Floridian said: Hi - not much progress I'm afraid, thinking and planning still.

Thanks for the videos, very informative. I thought I would have to grow the base first and make sure I had a solid root system before starting, but the first video shows grafting/rooting at same time. I found a source of mature dragon fruit cacti to use for this project as mine are only 1-2 years old and the branches are too narrow, especially since I want to do the multi-tier grafts. I was waiting for spring to start this project as Tampa still gets cold nights in the winter, but I may start earlier….. I bought a Christmas cactus with beautiful colors so will enjoy the blooms now before it becomes a donor and will raid the clearance racks at our local big box for more donors, of course these will probably be mystery colors. Very excited to get started on this project and will post pictures!

The site is a mine of information, I saw their video on How to pair Succulent with dragon fruit, it had never occurred to me to try it.

Given I now use the Graptopetalum leaf mucilage for grafting seedlings, have been wondering how I could speed up the growth of the larger number of small Graptopetalum plants I have, they are too small at the moment, to harvest from.

I was waiting for spring to start this project as Tampa still gets cold nights in the winter.

Wait until the Spring Equinox unless you have a heated greenhouse.

Not too long ago I learned of "Speed Breeding", intend to try that as soon as time permits.

Cheers.

Decided to start my grafting project!!!!

Step one:
Planted some DF after drying for about a week and growing them indoors in a very sunny window. Trying a super long cutting and hoping to straighten it out as well during the rooting process. One side was growing along a wall and has some damage, hopefully not a disease… Have seen conflicting videos on rooting from woody segment end vs. angled/straight mid-stem cuttings. We'll see which grows better….. Christmas cactus not ready yet.

Cuttings 03Dec2023


Planted 10Dec2023

Had to look up speed breeding - looks like a great method. I don't have artificial lights, but may be time to set one up. Would also help my DF cuttings and get my DR seedlings to bloom faster….

Testing suspected Graptopetalum paraguayensis mucilage for grafting to H. undatus.

Progress 3 weeks, 3 days, offset forming.
Looks like it has potential.

Cheers

Update:
Today, 5th January 2024, scion 135mm, doing exceptionally well. I had removed the developing offset after the original post.

Tried a graft of a Graptopetalum pentandrum subsp. superbum scion to Hylocereus undatus as rootstock, looks like it will be successful, new growth.

Cheers.

That is quite weird and pretty cool. So you are able to graft Crassulaceae on top of Cactaceae? Do you have any of those that grew out?

Baja_Costero said: That is quite weird and pretty cool. So you are able to graft Crassulaceae on top of Cactaceae? Do you have any of those that grew out?

Not yet Baja, only started to try recently because I wished to speed up the growth for future grafts using the leaf mucilage(?).

I was prepared to try because of the apparent success at the Planting Trees site, How to pair Succulent with dragon fruit.

Cheers.

Pleased with this graft done less than a year ago.

Intend to remove all new cladodes except for the one closest to the top.

Ultimate aim is to reach at least a meter tall on a support, before obtaining flowers on top of the stem and again hopefully, on cladodes which will develop along the stem.

Cheers

26th December 2023

25th January 2024
Clearly there's nothing wrong with using Graptopetalum paraguayense mucilage for grafting seedlings of appropriate size.

Cheers

Been warm here, 47.4DegC in the van, have been restricted in the use of the computer it's only rated to 35DegC.

Many Hylo's etc, Agaves are bleached yellow.



The L clone(above) and others with flowers, had problems yesterday, flower buds had to be pried open to hopefully set a fruit.

The O. robusta rootstock is showing it's worth under trying conditions.

Cheers.

Goal - Christmas cactus blooming tower


03Dec2023 - Dragon fruit cuttings to be used as tower base



10Dec2023 - DF planted, try to straighten out cuttings


23Mar2024 - Christmas cacti grafted onto the growing DF, new growth on top left to promote future, additional height on the tower



Newly grafted cacti placed in modified humidity chamber so Christmas cacti do not dry out during healing process. Updates to follow

I just discovered this thread @ausrpned pretty interesting! @Floridian! Good luck! I tried grafting those little colorful baby cacti my daughter collected but they failed. I have collected dragon fruit rootstocks from the "moon cacti" I degraded and would love to try one.

Floridian said: Goal - Christmas cactus blooming tower


03Dec2023 - Dragon fruit cuttings to be used as tower base



10Dec2023 - DF planted, try to straighten out cuttings


23Mar2024 - Christmas cacti grafted onto the growing DF, new growth on top left to promote future, additional height on the tower



Newly grafted cacti placed in modified humidity chamber so Christmas cacti do not dry out during healing process. Updates to follow

Excellent, good to see you're making progress.

Cheers

I used a leaf(?) of the seedling shown in https://garden.org/thread/view... to see if it, like it's parent, was useful in grafting.

It is now two days since the graft was done, all looks well though it will be some time before we can claim success.

Cheers