I thought that I was the only one who used window blinds for labels. They are easy to work with and I expect them to outlast me.
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I finally surveyed my grafts yesterday, and I was blown away by my successes. Half way through the season I switched to bark grafting from cleft grafting and had nearly 100% success with the bark grafts.
I had a decent amount success on apples with cleft grafts, but I also had some failures too, but when I switched to bark grafting on peaches and plums, and had damn near all successful grafts.
Here’s a shot of a failed cleft graft on a PF-24 peach next to my successful bark grafts.
I think my plan going forward is to only do bark grafts unless it’s not physically possible. No only did I have a much greater success rate, I found bark grafting to be much quicker and easier than other types.
It appears that all of my plums have taken too, which if you remember, I originally grafted them backwards and redo them and flip them over a few days later.
I know I’m not out of the woods yet, and these could still fail, but I’m still blown away because this is by far the success I’ve ever had (this is only my second year of grafting)
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Bart,
Your first pic, it looks like the scion is upside down?
To me, Bark graft needs two things: bark to slip so timing is important and the scion needs to be much smaller than the stump to make it easier to insert the scion.
Congrafts on grafting peach. I don’t have much success grafting on older peach wood/ branches. Most success with the last year’s wood. That’s my experience.
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Congratulations Bart! I switched from cleft to bark about five years ago and never looked back.
@mamuang, for larger scions you cut them at an angle - think about making a cut shaped like a “J” as you hold up the scion. I got this idea from Konrad’s bark grafting tutorial over on GW. I have done hundreds of these. One other advantage of the J cuts is you can do bark grafts on those 1/2-1" stocks which normally would be too small for a bark graft.
Scott,
Excuse my lack of imagination. Can you post pic, please?
I vaguely recall Konrad’s tutorial. At the time, I was not ibterested in grafting !!!
Here is one of Konrad’s pictures:
I usually make it more “J” shaped, curving/scooped on the right part of the cut. I also put a bit of taper in it, Konrad puts no taper at all. But its just personal preference, I think Konrad’s method works well as-is.
Thanks, Scott. I looked up that thread.
Konrad is very amazing, so innovative on a lot of things fruit and fruit- related devices. An excellent photographer to boot.
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Check out @SkillCult new bark grafting video from his grafting series. He discusses a variety of cuts you can use with bark grafting.
I think that’s the shape I use for cleft grafts (curving tapered), just because I’m not all that good with a knife. 
For the scions below, I used mostly pruners…
From another thread, you mentioned:
I hadn’t considered that, but it seems like a good idea, so I tried it with one of my St. Julian rootstocks (two different peaches). I think it went OK, though I feel better about the cleft and bark grafts.
Logic I used in selecting the rootstocks:
1.) Thick and without much branching got 2 bark grafts of small scions
2.) Branched and medium thickness got a cleft graft of matching scion in each branch.
3.) The one in the bottom of the pic was branched, with a bunch of smallish junky branches, but not all that thick. I had some similar sized scions, so I used it for the double splice.
Actual graft:
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If you are comfortable with scions growing at narrow angles don’t be afraid to side graft. I started doing them last year and they are some of the best growing grafts I’ve done. And in the end they really aren’t that narrow of an angle. I’ve pulled mine down to horizontal and they now that are hard to distinguish from any other type of graft.
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Yeah it does look upside down in the photo, but there’s a bud on the underside that’s going the right way
i am declaring victory on these stone fruit grafts, contender peach, my unknown peach, amadiocot, orangered cot.
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Hi @VSOP. For some more info on Capilano, check out: http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/3839543/capilano-apricot-in-flowers-and2016
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Quite a few apples are partial tip bearers, and a few are fully so. It can be expected they would have a bloom bud at the tip. Take a picture and remove the flower stems when done blooming!
Some people remove that tip bud when they find a bloom bud at grafting, just to prevent any bloom the first season. That would be before you have bound the scion to the stock.
I don’t, figuring the hormone surge to bring nutrients to the blooms aids callusing and growth. Since most of my grafting is at home, I have the privilege of checking close by. I should look at the other places this year (one 40 miles away) just to make sure all goes well, but will probably wait a month, in which case i can find any fruitlets developing if a tip bloomed.
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Heck yeah Johnthecook. I have to tell you before you learn the difficult way, and as much as I love cable ties… they will crack and break over winter leaving your tags on the ground and blown away with the wind 
(not a good for zone 6)
I love uline wire on a spool. It lasts outside in my cold and hot climate 8-years. Any other wire that you may get for 25-30 bucks a spool, the vinyl will disappear in less than a year. uline wire is expensive but I have something such as 375 plantings and I still have wire from my original spool purchased 8-9 years ago, today. I also have used it for years and years for field grafts at friends properties and with plants I sell.
I don’t know any other wire personally as good, but if somebody does, please let me know.
Dax
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@Derby42 beauuuuutiful grafts.
@Bradybb Thanks for getting that wood for me.
Most all Mirabelle de Nancy did not graft. I got (2) of about 10. I’m happy with (1) though. 
I got every single one of these! I must have 10 or 12 of them 
My buddy and I grafted so much wood from several of you it’s just unbelievable how much we did. Not a scion left ungrafted…
Dax
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Good to know, I’ll change them in the fall. Thanks!
Thank you , that means a lot coming from someone who has grafted as much as you. I have only grafted for a few years .