You know when you have a desert rose with a beautiful caudex, but the one with the wonderful flowers doesn’t? So you think about joining the two. Although it seems complicated, this is very simple knowing how to graft desert rose.
Whenever we do a desert rose graft, we are afraid of everything going wrong, and I’ll be honest, you can lose two or more plants in this process.
However, following this step-by-step, your chances of killing your plants are almost impossible!
I will show you a series of 5 steps that will allow you to graft without killing your plants. In addition, I will give tips for the sprouts to come faster using the correct fertilizers.
How to graft desert rose
The desert rose is a plant native to the African continent with succulent stems. It is a type of plant that has adapted to live in places with little water and lots of sun over the years.
Its beautiful, showy flowers with usually white details and spiral-shaped pinks appear almost all year round.
It is possible to propagate a desert rose with cuttings or seeds, but the plants will not flower within a year. However, with desert rose grafting, this process is faster.
Follow the step-by-step instructions below to graft an exemplary desert rose on your plants and get several different flowers on the same plant!
Requirements to graft desert rose
- Sharp knife
- Elastic
- plastic film
- Bleach
- 10-10-10 fertilizers
Step 1
Soak your slitting tool, scissors, and grafting knife in a mixed solution of 1 part bleach and 9 parts water for about 10 minutes. After that, remove the tools and let them dry.
This procedure is used to sterilize your cutting equipment. Learning how to graft desert rose is very important; your equipment may have fungi and bacteria that have contaminated your plant and killed it later.
Step 2
Choose the plant you want your stem to grow into and choose which plant will be the base/rootstock/horse.
Both must be healthy plants without any disease and that are already established. A tip is to choose a base with a beautiful caudex. That way, your plant will be even more beautiful.
Another important detail is to choose a plant that is already flowering to be on top of the rootstock.
Step 3
Cut the rootstock at the height of at least 10 cm from the caudex. On the other hand, cut the stem of the plant you want to graft to a size of at least 2 cm.
Attention, the stem of the plant that will be grafted must have at least one bud, which are those lighter spots that were once left.
It is from this bud that the buds will come out, and the piece that will be grafted desert rose must have 1 to 3 buds because, more than that, it is already very long.
Detail the cuts must be flat, and the rootstock must be wider than the stem that will become the graft.
Step 4
With a paper towel, press the cuts to remove excess sap. After that, place the stem that will be grafted on top of the rootstock so that it is right in the center.
Step 5
Now press the grafted stem and secure it using the plastic film. The plastic should cover all the cuts.
After placing the plastic, use the elastic to hold the plastic film.
Waiting time:
Now you will have to wait and leave your desert rose in the shade until a bud appears from inside the graft. It should take around 15 days to hatch.
When born, you will have to remove the rubber and plastic. And start letting your desert rose to get the morning sun between 6 am and 8 am, then increase it by 30 min to 1 hour a day, avoiding the midday sun initially.
Fertilizing during this period is also very important for your plant. Use chemical fertilizers for desert roses.
For chemical fertilizer, use the good old 10-10-10 slow release.
Warning!
Now how to graft desert rose seems easy. However, check out this tip!
When handling desert roses, be careful with their sap. It is poisonous and can cause stomach pain, nausea, and skin irritation.
Work carefully wearing gloves. See more about desert rose poison here.
3+1 Desert rose
Many breeders with branched stem desert roses (more than 3 thick stems) are grafting 3 different desert rose flower varieties. They are certainly beautiful plants.
For example, they graft a blue, yellow, and red variety on a pink desert rose.
When the grafts grow, they will bloom and generate a flowering canopy of various colors!
So how would you like to have a 3+1 desert rose? What other type of graft do you know for desert roses? Leave a comment so everyone can learn from popular wisdom!
