Tried grafting Ariocarpus retusus onto T. pachanoi three days ago and noticed some discoloration. Took it off and saw that the center area around the Tricho's vascular bundle also had sunken in a lot so that it didn't have much contact to the Ario anymore. What did I do wrong here? Not enough pressure or too much? I used breathable self-adhesive medical tape that I stretched and hooked it to the thorns. What can I do to prevent this from happening in the future?
by l0dry
5 Comments
Possibly try to create more of a mountain and keep it narrow, then make 1 clean cut and off center the scion yo stalk so that the vascular rings overlap in multiple places. Also clean your blade between cuts with 90% iso and dust everything that’s exposed flesh with sulfer dust. I’ll attach a photo for reference
Personal guess judging by the coloring is that your blade wasn’t 100% sterile. Even setting it down can affect things. Beyond that, maybe not enough pressure keeping the Scion down. When I’m grafting now I’m only using pantyhose and then leaving it inside for a minimum or a week and not touching it. I used to leave the he bands on only for a couple days sometimes or used smaller Scion’s but now it’s just big pieces to graft on healthy stock and the hit rate is almost 100%
The stock was dehydrated and the cut looks a bit uneven. To me, you have chamfered the ribs down at a really nice angle and the cuts start at the right distance from the centre to prevent the inner rib pushing it off, it just sunk way too far.
Water your stock now and again in 24 hours. Put the ario in a dry slightly warm place with good airflow.
When the stock feels solid, do your side rib cuts again and wait an hour or two and see how it looks. If it hasn’t changed and it’s solid not at all squishy, do a fresh top cut on this, a very fine cut on the base of the ario and try again.
Once it’s grafted, sprinkle some sulphur dust over the fresh cuts to help stop fungus and keep it in a bit of air flow for a day or two.
Your next cuts only need to straighten it up, nothing more.
Make sure it’s solid, like a soccer ball
What I’ve started doing is washing the cactus with Dawn power wash and the knife and washing off with water good. So far, I haven’t had a failure.
Blade wasn’t fully sanitized. Always burn off the excess iso after cleaning and let the blades cool