Lizzy, i see it two ways: your scion was taken from a non-dormant source and merely living off its storage, or you actually executed a near-perfect cambium layer union that the rootstock or the scion didn’t even notice.
since i like things half-full than half-empty, my hunch is that the latter scenario applies 
@marknmt, those were just my personal observations, and who knows, perhaps more applicable to tropical fruit trees, and just a few temperate fruit trees which i have grafted. I have never grafted pears and other pomes.
i could be wrong.
besides, we’re all just students and peers here, right? 
@jujubemulberry I love the IDEA that I might have made a perfect graft but I can assure you that’s not the case 
I did my apple tree first so they were my very first grafts. I don’t think I even want to see what’s under the electrical tape! And I think it was at least a week before they leafed out. All my scions were from our CRFG scion exchange, and all have been refrigerated just above freezing since early January. Again, I just can’t picture a graft producing big leaves just on the stored energy in a little scion, but then again, I can’t believe grafting even works in the first place.
But I have noticed that the simple cleft grafts (V-cut on skinny twigs, I don’t mean big stump cleft grafts) seem to be doing better than my messy whip and tongues. Maybe simplicity is best for newbies…
On my stone fruits (done later on my learning curve, but probably too early in the season) only the thick, vigorous pluot scions are really pushing out, and that’s probably just the scion, not necessarily a successful graft.
I know stone fruits are less likely to take an incompetent graft, but I will say that the bark “slipped” or pulled away so much more easily and neatly on my peach tree than on my apples and pears–it made it a joy to do bark grafts!
And to prove I am both impatient, AND obsessed, I am headed to the hardware store to get some sheets of reflective (insulating) material. Yes, I am going to put them on the ground under my peach tree with the reflective side up, to try to cook my grafts so they callus up, despite the cool weather we’re getting here. I haven’t heard of anyone ever trying this, but I can’t stand just letting the grafts fail because of the weather.
I think that would just be wasting money. I’m sure your grafts will be fine. I did a bunch this season when the stock wasnt growing at all and most still took. How cold is it in your area? I actually like it to be cool for a couple weeks after grafting. When it is too hot the scions can start pushing growth before there is a good connection.
Just for the peach tree, because we’re hovering in the mid- to high-60s. A couple people on this forum have told me peaches won’t callus until they get to the low eighties, or at least they won’t callus quickly. We’ll see, I guess-- money already wasted! 
but thanks for the concern. At least if many of the grafts on my peach fail I have some scions left in the fridge and I can do a few over again, later when it’s warmer.
not sure if it is good or bad, but have to hand it to @Lizzy : i am just like you! “Impatient”, “obsessed”, and even “stubborn” might be adjectives defining us, but when it applies to gardening, it shouldn’t be all bad. In fact, being extremely motherly to one’s plants to the point of ‘spoiling’ them will NOT make brats of them, compared to spoiling one’s own kids. And i can’t think of a more pertinent justification
yes, a delay in sprouting could be due to previous refrigeration. But come to think of it, the history of refrigeration is merely a circumstance which we could “blame”, or use as a “reason” as to why our grafts are taking a long time to leaf out.
if your scion leafed out quickly(regardless of previous refrigeration), you should see it as a positive sign in itself, because you are at least sure it is alive(even if just temporarily). Only thing to contemplate is if sprouting occurred too soon because of the scion’s reserve energy, or if the union between scion and rootstock “clicked” immediately upon their acquaintance. Best scenario would of course be BOTH scenarios.
how many days have your quick-leafing scions been alive? A week now?
Yup, @jujubemulberry, it’s true that nothing that leafed out early has died yet! That’s a good sign 
You will hear me lamenting loudly on here should that occur.
if none of the scions’ cambium layers are in actual contact with the rootstock’s cambium, the scions could be living off the moisture stored in its wood(wood is actually a sizeable water reservoir), and from the fog trapped under the paraffin film, and if the gaps between scion and rootstock aren’t too far, then the scion may also be in reach of the sap bleeding from the rootstock’s cambium.
all these will stimulate callous formation, filling in the gaps in between, until finally, they establish connection.
because wood expands with moisture, and shrinks when dehydrated, a good indicator that an inactive scion continues to get some help from below is if it’s exposed parts do not appear wrinkly, or if the parafilm wrapping continues to be taut, or if there’s no visible change in caliper size between scion and rootstock-- even after several weeks of the scion being “out on a limb”.
I’m getting into this one late, but I’ve crunched the numbers from last spring and figured I would share them.
From the below numbers, I draw the following conclusions:
1.) The earlier you graft it, the longer it sits there waiting.
2.) The fastest average time was 2-2.5 weeks.
3.) I suspect that the grafts from 5/23 were slow to leaf because they were re-grafts of difficult locations (shaded or low in the tree). Even those that eventually took didn’t produce much growth.
I should disclaim that the small sample size isn’t statistically significant and may not be of any use- I just like data.
These grafts are mostly apple and pear. There were some peach and plum grafts on 5/3.
Great info Bob! I have been wondering if anyone has developed a kind of spreadsheet for tracking graft success. I’d want to include a number of variables in mine, including what kind of graft it was, whether I used wax or tree-sealer, etc. Unfortunately I’ve forgotten how to do multivariate regressions!
Yes, I have a spreadsheet for this.
I save:
Variety
Fruit type (apple, pear, etc for easy sort/filter)
Scion Source
Rootstock (could be real rootstock like B9/M27/G65 or an existing tree like “Priscilla”)
Graft Type (Cleft, double-cleft, chip bud, etc)
Date of graft
Notes- catch all field. Sometimes I indicate if I think it was a particularly good or bad graft. I also describe in words where on the tree the graft is, if it is a mature tree being top-worked (for example “4’ up, SSW facing, next to xxx graft”).
Final Status- live vs dead
First take/leaf date
I recently added a “Planted” date for rootstocks which I may graft, then callus indoors.
I used to capture the following, but it was too much trouble and grafting takes me long enough already without all the extra data capture:
Caliper of rootstock
Caliper of scion
Length of scion
Number of buds on scion
Bob
You and I both had the anal retentive traits. I got records of all my trees in spread sheets. Very helpful when you needed though.
Tony
my system is probably more cumbersome: manual approach to time-lapse photography, by taking pictures quite often, after having programmed the camera to caption the date on each pic.
will then do a slide show(on pc or tv) after a few months which help me trace their growth rates since the dates are recorded on each slide.
come fall and winter, and stuck indoors, i tend to run these slide shows over and over again while yearning to get winter done with asap, lol!
pathetic, huh?
That is kind of neat. How do you get the same spot all the time and keep each graft straight? It seems like a tough thing to manage- I’m guessing you only do it with some of your grafts? I’ve made about 50 bench-grafts so far and plan to make 60-80 grafts outside. I think it would be a full-time job (or more) to track them all with the camera 
i am extremely trigger-happy.
with cameras, that is. If the regular joe takes thousands of selfies and posts them on facebook, i take thousands of pix of my plants and post them in my permaculture weblog. (taking selfies and posting them online is against my religion, and a crime against humanity, lol!)
needless to say, it is impossible for me to take a picture of each and every graft/bud/flower/fruit, and impossible to take each picture at the exact spot or angle. I usually just gauge their growth by scale and proportion to other stems, although i also often take pictures with a tape measure right by the specimens. Almost like a crime scene investigation, haha.
actually only learn to appreciate the pix during fall/winter/early spring, since that is the period when the craving to see something grow is most intense. …During late spring and summer, i would of course rather be watching my plants way more than just through a camera lens, and watch them first-hand just like some folks here who do it 10 times a day.
have this extreme urge to oversee—what i might overlook
Hi folks: I reviewed this old thread with interest. I am still new to grafting (and my poor technique reflects it!), but do have a few follow ups for the group:
Thanks, derwag
Ain’t sayin’. So there. No seriously, I get mostly takes, so let’s say 80-90 percent as long as we’re not talking apricots. I’m always trying something a little weird so that cuts into my success rate. But as a rule on apple and pear whip (I don’t do whip and tongue now) and cleft I expect them to work and they usually do. I don’t do much budding.
Yes. I use Johnny wax. A good twist of parafilm works too. Roofing tar is good. I would use fresh cow pies if they were handy. Seriously.
Parafilm and rubber band is great if you take any care at all, but I keep the Johnny wax around for little gaps and open spots- but don’t let it into the graft itself. In that way roofing tar would be better.
Graft apples, pears, and plums any time after the leaves have opened up to “the size of a squirrels ear”, or your little finger nail, up to a month or six weeks. By that time your dormant scions are probably trying to break dormancy and that will cut into your success rate because they’ll leaf out and start giving up the moisture in the scion before they’ve knit with the rootstock, and that means they’ll dry out and die.
Good luck and have fun!
OK I have to ask, fresh cow pies, how does that work? Being a cattle farmer I have these in stock at the moment.
