Grafting Cactus: The Dilemma Of Having Too Many Rootstocks

To Graft or Not To Graft yet

Despite having a lot of Cereus hildmannianus / peruvianus in collection, I am really not that obsessed with Cereus. Probably.

Less than 2 months ago, I hauled a load of Cereus cuttings from my working site. My staffs over there would like to trim down their Cereus. It was tree-like big, maybe a 15 footer Cereus.

Now it was history, all cut up to 2 to 4 feet long cuttings. I got myself around 20 to 25 tip cuttings, they are really thick and big. Around 35 mid cuttings, the biggest cutting is more than 20kg. 

Cereus stockpile under mango tree shade

Selection on today rooting session. Some of it going to be send to a friend.

Two tip cuttings was grafted with Echinopsis variegata. They put out some roots already, so why not.

Coconut for scale. For a 2 feet cuttings, they are very thick.

Long story short, now I have tons of Cereus, tip cuttings for immediate graft (rooted and in 4 weeks ready for grafting) and mid cuttings for future stocks. I have rooted almost all top cuttings and currently spending my weekend relocating the rest into my in law's coconut farm.

Too many rootstocks ?

Depending on my personal point of view, you can never have too many rootstocks. It just that you might not have enough time or scion to do all of it at once.

At the moment, I have 2 pots full of Echinopsis variegata scions and and two newly acquired cactus species namely Lemaireocereus pruinosus / Stenocereus pruinosus and Neoraimondia herzogiana.

You can view my post about them here:

Neoraimondia herzogiana

Lemaireocereus pruinosus / Stenocereus pruinosus

These guys are more than enough to be grafted for a month or two. My plan for Echinopsis is to grow them big and increase their number mainly from offsets. 

Stenocereus pruinosus might be for different purposes. I want to graft them on Hylocereus or Acanthocereus to fasten their growth and eventually will be used as rootstock for Ariocarpus / Astrophytum.

For now, I will wait for them to be ready for another round of grafting. They are pretty quick to resume growth.

Good thing about rooting Cereus is they love to pop some blooms especially from mature cuttings. Cereus produce shortliving flowers that bloom during the night. But if lucky enough, you can  observe their outstanding 15 to 20cm inflorescence.

In conclusion, other than as grafting stock, Cereus could serve well as garden fence. They are fastgrower and produce beautiful flowers. If I do  not use them for grafting, they will be very useful for blocking pest in the farm.

That's it for today, happy growing guys!