Bench Grafting - Deciduous Material - Hot Callous Bench 'Style'

I believe yoooose guys will enjoy this video quite a lot. Dax

https://youtu.be/CcWrZyED5xY

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Great video. Thank you for posting it.

Thank you.

Dax

Nice one, Dax.

I’m about done doing these. You know there’s always something you wanted to mention but I try to walk my way thru everything I’m doing and say something. In this video I realized right away I didn’t rub off the buds on the rootstock on the second graft. And, I would’ve liked to have said to open the bag a few times a week to replenish fresh air. Those two things.

I’d really like to go back and say to replenish that air as often as a person thinks about it or at least once or twice a week. But I cannot.

Dax

Barkslip–when I did some fig cuttings, I put a ziploc bag over everything, but then left the very edge of the bag open, so a little air could constantly get in or out, but it did not seem to affect the humidity (still saw condensation). Do you think a similar method (poking small holes in a plastic bag, maybe?) would be good for apple grafts, thus removing the need to tend them and add fresh air?

Hi @VSOP,

I’ve always replenished air. I used to bag individual conifer scions (indoors/greenhouse) and to do that I always had to create a hole in the bags’ bottom end in order to slip the bag over the top of the rootstock to get down to where the scion is grafted. In those cases I would put a twist tie on the top and secure it fairly well but on the bottom I would not secure it completely. That way condensation would be able to drip from the bottom plus allow air in. A few times per week I would remove the twist tie on the bottom and push the bags up over the rootstocks to completely expose the scion to fresh air for 30 minutes to an hour. I had 150 grafts bagged, so the time range for fresh air would always vary from the time I started until I had all the bags open, but what I wanted to accomplish was to dry up all the condensation in each bag before I returned them over the grafts/scions.

Little holes isn’t going to do it. You need to open your bags to replenish the air and dry the insides of the bags free of condensation and then seal the bags back over your deciduous grafts. You should do that once a week. Or, just leave the bag on for a couple weeks and do nothing. However, If temps get up near 85-90 I’d go open up the bag(s) until it cooled off back toward 80 F or less. And after each rain you should be checking your bags for excess condensation.

Thanks for your question.

Dax

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If the rootstock/scion gets three weeks of heat in a bag doesn’t the scion develop leaves and if so isn’t that a problem in the darkness of the bag.

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Good question that I can easily answer. It’s doubtful (possible though) the scions will push in that frame of time. If they do the growth will be pure white in color, then when they are potted/moved to my greenhouse, they will get weaned onto sunlight, but slowly. First they’ll go up high on a shelf where no sunlight reaches them. Then after a week or two or however long is necessary for the white to change to light green… I will bring them down onto the floor to see morning sun for a week or two… returning them to the top shelf every day at mid-day.

Indirect light will graduate the white leaves to green albeit not deep green… you will have chlorophyll returning. You’re slowly building tolerance to the sun; essentially you’re hardening them off & after another few weeks they’ve been on the floor until mid-day and deeper coloration is shown, they’ll then stay in full sun.

Dax

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Leave them until they’re fully calloused @ILParadiseFarm. I don’t know what you’re grafting or how long your scions have set around or if they came from California and are waking up too soon … I don’t know any of these parameters, but you need to wait until full callous has occurred.

Cheers,

Dax

P.s. don’t be in a rush! You can correct the fact that growth is occurring early on later.

Put a fluorescent light above them assuming you’re able to do so.
@ILParadiseFarm
Dax

70 is okay. That’s no problem. If you didn’t wax or parafilm your scions you’ll want to be sure there is humidity around the graft. If a heat mat is required to generate the mist/condensation you need, then you better turn it on.

Try to use peat moss in the future or another media that will allow air to the roots… mulch is too large of pieces and coconut mulch is like your paper is (too fine) so something that can breathe but hold moisture still.I used promix this year. ‘Easy and done.’

After a couple weeks check the ones that have moved along the most for callous. You seem to me to know what’s going on very well so I’ll leave saying that.

Best regards,

Dax

I’d switch it out if you can man.

Dax

Couple pictures update… How I stay on top of things. Each towel is held together with twist tie material on three or four locations so the towels are securely fastened. On each towel is a tag stating the day that all the grafts inside that towel will be calloused… from there I have my email calendar marked with the # of rolled up towels ready on any given date. Pretty easy system.

Dax

@ILParadiseFarm we’ll compare together your tallies and mine. That’s three differing systems. I like that my towels are very warm at the callous area and the roots are relatively cool. Positioning the towels that way is great. Even if the roots were as warm, it doesn’t matter. You might be dropping 1% because the roots aren’t cooler than the unions. So a climate controlled floor would be awesome to have… just saying.

Dax

Yep and you’ve got it figured out. There’s no doubt about that.

Dax

@Barkslip

I’m about to ask a really stupid question so bare with my idiocy. :slight_smile:

I have been grafting for 2 years, 2016 went considerably better then my rookie year. I had around a 83% success rate, with just an opinel #6, parafilm and some tree kote. I only put tree kote where I snipped off the end of the scion. I’ve never sealed the whole scion. I just let them callous in my basement for about a month then in mid may when its warmer expose them to some sunlight and a few weeks later transplant to the nursery.

First, I hate treekote its impossible to get off your hands and I work in an office. LOL! I liked the idea of your waxing the whole scion. However being a noob, I’ve heard folks mention parafilm, beeswax, toilet bow wax, etc… Inside that deep fryer do you have like a can full of wax with water on the outside heating it up or do you have water in with the wax.

Like i said stupid question but Idk how else I’m gonna figure this out. Now i just need to figure out how to heat my wax as I don’t think the wife will give me here crockpot. :slight_smile:

Yes I fill it with water and I cut and weigh my wax. Paraffin I cut into .5 oz pieces and beeswax .25 oz.

Do yourself a favor and get a deep fryer just like mine. Years prior and I mean many years I messed with crock pots and never got the exact coverage I was looking for. Here’s the info on my Wal-mart crock pot:

LINK

Mixture is 1 oz. paraffin to .25 oz. beeswax in this fryer. I wrote it wrong earlier.

Now that I’m in a rhythm I do my cuts, wrap with a rubber band, and plunge the whole thing in the wax/water mixture and there’s no parafilm involved.

Dax

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1 last dumb followup, how much water do you put in it?

I fill it up to about 1/2 - 1" to the top. Depends upon if you want to stir and get wax on everything!

Dax
P.s. 1" is smarter.

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Your a good egg Dax thanks!