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How to Graft Cacti

Modified: Jun 13, 2022 by Patrick Green · This post may contain affiliate links ·

It can be scary to graft cacti, but it doesn't have to be! It's actually quite easy! Cacti are tough, hardy plants who can take a beating and come back even stronger. Learn how to graft cacti below in just a few easy steps!Have you ever looked at your cactus and thought "Off with your head!"? If yes, you were either an executioner in a past life or you're ready to start grafting cacti.

Gardener grafting a cactus concept.

It's painful to think of harming our babies, but cacti didn't make it this far by being wussies. You can pretty safely lop off the head of your cactus and it will survive - assuming you made a clean cut and it doesn't get infected! That being said, you should only attempt to graft a cactus you aren't afraid to lose. The fact that you can stick to different plants, even two different species together, and they will continue to grow is downright incredible!

You've probably seen grafted cacti and didn't even know it. Those little cacti at bog box stores that have green bodies and colorful red/yellow/orange heads are all grafts! In fact, the colorful cactus on top doesn't have enough chlorophyll to photosynthesize properly - if it isn't grafted it will die!

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Jump to:
  • Tools for Grafting
  • Choosing Cacti to Graft
  • How to Graft

Tools for Grafting

  • Grafting Knife - While these knives are designed to deliver as clean a cut as possible, you can get by using another knife with similar characteristics. It's important that it is NOT serrated, has a straight edge, and is very sharp.
  • Leather Gardening Gloves - Absolutely necessary if you're going to be handling spiky cacti, obviously. A good pair of leather gloves is a great investment if you garden anyway!
  • Rubber Bands / Twine - You'll need these to hold the two cacti together while they heal.
See also
How to Get Seeds from Flowers

Read Related Topics:

  • What is a Crested (or Monstrose) Succulent?
  • Aerial Roots on Succulents
  • Water Therapy for Succulents

Choosing Cacti to Graft

Grafted cactus close-up.

When you are grafting any plant, succulents included, you use a couple of terms to describer the "grafter" and the "graftee". The stock or rootstock is the plant that is already planted and growing in the ground. You're gonna cut part of him and stick another plant there. That second plant that you're attaching to the stock is called the scion.

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There are some restraints on the kinds of cacti you can realistically expect to successfully graft. The more closely related the two cacti are, the more likely the graft is to hold. For example, cacti that are the same species are virtually guaranteed to work if you graft carefully. Cacti in the same genus will usually work too! Plants further separated than that... not too likely. You can still give it a shot!

Generally speaking, there are a couple cacti that work really well as rootstocks,

  • Cereus repandus, Peruvian Apple cactus
  • Hylocereus trigonus, Strawberry Pear cactus
See also
Kalanchoe tubiflora - Mother of Millions

You can use try to graft with any cactus you want! The ones listed are very good for beginners, however.

Make sure the plants you choose are both healthy, stable plants. The rootstock should be well established in its pot. The scion should be healthy and still growing. You want the transition to be as smooth as possible. Well... as smooth as it can be when you're playing Frankenstein with cacti.

How to Graft

Gardener grafting a cactus in a pot.

There are several different kinds of grafts. They differ in the kinds of cuts you make and where you place the transplant. Here we will describe the simplest, most effective kind - a lateral graft.

  1. Cut the head off the rootstock at your desired height. You'll need a minimum of two or three inches above the soil. Be sure to use a clean, sharp knife and make as precise a cut as possible.
  2. Cut off the head of your other cactus to create the scion. You want the scion and the rootstock to have about the same diameter where they will meet.
  3. Look at the sliced part of your cacti. You will probably see a ring, or maybe some dots that look like tubes. These are xylem and phloem, and they reside in the vascular cambium of the plant. That kind of plant tissue is responsible for making new xylem, which are like blood vessels for plants. You want to match these rings, or the tubes, as closely as you can. This is the make-or-break part of grafting. If you have a clean cut and manage to match up the sides, you should be okay.
  4. Secure the graft by putting rubber bands or twine around the entire plant. All the way from the top of the cactus, down and around the pot. Don't be worried about injuring the cacti. You just cut their heads off - what's a little pressure gonna do? If you can't manage to secure them this way, you can use a skewer like a sandwich toothpick to keep the parts together. There's a small risk of infection this way, as there is any time you wound a plant.
See also
Hurricane Cactus (Lepismium Cruciforme) Ultimate Care Guide

That's pretty much it. Not too hard, huh? After a couple of weeks the two cacti should be bonded together permanently, in sickness and in health, until death do they part. How romantic.

Once it is healed you can water it and care for it just like you did before it was grafted! Easy, right?

Have you made any crazy combinations, or tried an interesting graft? Show us in the comments below!

« 12 Edible Succulents and Cacti and How to Eat Them
Mother of Millions vs. Mother of Thousands - 3 Key Differences Between These Plants »

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Comments

  1. Diana

    September 21, 2018 at 3:32 pm

    I have a grafted cactus and would like to know if I can take the scion off and plant it?

    • Patrick Grubbs

      September 23, 2018 at 3:09 am

      Is it a moon cactus? Those colorful scions generally don't have enough chlorophyll to survive on their own, unfortunately.

      If it's a different graft, yeah, it'll probably be fine!

  2. Clyde Morris

    May 25, 2019 at 8:59 am

    Have grafted parodia werneri to stenocereus prunosus, ubelmannia pectinifera to stenocereus prunosus, stenocereus proves to be a great stock!

    • Patrick Grubbs

      May 26, 2019 at 9:39 am

      That's very impressive! Have you tried making a "chimera" - one rootstock with lots of scions from different species?

  3. Scott E. Ferguson

    November 27, 2019 at 6:45 pm

    I have grafted Sclerocactus pubispinus onto Echinopsis successfully, but you cannot let an Echinopsis freeze. So, if you do this and keep it warm, the Sclerocactus will not flower. So I started grafting them onto Opuntia rhodantha, and keep them in an unheated greenhouse here in very cold northern Utah.

    • Patrick Grubbs

      December 03, 2019 at 12:37 pm

      Thanks so much for sharing your experiences - that's a really interesting observation!! It's very valuable to hear from people trying new things.

  4. Reann

    February 29, 2020 at 4:43 pm

    I have one of the little cacti with the colourful spikey part on top. The colourful part is now more grey than yellow, can I cut that part off without attaching a new cactus to it?

    • Patrick Grubbs

      March 02, 2020 at 6:17 pm

      The graft probably didn't take, so now the scion is dying. Yes, you can probably just pop the top part off. The bottom half will live, though it might take a while to put out new growth.

  5. Deborah

    May 20, 2020 at 11:52 pm

    I have a small cactus looks like Mickey Mouse w/ an extra ear. Can I remove the extra ear & root it? If so how? This is my first experience w/ any cactus.

  6. Patrick Grubbs

    May 21, 2020 at 11:57 am

    Yes, you can! Just pull it off, stick it in dirt, and wait a few months. Make sure the "ear" is at least an inch across first so it's big enough to reproduce.

  7. Crystal Lewis

    January 05, 2021 at 9:07 am

    Where do you get the stocks and scions to make your own moon cactus?

  8. Piyush

    January 10, 2021 at 11:00 am

    I have a ruby ball bud how to grow it

  9. Donna

    February 28, 2021 at 8:57 pm

    I purchased a grafted cacti that looks very much like the picture at the beginning of this article. host rootstalk part has become pale, and semi transparent, but the scion looks fine.
    is there anything that I can do to save it or save part of it. this plan is one of 3. the other 2 seem fine.

  10. Loanna

    April 06, 2021 at 6:56 am

    Hey some friends of mine were moving my Trichocereus San Pedros cactus and snapped off the top of the tallest arm it’s really important to me i get this right. Are there any additional tips you might have to insure good results? It’s about 4ft tall

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