I like to graft early because I need my time in vegetable garden when the weather warms up. I think that the scions have more time to form callus tissues in cool weather before they start to grow actively. Just a thought. This scions were grafted just before 17-20s F cold nights we had and I was worried that they may not survive after them. I am not so sure if they are able to survive single digits, but we were lucky to miss them. So far it seems like they are fine. 
I am grafting E. Plums today.
I usually figure I’ll start to see scion growth about 30 days after grafting.
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Ham,
My peach grafts started pushing in two weeks.
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Antmary what are your temps like these days? I’ve read that peach,plum etc likes 70-80 degree weather. Do you graft in cooler temps?
Just wondering if anyone else gets a sore hand/arm from grafting?!? After a long day of grafting yesterday I finally had to stop, then today I tried again today and instantly knew I couldn’t hack it! I know we often get hurt by cuts, but this is the first time I’ve ever developed carpal tunnel syndrome! haha. Hurts mostly in the forearm, and I think its from repeatedly squeezing the rootstock limb so hard between my fingers when trying to get the top coat of tape over the graft. Leave it to me to get some kind of sports injury from freaking GARDENING! ha
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Susu
In my limited experience, only peach ( and nect) needs warmer temp.
Plums does not. I have grafted plums with apples, pears, cherries. No issue.
Oh… good to know. I thought same thing went for plums.
I rate grafting plums as easy as apples and pears…
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I think you mean as easy as apples and pears!
Thanks, Kevin. Correction made.
I grafted ayers , magness, and altoon on ohxf87 today. I also put an altoon graft on my old pear tree and a scion from a seedling I grew.
Today I was eyeballing some of the pluots I recently purchased from Peaceful Valley/Dave Wilson. I take it that they were in cold storage because they are 100% dormant. Well, turns out that several of them have about 8-15 inches too much height that I am going to cut off to help energy concentrate on the roots and so I can start shaping and spreading tree.
In that 8-15 inches at the top of some of my trees there are also some small scaffolds. The ones near the top have that nice, new, shining, smooth look of last year’s wood. SOme of them are 1 up to a foot long. Do you think I would have any chance at all of using some of these small, new-looking scaffolds as scion wood and grafting it to some other plum trees? Would be a quick and easy way to get a few pluot limbs on some of my plum trees. Even if it’s a long shot I may try it. What you think?
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I think your odds for success are very good if the understock is actively growing.
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Same as Dan- do it.
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The understock leaves are about 1/2 way out and growing like crazy and its pretty warm here. My main concern is that - in spite of the characteristics I described- I’m not at all sure that the scaffolds I would be cutting and using as scion are last year’s growth. If not, I assume it has no chance?
Speaking of grafting and age of scion and rootstock, let me ask a dumb question. I know the scion wood should be last year’s growth (as I said above, is that a 100% requirement) and I THINK that the area of a tree I am grafting to has to be last year’s growth too (I’m talking about just grafting a pencil sized scion to a pencil sized tip of a limb)/ IS that true? I ask this because on some trees,especially apricots, the tips of the limbs that are from last year are so thin and spindly that its almost impossible to graft to them. I’d really like to go back on a scaffold toward the trunk until it gets thicker, but if I do I will no longer be grafting to last years growth. SO again, do both scion wood and under story tree have to be grafted using last year’s wood on both sides? Thanks.
In late summer probably August or September I was trimming one of my Mirabelle plums and decided to experiment with some grafting. I removed the leaves from the actively growing Mirabelle wood and grafted the scions to some suckers of a wild plum tree that I had cut down in spring. A couple were cleft grafts and a couple were saddle grafts with a grafting tool.
Over the fall and winter the scions did not grow but they also did not appear to be dead. It seems that some of the grafts had healed beneath the electrical tape but the buds had remained dormant.
With spring upon us, they are pushing growth now and they are surviving in spite of being hit by the slug and snail plague that I have this year.
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They shouldn’t need to be.They are both alive and when xylem and phloem are moving,that’s what is necessary for growth.
When a bark graft is done,sometimes a large diameter stock is used as the base and that is older wood. Brady
Do it. It will work
Using last year’s wood is best, but second year wood can work as well. So follow speedster’s advice.
Got nothing to lose except your lack of experience!
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