Is there a grafting guide or reference thread?

General Fruit Growing
#1

I haven’t seen a single, good grafting 101 type thread, did I miss it?

OK, I’ve perused some of the grafting threads and will be starting some grafting next spring, assuming the apple and peach from Boyer’s as well as the seedling apricots and peachces I have are strong and look good for grafting in spring.

A few random questions in no particular order:

  1. I see that at least for stone fruit most of you wrap in parafilm. Would dipping at least the ends of the scions in wax, leaving the end to be cut exposed, and then wrapping that in parafilm up to the ‘wax line’ be more or less effective?

  2. Do most of you use electrical tape, budding strips, or what to actually hold the union together over top of the parafilm?

  3. Do you bother with wax or parafilm on apples? They are supposed to be so easy, right? I did a few apple grafts many years ago and don’t recall using anything but electrical tape on a whip and tongue type graft. About half took fine.

  4. After a couple years, I want to try Prunus cerasifera cv ‘Adara’ to graft sweet cherry to other stone fruits - does it actually work as well as some suggest? Does it graft only to plum understock or will it graft to apricot or peach?

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#2
  1. Parafilm or wax works equally well.
  2. Electrical tape is popular but I haven’t had a success improvement compared to using just parafilm. It may depend on the type of graft done.
  3. I’ve done apples successfully without wrapping the whole scion but in the future I’ll wrap since it doesn’t take much effort and I don’t do a large number in a season.
  4. Don’t know.
    The category Guides has some grafting info.
#4

I know some have used rubber bands instead to hold in place, then parafilm on top.

#6

I had 100% success this season on apples, pears, and plums by

  1. Wrapping the scion in parafilm before I grafted.
  2. Wrapping the graft union site in parafilm after grafting.
  3. Using Temflex tape as discussed in Budding tape.
  4. Using this grafting tool as discussed in Zenport/Generic grafting tool

My prior success rate using different knives for cleft and splice grafts was about 50%.

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#7

I have the Zenport tool. I have a roll of parafilm.

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#8

animated-tom-and-jerry-image-0001 Super Haldog!

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