1. Ogun
2. Foolsbreath
3. Sharxx x woolunda monster
4. Boofadora
5. Crown x Rosygnol
6. Tiger Sharxx

You may have seen the post about micro grafting and remember the promise to make a video. Well, it took way longer than I anticipated and it turns out that making a video makes micrografting much harder as my phone is right in the way from seeing. I’d like to redo the video in the future with some device to hold the phone in place above rather than in a pot with a rooted graft sitting there at an angle, but for now this will do.

The graft itself was a struggle. Typically they are much easier to get settled and covered. A couple things contributed to this. The seedling was not properly hydrated as I hoped. Also the visibility of my work space wasn’t great. But you can see how I do it and the general flow of it.

Sorry for uploading them as shorts. Also included in the post are some update photos of a couple from the same batch as last post.

1-first video
2-second video
3- third video

Beautiful to see in person.

If you start seeds, I would suggest that micrografting on pere is one of the best skills you can learn. It’s cheap, gets you great results, takes up minimal space compared grafting onto PC, AND it’s significantly faster than anything you can do.

TLDR: I will make a video later today if you are a visual learner interested in this process. I’ll add it to this post along with step by step photos of my process. It isn’t the only way to do this, it’s just what I have refined for myself and had success with. Trial and error on your own will give you your own process that will be ideal for you. This is just a starting point to make it less overwhelming to attempt.

These are roughly 1 month on pere. The seedlings mostly only had their first spines emerging.

My first micrografts were about a year ago when 120 seedlings out of a few thousand popped albino. After reading some, it was clear they were going to die eventually without micrografting so I figured it was a perfect chance to learn without risk. Albino seedlings are extra finicky, so if this is what you learn on don’t be discouraged if you happen to only have a ~10% survival rate.

Things I would suggest getting:

Scalpel blades. You can get these from Amazon in bulk for cheap. They come sterilized and sealed individually in foil. You don’t want to use a knife or craft knife for micro grafting because you need the dexterity of a very sharp, small blade.

Saran Wrap. You’ll want to cut 1.5”x1.5” squares to create a microclimate so the scion doesn’t lose moisture and dry out before the union forms. While it’s possible to have success without using plastic wrap to create a microclimate, it will dramatically lower your success rate.

Orchid clips. Or if you don’t want to pay for “orchid clips” you can get baby hairclips for cheap. These will secure the Saran Wrap once it has been laid over the scion. You can also use bread twist ties or a similarly flexible wire, but I personally find that my clumsy fingers more than likely will bump the scion when using those. An orchid clip can be squeezed open, applied from the side instead of from above, and released to close all with one hand instead of 2 with a twist ties.

Makeup pencil sharpeners. They are cheap and can be had in multiple sizes. Often they have little notches cut into the edge where you’ll insert the pere that I find great for removing leaves/glochids as you turn it by hand. These aren’t necessary at all, but I do use them for every pere stab graft I do because it makes a nice point for stabbing a bigger scion.

Nitrile gloves. It helps with the glochids and makes it easier to remove any that you encounter. You could also experiment with a lighter and just giving a little flame to the glochids, but I don’t bother as glochids are really easy to get rid of and avoid once you are practiced at your process. They only really penetrate deeply and hook in if they are pushed in and a piece of duct tape on hand can remove them instantly if you notice them when they happen.

Optional:
Empty gel caps. An empty gel cap slipped over the scion and down the pere like a sleeve is a great way to create a microclimate and more importantly, create a temporary structure to shield the scion from being bumped or disturbed when overlaying the Saran Wrap and later removing the Saran Wrap. The majority of my micrograft failures came from me bumping the scion and moving it either when applying the Saran Wrap or removing it.

You also want healthy pere. The scion should be able to sit on the pere without hanging over the edges. Thats the only girth requirement for the pere. The taller the pere the better up to about 20”.

Pereskiopsis can use facultative CAM which is a rare ability for a cactus to swap its mechanism of processing water, light and nutrients. Where typical cactus close their stoma in heat to conserve water during the day and only will open and process it at night, Pere will change this process as needed to process and grow during hot humid days. This allows Pere to be watered and fed heavily without concern for the pere rotting. Which in turn allows it to ABSOLUTELY PUMP.

Pere wants intense light as long as it has sufficient water to grow with the ample light available. My best pere pots have about 1.5-3” of regular potting soil, gets morning shade and sun the rest of the day. It also gets rained on without cover when there are no scions on it.

If possible, a hanging basket style planter is great because army worms can’t find their way in and munch on leaves(bastards).

When prepping pere to micrograft it is smart to not water them for 24 hours prior to micrografting because this has potential to lead to some very juicy pere that will weep when cut. This liquid is totally harmless and even great for things like stab grafts because it will provide more moisture for the scion to heal and link up, but it is a hinderance for micrografts. Where stab grafts use pressure to keep the scion in contact with the pere, a seedling micrograft does not.

An ideal amount of pressure for a seedling is minimal. Just enough to prevent it from moving. Since the seedling is so small and fragile I use as little as possible. It is an acquired feel and the empty gel cap allows me to more finely adjust the pressure without adding a directional force other than straight down onto the scion. In the past when using only Saran Wrap it was difficult to, all at the same time with only 2 hands: lay over the Saran Wrap, keep the scion seated in place, adjust pressure without moving the scion, and secure the Saran Wrap with a clip. The gel cap allows you to do that in steps more precisely.

Once the micrograft is set in place, I keep them in my sunroom where they get no direct sunlight, it’s mostly dry, and the temp of my house. After a couple of days I feed the pereskiopsis with a maxigrow or masterblend in a tray so it can uptake water over night. After about a week I remove the Saran Wrap and gel cap. If there is some gunk under the Saran Wrap or gel cap after a few days I often remove the orchid clip to allow some extra airflow. On the rare occasion the pere has gunky buildup under the gel cap, I take the Saran Wrap off and carefully lift the gel cap up with tweezers/forceps just a couple of mm to allow a small amount of air to move in and out. Then put the Saran Wrap back on and clip loosely so the moving air in the room will not speed up the drying but still allow some air movement between the scion’s microclimate.

Some miscellaneous notes:

-You don’t want to use pere that is woody or has that weird brown stuff on the sides from old growth unless the top half of the pere is free of it and fresh growth. You want to leave the max amount of leaves to provide the maximum amount of pump to the scion.

- Using a 3-5” pere stem will give a shorter graft life as incidental things damaging the pere leaves will reduce the energy it can push to the scion.

-Albino seedlings need bigger pere and more leaves. You so need to observe and be prepared to regraft once you see the scion has enough mass to be swapped over. It’s a massive “risk” because white vari is the devil and hates being alive, but it’s all in the name of fun and knowledge because that freak shouldn’t be alive still anyways. Albino seedlings are the only thing I have seen outpace the energy output of pere, and that was with a pere stem that was too small for too long. It was a lesson in timing for me.

- If your pere stalk starts to look shrivelled and will not plump back up with a deep watering/soak, be prepared to regraft. It’s very rare for me to have to do this because I try to keep it full of water and fertilizer.

Removing the pere’s new branches ASAP is crucial to continued rapid growth of the scion. Any branch below the scion is taking almost all the energy from the scion. Yes, I know we all would rather prop that branch after a week for more pere but it isn’t worth it. The time it takes for the pere to redirect growth back to the scion can be as long or longer than the initial graft. Once you have it pushing to the scion don’t let a new branch rob you. During the first 2-3 weeks after grafting I was removing new branches every morning and evening with a razor. Carefully holding the pere stem with tweezers and slicing straight down through the emerging branch without cutting the leaf below the node is awkward at first but with a bit of practice it’s not bad. I just apply minimal pressure and take my time.

Please ask away any questions you have. It’s helpful for me and my own understanding to be able to explain it multiple ways for different types of learners and also helps me round out my own understanding and communication methods. Also it’s very possible someone will have a suggestion or trick that helps me or others have more success.

The point of this post is to hopefully encourage some folks who have never tried this or known about its potential to give it a go. The more growers that are capable of taking their seedlings and micro grafting the ones they think have unique potential, the better it is for the entire community because it increases the cool genetics and mutations we are able to share with each other.