Ari, I use the z graft too when the stock is larger than scion, both on the bench and in the field- it has worked quite well for me, heals over very nicely, and supports vigorous growth without breakage. After doing a few hundred, I can do them pretty quickly. My own technique is that my first cut on the stock is a short cut, I don’t remove much more than 1/2" of bark before doing the slice which leaves the attached flap that the sicon is inserted under. The longer cut on the scion gets a similarly sliced flap at the base of the whip cut, this is what ‘saddles’ the end stub of the stock. Without this feature, it is a veneer or inlay graft. Problem is that the longer whip cut and the second slice on the scion are not on the same plane, so I make a third cut by lifting the flap on the scion(which I make longer than necessary) with my knife and doing another angled cut that will match up better with the receiving plane on the stock. I hope that makes sense- maybe I will try some pics…
Happy to report that the warm spell has helped my peach and nectarine grafts on prunus americana, they are now showing green…
Also pleased to see signs of life on the pawpaw and persimmons, my first go at these in the spring. I tried summer budding persimmons without success a couple years ago, thanks to the discussions on this forum I felt confident to try again.
I got some beach plum scion, ‘Hancock’ and ‘Premier’, some I put on seedling BP and I also did a pair on myrobalan, all took. I will train them two on myrobalan as standards, rather than the bush form BP naturally wants to be.
It looks gret, but in my opion you took it off to early.
I wrap my scions with parafilm before I graft when I am sitting comfortably in the house. I take them all outside and begin grafting. Everyone has their preferred methods, and sometimes it seems that if you hold your tongue wrong when cutting the scion it won’t take 
It is hard to change what works and using parafilm on the whole scion has increased my success rate, although that also could be due to more experience as time goes on.
I grafted my peach yesterday. I had a very large understock and I bark grafted some contender scion onto it. I usually make a vertical slit in the bark and then peal it back and place the scion in. This time I did not make the vertical cut but instead I just gently inserted a knife just enough to release the bark , started the scion and then tapped it down until it was at the desired depth. It seemed to make a much tighter connection and was easier to tape up. Now just have to see if they take.
That’s interesting Derby. I’ve always not liked the looser connection of splitting the bark in a vertical slit. I’ve not had a lot of experience grafting on large understocks. Thanks for the tip.
That’s how we did it at the apple orchard I worked at, no slit bark graft. Then vinyl tape around the stub and Doc Farwells sealant over it all. The owner also told us not to leave any nurse limbs…huh?!? We converted 3 or so acres this spring, stumping them at 2-3’, and top working hard cider varieties onto the decapitated trees. Better, tighter connection should help against blow outs later on.
Jesse…
How long after grafting the persimmon and pawpaw did you start to see growth? How were your temperatures during that time?
This waiting stuff is killing me, I swear. Probably doesn’t help that this time of year I’m out looking at and doing stuff in the yard every day.
Scott
About a week or so to see some greentips push, not all of them showing this, but enough to encourage me😀
Fireblight killed my Seckel Pear to the ground last year.
Three new varieties grafted to the green rootstock suckers about a month ago.
Warren, Winter Nellis, and Beurre Fouqueray.
I haven’t used the Omega grafter that my brother gave me for Christmas too much yet- I actually prefer the cleft graft for most purposes. But, I have been experimenting with it on some peach and nectarine grafts. That is the area where I feel like there is the most room to improve my take rate. One problem is that I can only use fairly large scions with it, so I’m fairly limited in how many of these I can make.
Bob,
The saddle graft sure is a nice looking graft when using a grafting tool! I did some of those years ago that turned out very nice in The long run.The tools are wonderful when you have perfect pencils for rootstock and scions. One trick I use since the perfect stuff seldom exists and is slightly different for every tool is I grow my rootstock out a year or two until somewhere on my rootstock is the perfect diameter then I cut it in that spot when making my graft. That makes higher grafts than is normal. Then when I cut my scions from my trees I take my perfect pencil with me to gauge the caliper. When I was new to grafting I used a cresent wrench to slide over the branch to gauge the width of the branch until I found the correct size. If you create the perfect grafting conditions in that way you can graft 100’s of field grafts in an hour. Unfortunately your limited to that perfect scenario to get the most out of your grafting tool. That was a great present!
I tried the grafting tool. I like it, but there are 3 issues to deal with. One, the grafting wood has to be in certain size range. Second, I have to put a counter rotating twist on the piece I’m cutting to make sure it stays centered. Else, it will cut off to the side with smaller pieces. Third, the bark tends to separate easily and become a mess if the bark is slipping (on the stock). If I can manage these issues, then I can get more grafts out of a scion.
What about the tools that cut chip buds, do they work ? I am looking at one to do chip budding this summer as my take rate right now is almost zero so I would like to improve it.
I’ve been using the omega tool for three years and love it. I can do one bud grafts with it if I need to stretch the bud wood out. Plus it’s so fast!
I like my omega tool as well. It’s worked very well.
I am declaring victory on about 60% of my apple and pear grafts. Here are some of the varieties newly grafted into my orchard:
Baker’s Delicious
Sun Tan [orange tape]
Crimson Gala
