I was saying the same thing, then Northwest Cider Supply had a sale 
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I’m already fooling around with schemes for new strawberry plantings when I should be taking a break from orcharding (fat chance).
I planted some watermelon seeds today too. I also pruned a few peach trees… sprayed sulfur on the pear mites. Somebody stop me.
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You know last year the wood looked fine! But only one take, I think here when it’s warmer, it’s not a good time. The trees are used to the cool weather, and grow better at 60F than they do at 75F. I can’t believe my technique became so much better in one year. I did find a couple peach scion that look not to be taking, so I lost my 100%. yeah the buds swelled but never broke, they still may? Most grafts done 3 weeks ago are growing fast though. Still cold here too, current temp is 47F.
Peaches love to do that to you. They either go good and pretty fast, or they never really get going. Other plants can limp along for awhile and eventually go, but not peaches.
Too bad all grafts are not like jujubes. I have found them to be the most no-brainer of any graft, they all always work all the time for me.
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Potentially stupid question:
If both your scion and your rootstock/branch are very skinny…
Could you basically just cut off the bark on one side of each to expose the the entire cambium layer and then wrap them super tight for maximum cambium contact? I haven’t read of this having an official graft name, but I guess the closest it would be is something like a cross between side veneer and a splice?
I had this situation and found the small size made them too hard for me to do anything like cleft or whip and tongue.
Thanks for any words of wisdom or advice.
You can do wedge grafts with any size - its a W&T without the “T”. I have done it with 1/16" wood.
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Note to self: Don’t label grafts with fruit-colored tie tape. Birds come to investigate and land on my grafts. 
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Last summer i used masking tape and sharpie…90% of them fell off over winter. So once again i will have to guess based on leaf shape and sooner or later fruit.
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Maybe that’s what happened to mine
Hi Mike, and everyone,
I used an office label maker, normally used for labeling folders. Staples or Office Depot has them.The plastic labels were bought from a nursery and cut down to size with scissors. After the label is printed out, it is placed on the nursery label, then a small hole is drilled on one end. Twist ties are then used (Home Depot has them) to attach to the label to the graft. This was an experiment that I started using in January. It is working very well, The lettering is not wearing off in the weather. It is quick, neat, and different font sizes or type can be used too.
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Today is the first warm and sunny day after five days of very cold (40s) weather. I took a vacation day and walked around the garden doing statistics. I calculated it only for the early grafts. I also grafted some apricots, peaches, A. Pears, pawpaws and persimmons two weeks ago and they do not show any movement yet.
So the data goes as following:
Name/number of taken grafts/number of failed grafts/ % of takes
Apricots / 19 / 4 / 83%
Asian plums and plots / 40 / 1 / 98%
Euro plums / 17 / 2 / 89%
Pears / 3 / 0 / 100%
Sweet cherries / 7 / 0 / 100%
Sour cherries / 0 / 3 / 0% (disease problems)
Apples / 10 / 0 / 100%
Peaches / 41 / 6 / 87%
Overall, l think that early grafting, when the trees just starting to wake up is quite successful. When it is nice and quiet day in 60s in March and the trees have swollen buds or flower buds. The grafts can survive cold and they accumulate the heat units that initiate awakening of the graft in about the same time as the main tree. Here are the pictures of the grafts.
Apricots
A. Plums
Pear
Sweet cherry
Apples
And peaches
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That should be a tip of the day!
Glad you said something because I was thinking, “Gee, I’ll have to get some colorful tape to see where my grafts are!”
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Wow, impressive growth and all in zone 5 for grafts done this year. Thanks for being here, i might have completely given up on grafting if not partially for your input on this board.
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I hope they do great for you! I am very leery of anything plastic this far down South because the sun bakes it so much it usually gets brittle and breaks very easily. But I think further north this may be a great idea.
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I always nail my bark grafts with a small wire nail. Helps guard against blow out and other mishaps.
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