then make the first cross cut in the middle of the rootstock, and even better – in its upper part at a distance of about 1-2 cm from top. Next, frame the stock, chamfering along the entire diameter, and if the scion is large enough – do the same with him.

And finally – the most important stage. Make a second one with a clean blade, strictly horizontal cut of the rootstock pa 1-2 mm below the first, leave the cut layer on the second cut. Immediately make a cut and scion, quickly remove the remaining piece on the rootstock and align the cuts like this, so that the rings of their conducting bundles coincide as much as possible.

Immediately after this, the scion is tightly fixed with soft rubber rings., cargo, lying on a plate, and better – the same pair of weights, hanging on a thread. All manipulations from the moment of the first cut to fixation should be performed as quickly as possible., no more than one minute.

Some lovers think, that the seedlings are the size 1-2 mm can not be fixed at all on the rootstock, just press your finger once. In my practice, there were indeed cases of such successful vaccinations., but the development of the scion began later. So I still recommend fixing the scion, just for small seedlings, respectively, slight pressure.

Put the fixed vaccine in a damp, warm place., protected from the direct rays of the sun, as well as drops of water. If there is a greenhouse for seedlings with fluorescent lamps, you can vaccinate there, And if not – carefully cover with a glass jar or plastic bag. Growth occurs within a month, but weights or elastic bands can be removed already on the 5-7th day.

VACCINATION OF CACTUS STEP BY STEP

Sometimes cactus lovers use more exotic and complex methods.: oblique cut, longitudinal cut scion, wedge, split with fixation with cactus spines, grafting of individual areolas, etc.. But this – already aerobatics.

NON-STANDARD FIXING OF A CACTUS SCION

And finally one piece of advice: try to graft children from one cactus to different types of rootstocks. As a result, you will receive such valuable information about the features of the influence of various rootstocks., which cannot be gleaned from any literature.