First grafts - Astro - (I will update with progress)

Hi All,

I just finished my first ever grafts a couple of days ago and thought I'd share them with the world! I will update this thread with some progress photos as they grow, (hopefully!), and may also add some more grafts as I attempt them. (I have some Lophophora seedlings and a couple of Bridgesii seedlings at the moment I'm just waiting for them to get a little bigger before I slice them up!)

These are 2 Astrophytum Asterias seedlings I grew from seed acquired from a member of the CSSSA at a cacti show in Adelaide a couple of months ago. I also got some Pereskiopsis that I've been cutting and propagating to try and build up some stock for seedlings. I mainly wanted to practice with some Astro's just to make sure my technique works. After these astros are a couple of centimetres, (if it works), I will de-graft them from the Peres.

They've been growing pretty well in their little container under some CFL lights in an esky. I think in the photos you can see that I have a reasonable number left to try with again if these fail. I also kept some seed aside so I can start another batch when I create another little "grow tub" with lights. It's a bit cold and the days are too short at the moment to grow these out under the sun here in SA, unfortunately.

My methods come from reading lots of forums/articles and watching some vids on YouTube. Anyway, on to the pics!

HI Zed240 I am the member from the cactus show that gave you those seeds. Great to see your work hope they do well. PM me when you would like some more seeds.

Thanks Zed very interesting, thanks for sharing it with us. I would like to give it a try, just got to get the time.

I'm in the same boat at the moment JK I'm just don't have the time at present

Thanks for sharing

just a tip,with the pereskiopsis there is no need to hold the scion down,the scion will stick to the stock ok just with the sap,good luck with them ive just grafted some astrophytum "hakuun" onto pereskiopsis and they seem to have taken ok

@ cactuscook - Hi there, I will be sure to pm you soon.

@ simon 1 - Yeah, I thought that you could do it by just pressing them down but when I did that they seemed very loose so wanted to make sure they stayed on. And I saw the technique with the peg somewhere online so thought I'd try it out.

I did another pereskiopsis graft with a lophophora seedling today. There was no way that one was staying on without the cling wrap though! I think I may have cut the pereskipsis where it was too thin, but I guess we'll wait and see on that.

Today I took the cling film off of the Astro grafts I did last weekend. They seem to have taken at the moment. There appears to be some scarring of the exposed pereskiopsis and the Astros are stuck on tight.