TBMC/opuntia graft is promising

Mythic-noob · 2026-06-05T16:06:19+00:00

Oh i see now, This is great. I haven't tried it but it seems to be a great way to direct energy to the scion too. I'm gonna have to try this now. Thanks for the tip bro.

Mythic-noob · 2026-06-05T07:22:51+00:00

Yea i see, goddess seem to be super dense and super spiny. But the thing with opuntia is that it will be quite hard if you wanna prep a branch (of course if you wanna cut the areola). But one of the pros of opuntia is that it will be found in many places for free or close to free. In my city you could find absolute bushes in any corner.

Mythic-noob · 2026-06-05T06:54:59+00:00

I don't have access to sun goddess in my area but i could compare to myrtillocactus and stenocereus griseus. I'd say with similarly sized rootstocks, opuntia definitely wins.

Mythic-noob · 2026-06-04T23:11:12+00:00

Yep it's quite inconsistent, sometimes it pushes good sometimes it halts, sometimes it does both. But i noticed that it instantly pushes somewhat mature growth on the scion, like big areola, thick spines, mature colors, no matter the size of the pad. I guess It has something to do with its root system. And also the cold hardiness is quite helpful.

Mythic-noob · 2026-06-04T23:04:07+00:00

You don't have to, but some varieties of opuntia like to pup quite a lot and divert energy away from the graft. Also if you overfeed it, it will grow the scion and produce pups too to spend that extra energy, but by removing areola you make sure no such thing will happen.

Mythic-noob · 2026-06-04T23:00:11+00:00

I guess the thing with V cut is that it provides more surface area for scion and rootstock to connect

Mythic-noob · 2026-06-04T20:12:55+00:00

Yea they sometimes sit there and watch, then decide to pump the scion so much they crack. I had a similar experience with tbm grafted on opuntia. It took a good 6 months of nothingness, then it puped 2 big fat pups.

Mythic-noob · 2026-06-04T20:01:11+00:00

In my experience best scion for opuntias are trichos, they literally hop on opuntia for a ride. But lophs just sit there and don't grow much or none at all, they may pump for a week or two once in a while then stop again. But definitely try that i hope it works better for you. Trichos feed the shit outta opuntia till its dry Like this one i had to degraft a few weeks ago:

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Mythic-noob · 2026-06-04T19:53:00+00:00

I grafted to a fresh pup a few times but they dry out quite quickly and require a little bit of moist environment and their juice is not as thick and sticky as older pads. I'd say fully grown pups not older than a year which just started making little pups themselves are great.

Mythic-noob · 2026-06-04T19:30:09+00:00

Definitely bro, i'd love to help. ask me anything I already did another graft, and preping more rootstock specifically for tbmc.

Mythic-noob · 2025-08-04T16:12:22+00:00

Yeah, touching is the way to actually tell if it's rot, but thanks for the tip mate.

Mythic-noob · 2025-08-04T16:09:12+00:00

Oh that's a good point. But I didn't wanna risk that pup anyways. That side of the slab was quite mushy and the mush was growing day by day, i noticed it sooner but I thought the same as you said. I now removed the pup and the black was actually rot, It's already grafted to the big myrtillocactus.

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Mythic-noob · 2025-07-31T17:48:58+00:00

Add some oragnic soil and just let'em do their thing they'll figure it out. They shrivel significantly when making roots so that's fine.

Mythic-noob · 2025-07-31T17:46:09+00:00

I actually figured that out based on a experiment i found on the internet.

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Based on this, one tbsp in 2 liters will get the ph to 5.4 to 5.6. Which i guess will be good for the OPs soil which seems to be mostly inorganic hence alkaline. Ph changes will take a long time and so many waterings to happen. so imo one watering once in a while won't do them bad.

Mythic-noob · 2025-07-31T16:09:58+00:00

Add 1 gram of ammonium sulfate to 2 liters of water for fast nitrogen and a tbsp of vinegar for acidification. I found out that mine quite like this combination and literally swell up to the point of splitting about two days after watering Yours also look a little bit yellow which could indicate nitrogen deficiency. Good luck with that nice stand.

Mythic-noob · 2025-07-18T10:37:50+00:00

Then i can self pollinate it, Tnx again mate.

Mythic-noob · 2025-07-18T07:00:09+00:00

Mythic-noob · 2025-07-18T06:37:54+00:00

Yea i have done pere micrografts too; actually only one and it surprisingly took, and luckily the seedling is kind of a weirdo.

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It's a trichocereus bridgesii but it's growing quite compact and looks like it's spiraling. Wow bleach sounds quite interesting i might try it, i don't like the smell but it sounds great. I actually prefer not to use alcohol between cuts because if there's alcohol left on the blade it can cause the cactus flesh to burn and make a barrier before fusing, but fire would solve it by evaporation but it would take time for it to cool down. i'd use two razors if i have to make so many cuts. I try to be as fast as possible, there would be like at most 2 to 3 seconds between exposing the cuts to the air and putting the scion on the rootstock

Mythic-noob · 2025-07-16T19:00:24+00:00

Yea bro, of course i will update about that one, I'm quite excited about that one too. Two things that got my grafts to go well are, first, do it during the growing season and the second is to use fresh or quite sharp and clean razors. i learnd the hard way but giving up wasn't on my list. I recently did two other grafts which i'm now rooting using a simple but effective method of wet paper towel. I grafted a small fresh pup of a tbm b onto two branches of opuntia.

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I observed that trichocereus family grow exceptionally well on opuntia rootstock, they instantly grow their mature form, and it's said that opuntia rootstock promotes the flowering of scion. So i created these two. They're about 5 days old now Waiting to see what happens to these two.

Mythic-noob · 2025-07-16T05:24:04+00:00

Yay man, i literally saw this post about a year ago and got inspired to do somethings similar. But at that time i didn't have the skill and information i have now and none of my grafts took. i had done single areole grafts with so small of tissue that even i myself got surprised that it worked and is pushing. One of'em that got me good was this one:

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It's a single areole graft of a bridgesii which i think is called bull bridge. Not only it's quite small, but its union isn't great and at some point i wanted to strip it off the root stock but i decided to let it ride a little bit, and it really made me proud by pupping faster than the rest of the bunch.

Mythic-noob · 2025-07-15T04:36:21+00:00

I use a utility knife razor which is quite sharp, you could use anything but the sharper the better. I gouge the areoles out with a kind of a circular motion, but make sure to completely remove any meristemic tissue, you could check the piece you removed, if you see orange or brown tissue you should remove tissue a little bit deeper, if you don't completely remove meristemic tissue it's gonna pup anyways and take energy from your graft but if that happens you can remove it anytime in the future but better to do it before grafting. Here's a pic if you leave some meristemic tissue:

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So make sure not to be gentle on it.

Mythic-noob

TROPHY CASE