Cleft grafts were what I started with but they require much more time than a splice, plus they are an inelegant way of transforming an established tree. As far as the difficulty of holding pieces together while taping, you simply begin wrapping the tape just below the graft before holding the scion in place to wrap upwards. You continually adjust the joining as you wrap upwards making sure cambiums are lined up as Scott mentions.
It takes a little while to get the hang of it but less time than more complicated grafts that have their own problems.
Of course, the best approach is almost as subjective as rating best tasting apples, but if there was an olympic competition for speed grafting I think splicers would always get the gold.
I was a little intimidated by the need to hold the scion in alignment while simultaneously wrapping the tape over it, but it’s not that hard. If you just do it a few times I think you’ll see why I was so easily converted.
When you first start to wrap forward the tape does tend to push the scion away from the branch, but you quickly learn to deal with that; using adhesive tape (and this is where I think Temflex shines) really helps. And it is quick and straightforward. If you use your nippers to make the cuts you’re not likely to cut yourself, either.
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who has trouble cutting the tongue on a whip and tongue graft.
I’ve done whip grafts but my biggest issue has been the wrapping. That’s a good tip about wrapping the rootstock first before trying to add the scion and wrap it. I may use that to try more whip grafting, because it is fast.
One disadvantage to whip grafting is, as Marknmt said, the scion and rootstock have the be the same diameter. With peaches, many times the roostock is about the diameter of a thumb from one year’s growth (depending on how much grass competition there was the previous season) or if the rootstock is two years old. With these, there is no way to find peach scionwood the same diameter to graft those roostocks. Also, sometimes I like to graft new seedlings (current season growth) and they are super small, but with a cleft graft, you can still split the small green wood and get a wedge of small scion in there.
While it is better if the diameter is the same, I have done many successful whip/splice grafts on varying size stock. One subtle trick when you are doing that is there is one direction of wrapping that keeps the one side aligned, but if you wrap in the opposite direction the scion will slip out of alignment. You need to wrap going from the small scion to the large stock on the side that they are aligned on. If you do it the other way the tightening pull will make the scion slip.
Thanks for the suggestion. I, sometimes, unnecessarily cheap. I still have the whole unused roll of parafilm. So, I am kinda hesitant to buy Temflex but I maybe, I will. I grafted this spring in 3 rounds according to temperature. It’s the stone fruit that I waited for 70’s temp.
The success rate for peach was not great. I got only 3 out of 10 peach graft to take so no bragging there. I don’t have a lot of hope with the 2nd and 3rd round of stone fruit grafting, either. I wish I knew what I did right and what I did wrong so I could correct it.
I can see that whip/splice grafting provides a better opportunity for cambium to match. I will try it in the future. I am done grafting this spring. I may try budding in late summer. Nonetheless, I enjoy grafting. My trees may not, considering how much abuse they have taken from me.
I tried 3 methods of grafting rootstock this spring. Cleft grafts when I only had tiny scions, whip and tongue, and an omega style splice grafts. I purchased a cheap Chinese splice graft tool that works fantastic. It created key/omega style cuts on both the scion and rootstock that fit together perfectly. When the scion and rootstock are similarly sized you cant beat it. You get a perfect fit and additional strength versus a whip graft. I feel like there is a stigma against said tools by people that have perfected W&T grafting but one thing is for certain is that the tool makes 100% accurate interlocking cuts. Obviously there can be fit issues if there is a lot of size difference between scion and rootstock but that same applies to whip, splice, or whip and tongue grafts.
My complaint with the inexpensive omega tools is that they come with very dull blades when compared to a decent grafting knife and they seem difficult to sharpen.
I’m going to say these peach grafts are a take. I got a fifty percent take on this tree, which is not great but I attribute part of that to the weather. I waited until I was sure the highs would be in the eighties and the weather has just continued to be wet and cool. Tomorrows high is 70 and it should be high 80s this time of year.
I found that I had takes on half of my bark grafts. I unwrapped all of my other failed grafts. I had zero takes on cleft grafts. The callouse sealed up the cleft right to the scion and even aroind it some but I guess I didn’t have good alignment.
It looks like I got about 60% of my peach splice grafts to take. Not a great percentage, but at least they only took around 5 minutes for each graft, including labeling. Looks like around 95% of my J. plum grafts took.
@BobVance, how did that peach side graft turn out.
@scottfsmith, @alan, this is only my third year grafting and up till now I assumed the splice graft would not be strong enough. I’ve read this on Wikipedia " Joints formed by grafting are not as strong as naturally formed joints, so a physical weak point often still occurs at the graft because only the newly formed tissues inosculate with each other." So I was thinking how strong can a splice graft be if it needs to be held by tape when attached? From what I’m reading here the splice graft is strong enough from new growth. Are there cases where the splice graft breaks after a few years.
