RainTree
. I’m with Maria on this one, graft early around flowering no matter what temps are. Waiting for warmer temps 2 years I had 1 take out of 100. Doing it when temps were in the 40’s 100%, every one grew. Sure, some may still fail. I can’t just dismiss that as random, it was a message from the grafting Gods.
Our problem is it takes too long to warm up here. My scion must have been compromised by the wait. I think 60-70F would probably be ideal. It’s still 40F around here. We have not hit 70, well maybe one or two days for one or two hours that day.
Today is a warm day here, it’s 59F. I did my grafts 3 weeks ago. My trees are setting fruit right now. I agree temps are important, but not everything. Sap flow is more important. It must be highest around flowering before leaf out. The temps you mention will not be here till July.
I see BobC grafted in 6a, he is close to me, looks like every one took too. Including peaches. @BobC what were the temps when you grafted?
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If you are working an established trees, all you need to worry about is the strength of the graft union. You won’t stunt a tree you are top working, for example, with one or two trial fruit.
edit Keep in mind that there is a world of difference between what you can get away with as a home grower that fusses and spritzes and supports vs what is recommended, efficient, and safer. If you are grafting to a tree that grows vigorously, you will put far more weight on the union than a single fruit. If you have a graft that spits out six feet of wood in a season, obviously a couple ounces of peach doesn’t matter near the graft union, or even a pound of apple. If your graft grows two feet slowly, and ends up pencil thin, that clearly isn’t enough vigor to tolerate an early fruit. So like, Frankentrees you fuss over and are willing to support and protect from wind if you’re in a windy area, consider it.
70s they took off as temps rose.
I agree sap flow is a big factor, it is just as important as temperature. It sounds like in your climate you don’t get the ideal temps until its too late. Late is also bad, I’m not sure why but I have the best luck on the early side of sap flow. I’ll try doing a few in a bit cooler weather next year and see how it goes. I did many in the past and got nearly 100% fail, but it may have been far too early or far too cold.
One tree I really wait on now is persimmons. I want the bark super slipping on them. Its good not to be too hot or cold, but a couple years I grafted them in an early long warm spell before the bark was slipping – bad idea! I just did my persimmons yesterday, probably a week later than I should have but it got really hot there so I waited that out.
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I think someone (@fruitnut , I believe?) said upthread (in response to another question)that he thought it was ok to let a first-year graft on an established tree produce a fruit or two. I believe he said something along the lines that provided that the fruit was supported in some way, it should be all right, albeit it was maybe not “best practice”.
In terms of cause and effect, temp drives sap, and sap drives barkslip. Sap feeds juice into the join to facilitate callous.
I’d be curious to see a graph (as in a drawing, not graft) of sap pressure vs. temp (both conductive and radiative - like to know which creates more sap pressure).
Anyway, in the absence of that, tree activity (blossoms, leaves) is our measure, thus a good indicator when to commence. 
I was playing with grafting Japanese Maples. This is Geisha on a dark purple variety I forget the name of.
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If you are in a greenhouse like @fruitnut, your main issue is supporting weight, BUT some folks here have some serious wind that may be much more likely to tear off that join with the fruit as the sail.
My experience is similar to @scottfsmith. I’ve grafted peaches, cherries, apriicots, mulberries dormant and had 100% fail. Pears, apples, plums graft dormant fine in my location. Our weather is variable.
Mine were not dormant, they were flowering. I can’t wait till July here, no wood survives that long. I myself feel I got terrible advice to wait for warmer temps. Just trying to warn others in my area or zone. The sap is flowing enough for flowers and leaves to grow. Perfect time to graft here. When that happens it’s 50F here.
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Yes that’s good advice Drew and makes more sense. I will not ever graft a mulberry again unless I see green in my area. Grafted dormant mulberries for days once with 100% failure it felt like being punched in the stomach after putting out all that time, money, and effort. Not deep dormant either the cuts bled some when grafted. Never did regraft most of those mulberries. It’s painful to see the trees. In the warmer weather it’s not a problem so now if I don’t start to see leaves I don’t graft it. Part of the problem is of course our temperature swings. We are at less than 40 degrees this morning but have already been up to 85 for the year. Just had temps in the 30’s the other night. We will be back up to 75+ by the weekend which is getting pretty warm to graft. Kansas eventually hits 85 or 90 and stays there and you never know when.
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Keeping in mind that it’s not air temperature, it’s the trees temperature relative to the ground temperature, so a 50 degree cloudy spring is not the same as 50 degree sunny days.
I’ve been reading some old grafting books and a lot of them recommend nailing the scion to the tree when grafting. This seems so dang convenient for grafts in windy areas or with grafts that are going to take a while to fully heal rather than wrapping them to within an inch of their life.
But I assume there is something bad about doing this and that’s why that advice is not given anymore?
Got my first Fuyu Omoto tree and I have discovered that I have about three american persimmons. Does anyone do what I call June budding or chip budding with these. Is there a better method of grafting these to Fuyu?
I’m not sure what i was doing wrong, or what i was doing right? Just feel a little sad I lost 2 years. At my age that is a lot of time. That is a good point and suggests we may need a better indicator of when it is ideal. i was reading about sugar maples and it was mentioned as soon as it is above 32F the sap has the highest pressure, like 40 psi. They also said other trees are not like this. So ideal times might very from genus to genus.
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I received plum scion in August and grafted it the following May. That’s 9 months in my refrigerator. The grafts survived and are doing nicely a year later. I would not recommend that but it is possible with some wood.
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I posted a separate Shiranui graft thread before I realized we had a whole grafting thread. Anyways, I’m pretty excited to be able to get some citrus results, a first for me. After 26 days, I see a little tiny growth from my Shiranui scion. Is it safe to remove the foil that was shielding it? Or should I just wait until it is fully leafed out?
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Today, I discovered my Black Oxford apple graft has finally taken. This was obtained in a swap with a generous forum member. I have wanted this apple for a long time. Very exciting.
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now that’s funny, “I don’t care who you are”. 
Today, I placed my last batch of backup peach and apple grafts. I am DONE with spring grafting.
I might do some budding later in the summer…
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