Peyote Grafting

Nan's Nook : Archives : Botanicals : San Pedro, Peyote, Mescaline : Peyote : Peyote Grafting
  Subtopic Posts Updated Creator
Double Pickle Graft Tek w/pics 1 6/03 Nanook
Button Grafts w/notes on double-pickle tek  3 5/03  Malformed
Peyote Grafting 9 6/03 deckard
LOPHOPHORA WILLIAMSISII TO TRICHOCEREUS CANDICANS 1   Fungusmaximus
Graft Alkaloid Content 8   RBX
When can I take buttons for grafting? 6 7/03 Voodoo

By Nan (Nanook) on Sunday, January 27, 2002 - 06:41 pm:

graft.jpg

A young Peyote button grafted to a San Pedro. This graft is only a few weeks old. It has already sprouted a new bud from the side of the tiny button.

By Nan (Nanook) on Sunday, January 27, 2002 - 06:44 pm:

graft2.jpg


This is the same grafted plant one year later. It has three harvestable Peyote buttons growing from the orginal grafted button... Total of four buttons from one graft. The growing points from each of these buttons may also be grafted when the buttons are taken in harvest.

Edited to add... This was an exceptional plant (I have seen posts from people who think I added a season or two because theirs did not match my growth)... One out of 20 grafts done that season (you only show your best) and it was in fact only one year old when this photo was taken.  Witnessed by CapNGill

By Nanook of the North (Nanook) on Sunday, October 07, 2001 - 08:09 am:

Innovative Peyote Graft:

You lose a growing point (the point from which nodes or areoles originate in cacti) when you cut off a mature button cactus for harvest. �Do you realize that you can have your cake and eat it too? �You can graft that growing point with the proper technique. Here is the procedure:

Remove a large healthy button cactus from the root (or graft) with a clean sharp knife. �Rinse the button well under tap water. �Mix 10-15 drops of Betadine in 1/2 cup of water, and dip the button in the iodine sanitizing solution. Set aside, and prepare your grafting stock:

Cut the very tip off a Pedro stalk (about 2 inches) with a single flat cross cut. �Using a sterile knife, remove a small cone of tissue (a conical plug) around the pith ring. �You are going to remove an identical sized plug from your button which contains the button's growing point, so keep an eye on your plug size. �Better to remove too little tissue from the root stock than too much.

With a sterile knife remove a pickle slice from the bottom of the button cactus. �Using a small sterilized paring knife, remove the center growing point of the button cactus, cutting from the clean sliced bottom upwards. �You want to remove a conical plug of button cactus, containing the growing point, that will fit into the conical hole in the top of the prepared root stock.

Insert the plug of button cactus tissue into the prepared hole of the root stock, and bind it with rubber bands.

From the button cactus you are left with a donut ring which contains most of the flesh. �The center growing point of the button cactus is conserved, grafted, and will regrow into a new button.

This grafting technique is designed to conserve the growing points of large mature button cacti that are harvested for whatever reason. �In my dream I saw that these grafts were exceptionally robust, taking quickly, and producing a strong union between the grafted tissue and the root stock.

Now once the graft has taken, you can carefully strip the top areoles from the top 2-3 inches of the root stock to prevent parasitic off shoots near the graft.


AZMMC


Grafting can be very touchy.
A little complicated but still easy enough to do.
Check out the picture.
Before I graft I water my cacti so that they plump up abit.
Sterilize or clean all surfaces.
To make the graft you will need a very sharp cutting device. I use single edged carpet knife blades, they're thick and extremely sharp.
Clean the blades, there is usually oil on them.
Get some rubber bands and clean them.

After choosing which cacti you will graft, you will need to decide on where you will cut.
I make sure thatthat the button is 1/2" in height after cutting.
The cacti to be gratfed and the grafting surface will ooze a very little juice, bleeds abit.
The cut must be made in one clean slice, no sawing action on the cacti. This will cause a rough surface making the graft not want to adhere to the grafting cacti.
Both grafting surfaces must be cut in one clean slice, no sawing.
When I place the cacti on the grafting surface I slide it around on the grafting surface, the little peyo I slide it over the edge of the grafting surface about a third of the diameter of the peyo to remove the oxygen bubble between the two grafting surfaces.
If you look at the photo you will notice in the center of the cacti there is a circle of ribs, all cacti have them.


This is what you need to align on both cacti.
This is how water is transported to the growing tip of cacti.
Now comes the difficult part and that is lining up the center of each cacti together.
When you think you have the centers aligned you need to apply pressure for about 5 days for the graft to take. If the graft does not work you will notice that the grafts peel apart.
All it takes is for one rib to line up and the cacti will explode with growth during the next few months.

Very amazing. After the cactus grafts take I trim the san pedro's like they are in the pics.

Oh yeah I forgot to say b4, the rubber bands are what I us to create the pressure needed to hold the grafts together. The san pedro needles are small enough to lightly stretch over the graft. I use 2 and cross them over like an X over the top of the graft.
Make sure to be gentle in all phases of the grafting process.

I keep my babies in low light. All things need to hardened to the sun. I also killed over 50 2 year old seedlings trying to harden them against the sun leaving them exposed to long.

I just leave the root base in the soil and within the next season tiny pups emerge from the base of it. High Times Mag wrote up a very good article years ago on grafting peyo to san pedro. The san pedro grafting stock should be well rooted and healthy growing.  Shit, I have so much san pedro its insane, the stuff grows 16"+ each season. I keep cutting and rooting the stuff. It's called the Fence post cactus in South America where it comes from. They made animal corals out if it, because it grows so fast.

I hope all work well for you in you Stewardship of the Sacrament.
You will be rewarded ten time for the effort.