How To Graft Lophophora Williamsii Using Acanthocereus tetragonus Rootstock
Previously, I have shared about degrafted Lophophora bought from eBay; which was planned to be grafted onto various rootstocks.
This time, I will share my method of grafting large Lophophora scion onto Acanthocereus root stock using impale graft method. In my opinion, impale graft technique is suitable to be conducted on moderate to large scion size and gives better success rate. This is due to more contact surface area between the sharpen rootstock core and scion vascular tissue.
Before we get to the grafting part, I would like to share a brief info on both cactus so that we could understand their behavior and characteristic.
Lophophora
Altitude: It grows from 100 up to 1900 metres above sea level.
Description: Lophophora williamsii is a solitary or (rarely) caespitose, spineless cactus, normally unicephalous but becoming polycephalous with age or injury,
Stem: Glaucous green, dull bluish or greyish green, very succulent, globular, top-shaped, or somewhat flattened up to 6 cm tall, 12 cm diameter, with a woolly top; The subterranean portion of the stem, which is as wide as the aerial portion, extends several cm below the surface of the ground and transitions smoothly (through a thin hypocotyl) into a large taproot which may extend over 25 cm below ground level.
Ribs: (5 when young) 7 to 13 (very rarely 4 or 14 ) broad, rounded, straight, or spiralled, often tuberculate, sometimes irregular and indistinct, with transverse furrows forming more or less regular, polyhedral tubercles;
Roots: Napiform, usually 8-11 cm long
Areoles: Round spineless, bearing flowers only when young with some bunches of long erect, matted, wooly greyish hairs, up to 1 cm long.
Flowers: Solitary, campanulate, 1.5-2.5 cm across when open usually pink (rarely whitish) outer perianth segments and scales ventrally greenish. They emerge from the mass of hairs at umbilicate centre of crown each surrounded by a mass of long hairs. Stigma-lobes 5-7, linear, pink.
Blooming season: Flowers sporadically throughout summer.
Fruits: Club-shaped, red to pinkish, 2 cm long or shorter which can be very delectable and sweet-tasting when eaten.
Seeds: Small and black up to 1 mm in diameter, with broad basal hilum, tuberculate-roughened.
Acanthocereus tetragonus
Description: Acanthocereus tetragonus is an evergreen Tree growing to 5 m (16ft) by 2 m (6ft) at a slow rate. It is hardy to zone (UK) 10. The flowers are pollinated by Insects. Suitable for light (sandy) and medium (loamy) soils, prefers well-drained soil and can grow in nutritionally poor soil.
Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It cannot grow in the shade. It prefers dry soil and can tolerate drought.
Cultivation details: Columnar, branching, slow growing cactus with spiny, five-sided, mid-green stems producing numerous smaller offsets.
Climate: subtropical to tropical.
Humidity: semi-arid to humid. A plant of the arid tropics and subtropics. Grows in humus-poor, sandy, well drained soils in a sunny position. Prefers a pH in the range 6 - 7.5.
Flowers: The flowers open overnight. Flowers are open from midnight until dawn, attracting hummingbird moths (Hemaris spp.). Carbon Farming - Cultivation: regional crop.
Graftiing methodology
Step 1
Cut and prepare your rootstock using sharp and sterilised knife.
Bevel the cut and remove the flesh around the core, make sure the core chosen is slightly hard so that it doesn't get squeezed or break when pushing the scion.
Step 2
Cut the scion to be used for grafting. halving them equally works too, I always graft the butt if they are big enough. That way, you'll get two plant in a session, no wastage.
You can here, the vascular ring is very big and thick. So there is nothing to worry about missing the ring. This situation is similar to Ariocarpus.
Step 3
With a firm grip, push the scion onto pre sharpen rootstock core and make sure it goes all the way down to the fleshy part of Acanthocereus.
There are grafter that confident enough to stop here, the impaled core is able to hold both scion and rootstock in place.
But I prefer to hold them together using plastic wrap, it conserve moisture too.
Step 4
Wrap the scion with plastic wrapper and hold it with rubber band.
Remove the plastic in 2 to 3 weeks time.
There you go, quite easy but having said so; you need a bit of experience to graft scion on this size and get it right.
It is better to start with smaller and cheaper scion first.
Thanks for reading, Adieu
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