Grafting opuntia onto Dragonfruit, is it possible?

[Plantinyum]

Just read one cacti thread and thought what if i graft a few opuntia ears on my dragonfruit cactuses. My dragon fruits are very big plants, i have alot of material i could graft on. I want to add opuntia to my greenhouse ,but if planted in the soil it will be too moist and shady for the plant, i would like to add a few grafts at the top of my pitahayas .
I think one major problem will be the weitht of the opuntia grafts, as they start growing, but i could tie them to my greenhouse  structure, or policarbonate somehow, that way they will get alot of light and hopefully produce fruit also.
So yay or nay?

[tru]

They are related so perhaps it would work? What an interesting idea; I'm stealing it : )

apparently almost any cactus is compatible with eachother. Go crazy and graft 10 different ones 

[Plantinyum]

They are related so perhaps it would work? What an interesting idea; I'm stealing it : )

apparently almost any cactus is compatible with eachother. Go crazy and graft 10 different ones 

I also really enjoy making such experiments! Hopefully someone shows up and gives me the green light to this idea.
I may do it anyway, i have alot of opuntia ears to sacrifice haha

[Galatians522]

I have successfully grafted schlumbergera onto selenicereus and opuntia. Hylocereus is graft compatible with selenicereus. So, in theory it should work, although you might need an interstock.

[JoeP450]

Really cool idea, please update the forum on any success or failure on this 👍

-joe

[Nuraxi]

Hello,
I had seen in a video in YouTube, in Mexico that they had succeeded grafted dragon fruit to opuntia, and so I tried too two years ago, this my graft ..
 hylocereus undatus on opuntia..


opuntia on dragonfruit could also work, but I think it would be really too heavy to support.

[Plantinyum]

Thanks for all the feed back ! The net says that all cacti are graftable, dont know if theres any merit to this...
I will do severall grafts theese days and will definitely report here with some pictures of the grafts also!


Nuraxi , is this the growth on the graft for two years? If thats the case, could opuntia dwarf dragonfruit?  Seems like this if too shy of a growth for a 2 y/o graft.  Yes it will be guite heavy  but i plan to support the grafts by strings that pass trought the pollicarbonate and tie them to it. Or use stakes in some way, havent really decided yet.

[Nuraxi]

Nuraxi , is this the growth on the graft for two years? If thats the case, could opuntia dwarf dragonfruit?  Seems like this if too shy of a growth for a 2 y/o graft.  Yes it will be guite heavy  but i plan to support the grafts by strings that pass trought the pollicarbonate and tie them to it. Or use stakes in some way, havent really decided yet.
[/quote]

This in the photo is the growth from April to October, then I was planting it in the ground, but it fell and I broke it, but I will try again in the future, i have success whit cleft graft , before grafting I removed all the thorns and buds from the 'opuntia, the central graft is died after a month.

[Plantinyum]

I know that i may not be able to forse the grafts to push, like you were with the opuntia via removing the areoles. My dragon fruit plants are way too big to do thid, and the general idea is not to top work it but rather to have a opuntia growing on it. I will remove the areoles on the granch that i graft on only. I will tie the grafted branches so that they are positioned higher ,compared to the main canopy of the plants , hopefully this helps to force the grafts to grow more easily

[Plantinyum]

Heres an update on the subject, i grafted 4 opuntia ears on my dragonfrut plants, 2 on each plant. A week  or more has passed now since i did them, none of them have dessicated at this point. I did two flat liner grafts and 2 cleft type grafts, i already see some kind of a calous or smt on one of them, the other ones are hidden by the electric cable tape thet i used to fix the grafts. Still havent removed the areoles of the dragonfruit branches i grafted on, i am just wating some more as i dont want to be removing them in case the grafts fail.
I covered them with nylon baggies to keep moisture inside.

Those are the cleft grafts.

[Plantinyum]

Heres an update on the subject, i grafted 4 opuntia ears on my dragonfrut plants, 2 on each plant. A week  or more has passed now since i did them, none of them have dessicated at this point. I did two flat liner grafts and 2 cleft type grafts, i already see some kind of a calous or smt on one of them, the other ones are hidden by the electric cable tape thet i used to fix the grafts. Still havent removed the areoles of the dragonfruit branches i grafted on, i am just wating some more as i dont want to be removing them in case the grafts fail.
I covered them with nylon baggies to keep moisture inside.

Those are the cleft grafts.





This one is a flat liner, for lack of a better word to decribe it. Just a straight line cut . It kinda opened on the ends, light passes trough but in the center i think there is enough contact in order for it to work, seing some kind of growth that fills the void between the scion and rootstock.

Jeez ,just quoted myself ,sorry bout that!

[tru]

lookin good

[Plantinyum]

lookin good

Yeah, i will have to start removing the nylon bags that keep the humidity soon, i will do it slowly in the timeframe of a few days, in order to not shock them. It will show what took and what not at this point, as humidity may be keeping them fresh and plump now, withouth them having any connection or fusion to the roottock.

[Plantinyum]

Here are a few up to date pics of the grafts, all 4 apear to have took, 3 of them are growing and the fourth is having an apical bud swell i think. Growing slowly atm , compared to the dragon fruits new growth. For anyone doing this i would suggest to do the grafts in the cleft style, alot easier to do and with this method the grafts have alot more surface area contact with the rootstock.