Cactus reproduction

Propagation of cacti by cuttings

Like other houseplants, some cacti can be propagated by cuttings. The difference is that cuttings of cacti (except for forest, semi-polyphytic) are never put into the water.

When to cut cacti

It is advisable to cut cuttings in spring or summer. Since autumn, most cacti require a dormant period. From the fact that you cut the stalk not in the spring, it itself will not suffer and even take root, but the mother plant will suffer.

However, there are cases when you cannot do without cuttings: if a cactus is sick, dies and you need to save at least something, the only way out is to try to cuttings the top of the head.

In

what cases is it worth cutting a cactus

1. If the stem is single in the cactus, cuttings are appropriate when:

• the stem is too long and ugly,
• the stem is too long and can drop the pot,
• the stem is too long and rests against the shelf or frame of the window, there is little space for it,
• the stem was strongly tested in the lower part or the roots and root neck were rotted.

Usually, cutting a single stem is reduced to cutting and re-rooting the apex. But if the length of the stem allows, you can cut it into several cuttings.

2. If the cactus branches well, then you can cut the cuttings in order to share with friends or grow yourself another specimen.

How to grind cacti

Tools and equipment

• sharp knife - preferably clerical with a thin blade and an even edge, or a razor blade;
• alcohol for disinfection;
• crushed charcoal;
• a pot or plate with drainage holes;
• cactus soil;
• several pebbles;
• large plastic tweezers (you can use tweezers from a toy set) or kitchen tongs with silicone pads.

How to scoop or root the top of a cactus

1. We take our cactus, which we are going to cut. Carefully choose the place where we will cut. If, for example, a cactus with a rotting stem, then we must cut off only the healthy part of the stem.

2. Wipe the tool (knife, razor) with alcohol.

3. We grab the cactus by the top of the head with tweezers or kitchen tongs so as not to break the spines. If there are no tweezers or tongs, use a paper tourniquet: fold a sheet of paper into several layers and wrap the cactus around the stem.

4. Cut off the desired part of the stem. Put on the side on paper, dry the cut in a shaded, non-hot place for 2-4 days. If you cut a cutting from a sick plant, it is better to sprinkle it with crushed charcoal.

The slice can be left flat in one plane. But sometimes in a cut handle (except prickly pears) at the cut point, the stem is "sharpened" like a pencil. This provides stronger roots.

5. Pour cactus soil into the pot. The soil can be slightly moistened. We lay several pebbles on the ground surface. We put the cuttings dried for several days not on the ground, but on pebbles. If the handle is thin and unstable, the support must be fixed in the pot and the handle must be tied to it with a woolen thread. You can put the cuttings of the cactus directly on the ground, but in this case, it must be completely dry. If the cut of the cutting touches a wet surface, it will quickly rot and die.

Using large pebbles instead of upper drainage is much more convenient when rooting cuttings. After all, they can be easily removed and see if the roots have appeared. However, you should not look under the cactus every few days so as not to harm it. When the roots are old enough, they will be visible.

6. We put the pot on bright but diffused light. Ideally, the east window. If the side is south, then under the shade of tulle.

Roots appear within 1-2 weeks, in rare cases longer. Once I got a cut top of a huge cerius as a gift, 25 cm long and 8 cm in diameter. So, I had to first dry this handle for 2 weeks, and then, putting it in a pot on dry ground, and, strengthening it with stones of expanded clay, wait two months for the roots to appear.

Alternatively, it is possible to root the cuttings of the cactus above the water. In some cases, the roots appear faster than on the ground. For this method, water is poured onto the bottom of the jar, a funnel with a wide hole is cut out of a plastic bottle or paper. Place the cactus stalk so that its cut is 5 mm above the water. As the water evaporates, you need to top up. As soon as the roots are pecked, the cactus can be planted on the ground: not buried, but put directly on the surface of the substrate.

By the way, cuttings of cactus are able to grow roots even just lying on the side, on the shelf. But there is a difference: when drying vertically, the roots appear evenly over the entire surface of the slice. While when drying in a horizontal position, the roots appear more on the side on which the cactus lies.

Propagation of cacti by children

This is probably the easiest way to breed. It is suitable only for those cacti that form children. It must be remembered that the strongest and most viable children are located closer to the top of the cactus. But usually this is not important, you need to take children where the mother plant is least affected, where they are already superfluous.

In some cacti, the children themselves fall off and fall to the ground over time. Others have to be carefully removed with tweezers. Sometimes the place where the baby comes from is imperceptible among thorns or hairs. Or it may turn out that in the place of breaking the baby, a bald spot forms, this spoils the mother plant. In this case, the children need to be separated while they are still very small.

Kids of cacti without roots need to be fixed on an almost dry substrate with pebbles. Children with large roots need to be planted in the ground, in the hole.

Children of cacti, unlike cuttings, do not need to be dried, they easily root on slightly moist soil. However, reproduction by children has a significant drawback - with prolonged, repeated reproduction by children, the quality of the resulting plants decreases.

Sometimes, if children are not taken from the cactus, then they, growing and covering the whole plant, give it a completely bizarre look. Leave or remove the children of the taste of each owner cacti. But if your pet is sick, then it is better to remove the children from him, because he will need extra strength to recover.

Cactus inoculation

Inoculation is one method of vegetative propagation of cacti that has a specific purpose.

Why vaccinate cacti

• vaccination is done in order to make the cactus bloom, which is difficult to bloom;
• vaccination is done when the cactus can die from the fact that it has lost its roots (for example, they rotted);
• vaccination of cacti is done when it is not possible to root the cuttings in another way;
• cacti are grafted when the species is very difficult to maintain if it grows on its own roots;
• when just wondering what it looks like or to get a curious combination.

With all the advantages, cactus grafting has a significant drawback - grafted plants, in most cases, are not durable, since this is still not a natural operation for plants.

In general, it is better to vaccinate on rare species of cacti for an experienced cactus player who has known these plants for several years, since this is a complex and painstaking procedure in which failures often occur from the slightest violation of the rules.

The following conditions must be observed during vaccination

It is necessary to vaccinate in the spring, or at the beginning of summer, except for those cases when the roots of the cactus were rotted in the fall, I really do not want to lose a valuable specimen. But even then, the outcome may not always be positive. If you still have to be vaccinated in winter, the rootstock cactus must be put into a state of growth, increasing its watering, illumination and increasing the surrounding temperature for this.

All instruments must be sterile, for this they are wiped with alcohol. Both cacti, which will be used as rootstock and graft, are best wiped with a brush dipped in alcohol.

The cut should be fresh, not having time to dry.

The rootstock and the graft should be combined so that their cambial rings on the cut coincide as best as possible, so the diameters of the cuts should be such that the diameters of the cambial rings are also the same. It is from the coincidence of cambium rings that the success of vaccination largely depends.

The sections on the rootstock and graft should be horizontal and even, and the bandage linking the two plants held them firmly, but did not cut into the cactus tissue. By the way, you can also vaccinate seedlings, cut over cotyledons.

Cactus inoculation technique

After the cacti are prepared and treated with alcohol, the tool is disinfected, the top is cut off with rootstock and graft. Immediately, until the sections begin to dry and oxidize, they must be combined so that the conductive bundles of the cambial rings coincide as much as possible. To press the graft to the stock, it is recommended to use threads or a thin elastic band.

I did this: I cut off two thick capron strips from the tights. At first I took one of them and one of its ends was glued with tape or plaster to the wall of the pot. She threw the thread through the connected cacti between the spines and pulled it from the opposite end of the pot so that the thread did not cut into the skin of the cactus, but at the same time firmly held the graft on the rootstock. Then, the second end of the thread was glued with tape. She also pulled the second thread, only from the other side of the pot, so that both threads were arranged crosswise. Instead of a capron thread, you can use a plumbing fumelent.

It is important to act quickly during vaccination. If something goes wrong with you, the procedure is delayed, then either make more recent sections - they should not be dry, or cover the sections with a piece of cling film to protect them from drying out.

In some cases, in rootstock, on the contrary, juice is released too intensively, like in Eriocerius, and interferes with the correct and tight alignment of the cambial rings. Stock up on sterile gauze wipes beforehand. Never wipe off the sections with cotton pads or cloth.

Taking care of cacti after vaccination

After vaccination, the cactus must be put in a dry, warm and bright place, but necessarily shaded from the direct sun. Water moderately only when the soil dries thoroughly (do not allow complete drying), and avoid getting water on wounds and sections at the vaccination site. So the cactus is kept for two weeks, then the dressing on the vaccine is removed, and the cactus, after gradually accustoming to bright light, is transferred to the usual maintenance mode.

Propagation of cacti by seeds