In the past, chimaeric trees have been frequently created by grafting two budding points together. I don't believe the process has ever been adapted to cacti before, so I thought I would try my hand.
The test subjects: a small, malnourished M. geometrizans rescued from a flower shop, and a pup from a Home Depot moon cactus lost to root rot.
The moon cactus tissue was pared down to the bottom half of a single areole, and a corresponding chunk was removed from the Myrtillocactus rootstock. I took a bit too much out of the roostock, so I had to shove a piece back in.
The wound was dressed as well as it could be with a scrap of nylon. It was then bagged to stave off dehydration, given some light watering, and placed on my "low light" shelf.
Due to my rather clumsy graft, I doubt it will take, but it'd be really cool if it did. I plan to leave the dressing on for two weeks. Regardless of whether the graft takes, I may try a second graft on the next-highest areole. If success is found, I plan to chop off the etiolated growth tip, remove all areoles above the transplant site, and wait for it to pup.
