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.
I have black and they have been on the trees for at least 3 years no problems. I am not sure if they are the regular generic ones, as my husband is an electrician and they use these both outside and in for cable ties so they are pretty “skookum”.
There seems to be as many ways to label a graft as there are to tie one LOL.
I’m very happy Tippy with all that stuff you sent. @mamuang Couldn’t be happier. It’s been warm as heck here. The stray cool week of 4 warm ones in a row. Now going back into the high 70’s to low 80-81 coming ahead. Perfect rains, too.
@Derby42 me and my buddy have it figured out how to graft pecans very simply and have a saleable plant. Stuewe 10" long x 2.5 x 2.5 containers. Instead of what I’ve always done which is to sow my seed at Fall and put in my greenhouse which is kept at a few degrees above freezing, I’m going to store seed in the fridge and plant in those pots beginning of spring. The seedlings will never be in a greenhouse. They will come up naturally w/o shade cloth and a teaspoon of 10-10-10 added at commencement and off they go. I saw a guy’s shagbark and shellbark hickories grown this way a few weeks back. I couldn’t believe what he had accomplished. His shagbark and shellbark’s were 10-12" tall and pencil caliper or more in one cycle of growth. That’s the key. I can easily cut thru that wood and whip and tongue pecans and hickory scions onto these seedlings after that 1-yr. cycle the following year. The plants are then saleable the end of June or into July.
Every single plant in those Stuewe’s had a taproot that stopped precisely at the bottom of that pot. It’s like 10" is the magic #.
Whether I or you whip and tongue them or use a tool like that Zenport grafting tool for 31 dollars on banggood.com, we’re golden. A seed source such as Hark or Kanza (northern or far northern large pecans) will make a heck of a seedling just like those hickories did during one growing season.
I can finally say that Zard apricot is a take too, as well as Reine des Mirabelles. I’m thrilled by that.
I’m pretty sure Hesse plumcot would have made it too, if the damned Methley/Myro host stock didn’t just die out from underneath it. Blast!
My earliest grafts did best. Like you said: “Don’t wait for the perfect conditions to arrive. They may never come.”
It’s a numbers game. Eventually you get some winners.
Today, I looked at a two-year Nancy Mirabelle graft. The thing just grew six feet tall and is over my head now. I remember when it was waist high. Amazing.
I also had a peach stock fade on me this spring - bummer after all the work when that happens!
This cool weather has not been all that bad, its at least gotten into the 60’s plus occasional 70’s and when the grafts are in the sun they have been plenty warm. It looks like a good year here overall; both early and later grafts are doing well. Last year I grafted a lot of peaches too late in the heat and they got fried.
If you can believe it: This is the Rubinette applewood you sent me a couple years ago. Photo taken today. Can’t wait for my first taste of these. When do you pick 'em? Late Sept when the tops turn yellowish?
Does grafting a mature hickory scion to a seedling speed up nutting (fruiting? not sure what the verb is)? Or do they take 20 years? My uncle planted some northern pecans that I first noticed bore nuts last fall, which means they are at least 17 years old because he passed in 2000.
Thanks all who have ever sent me wood. I now want to do more. I added over 10 new fruits, without taking up any room that was not already taken. Also some super hard to get cultivars. Now I would like a to add a few peaches, and one or two more plums.
Yes, any scion collected from a tree that is already bearing, when grafted, will produce once the tree has established its roots and has branching strength to hold the nuts/fruits.
The thing about hickory as a rootstock is it shuts down early during the growing season thus not allowing all cultivars (especially pecans grafted to hickory) to mature/fill its nuts. The opposite is true when grafting hickory or pecan to pecan. Pecan’s growing season is longer (doesn’t quit early) thus allowing either the grafted hickories or pecans to completely fill their nuts.
It’s evidenced also in that when you look at a hickory seedling this time of year… it has pushed quite a lot of growth already whereas the pecans have not. The hickories are displaying that they are a quick, out of the gate grower, whereas the pecan chugs along at a slower rate to get that same amount of growth or more… while at the same time being active to the end of the season time.
(not a good for zone 6)
