Grafting Christmas cactus onto a cactus is easy to keep alive, blooms in a riot of colors, and can truly be called the universal graft
Grafting Christmas cactus onto Pereskia
Grafting Christmas cactus onto Pereskia is arguably the most common graft in the hobby, and gardeners have played with it to death, stacking it up layer by layer and even enjoying Christmas cacti of different colors.
Specific steps:
1. First, choose a Pereskia branch, ideally a relatively thick main stem with moderate maturity and areoles (the spots where we'll graft) that haven't aged yet.
2. Once the rootstock is chosen, we start preparing the scion. Take 1-3 stem segments from the tip of the Christmas cactus and use a sterilized blade to shave off the flesh on both sides of the leaf base, exposing the white pith in the middle.
Then choose the grafting spot on the Pereskia, remove the leaves and branches, split it open with a knife, insert the prepared Christmas cactus segment into the split, and secure it with a small clip.
3. When grafting, try to make the wound width of the Christmas cactus smaller than the diameter of the Pereskia stem. After grafting, you can cover it with a transparent plastic bag to prevent the scion from losing water, and remove the bag after a week.
4. The above describes the cleft grafting method. There is also the side-veneer grafting method, which mainly uses the areole position on the Pereskia.
Cut a wedge-shaped notch at the areole of the Pereskia, exposing the green pith. This time the Christmas cactus is only cut on one side, with a size matching the notch on the Pereskia. Join the Christmas cactus to the Pereskia, making sure there are no gaps, and secure it with a clip.
Grafting white-haired cactus onto Pereskia
Pereskia's power continues to shine - let's take a look at how grafting white-haired cactus turns out!
Grafting white-haired cactus and similar plants is quite aggressive: cut a cross-shaped incision directly into the bottom of the white-haired cactus, sharpen the top of the Pereskia, and insert the white-haired cactus directly, to a depth of about 1cm.
Grafting other plants onto Pereskia
1. Grafting a cactus
Grafting this kind of cactus may not look very pretty, but a successful graft still feels quite novel. Just imagine a slender stem bearing so many round, fleshy balls - it's quite amusing to look at.
2. Grafting monkey tail cactus
Doesn't the grafted monkey tail cactus have a cute feel to it too? This is our favorite combination.