What’s the advantage of this over regular rubber electric tape (not vinyl, which also works but can girdle). I checked the silicone and it seems pricey for this purpose.
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Hey Alan–there may be a couple of advantages, it seems to me, although I’ve just started using it. The main one is that since the silicone only sticks to itself, one doesn’t have to put a layer of parafilm under it to protect the bark when pulling it off, once the graft is growing strong. I guess this advantage is only relevant for those of us who do a layer of parafilm and then a layer of electrical tape over it. (And I’ve even been doing a layer of parafilm over THAT, to keep my e-tape from unwinding!) So with the silicone nothing else is needed. The second advantage is that it’s thick and strong, so it seems like it would provide a little support to the scion as well. That may be useful when I graft my figs–I won’t have to splint the grafts with a stick. I don’t think it’s useful for grafts of wood any smaller than a licorice whip because it’s too tough and unwieldy. And yes, it’s way more expensive than the usual methods, so I’m only going to use it where there’s a big advantage!
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The Temflex 2155 rubber electrical tape (splicing tape) does not stick to the tree either. It sticks to itself and comes off the tree easy without damaging g the bark.
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I think I saw a photo of one of your grafts using that temflex on another thread, maybe. It looks promising too. I’m a bit of a butterfingers, though, does the thickness make it difficult to handle? It certainly would be less expensive than the silicone.
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As for the pluot branch that broke off, @Auburn and @marknmt, it was very new growth, only about a week or two old, very soft, and I tied it down gently with garden tape. Then I was doing something else and the wind came up. Later I saw that it had broken off at the trunk. Sigh. One of those hated “learning experiences”! @alan, am I right in assuming your technique is for branches that already have bark and some stiffness to them?
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I think we all still break some so I would not feel so bad about it. When I break one like that from a new graft my next move is to see if I have a bud remaining for new growth. If so all is good just a little slower. It just makes us better the next time. Bill
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No not at all. It is certainly thicker than vinyl electrical tape but it has a nice elastic stetch to it reminiscent of a thick rubber band. It allows you to apply a lot of compression to the graft in order to get it nice and tight. In all honesty though it is not a stand alone product for me. I use it in addition to parafilm. I wrap the scion in parafilm because it allows the buds to break through so easily and keep them from drying out. I use the splicing g tape on the actual graft because it’s much stronger than parafilm.
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With the rubber electric tape you don’t have to remove it. It stretches until it disintegrates.
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Yes- I’m surprised that you snapped off a very young shoot- no need to even bother with them- spread them when they get some size.
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I can’t seem to find rubber electrical tape that isn’t THICK like Temflex. Are you using rubber tape that’s thin like electrical tape, or thicker?
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Home Depot here sells it next to the vinyl electric tape and it says rubber and costs more- around $2 a roll as I recall. .
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Temflex 2155 has been my go to binder,until deciding to use something that Appleseed sent me last year(thanks Jeff).It is like latex rubber,maybe that’s exactly what it is.It stretches almost like a rubber band,but lays on itself so nicely and doesn’t let go.I had Temflex come loose a few times,as I finished the ending wrap and had to push and stretch it onto itself.
The new stuff is about an inch wide and I usually cut it to 1/2 inch or sometimes in thirds.This is my new grafting friend so far.
Jeff also sent me a few other kinds to try.Okay Jeff,the secret is out.I hope your message box doesn’t get inundated with requests. Brady
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Thank-you so much for telling me that, Lizzy. As a mostly inexperienced fruit grower and someone who is always asking others for advice, it really is gratifying to know I may have actually helped someone else in a very small way. But this tape really is the perfect thing imho and I can’t help but wonder why it isn’t promoted more for this purpose!
I’ve tried temflex 2155 and to me its quite similar to the non-stick tape I recommended and which Lizzy has done well describing the pros and cons of. But the no-stick stuff is more elastic and has no sticky surface at all. In short, Lizzy is right that its not great for really small, delicate jobs. But for grafts on larger wood (pencil size) its extremely easy to stretch and pull it against itself and around the graft so that when you let go and it tries to snap back, it is quite tight and very supportive of itself. I so think it will need to be removed later in the summer, but so would the temflex I think. Anyway, just my 2 cents. I’ve used countless different materials (including but not limited to tapes of every kind) and the no-stick stuff is my favorite to date for decent sized grafts.
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Another tip on bloom time and weather events. We all know that we need an overlap of flowering from different varieties for cross pollination but this tip is about weather damage from short time period events. This is about pears but I’m sure it applies to apples also. I have pears that bloom early, mid, and late but they all are in bloom before most of my apples so weather events seem to bother them the most. Some seasons my early pears are damaged and some time the others are damaged but in most years at least one or two of the bloom periods miss the bad weather and I get some fruit from them. Simply put if you have early weather issues as I do add varieties that bloom at different times. I didn’t plan it this way but I have some that blooms in each period. This season my larger pear crop will be from my earliest bloomer Orient. Bill
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I agree. My late blooming apples are the ones I will get a harvest from this season- usually it is only late bloomers that escape late hard frost, although, contrary to conventional wisdom, one year a frost damaged later blooming peaches here rather than the ones further along- which makes no sense.
The pears thriving this challenging season here are Bartlett and especially Harrow Sweet, by far my most rewarding pear. In apples, Pink Lady and Zestar appear the most hopeful apples and Empress looks best of my plums.
We got a 17 degree frost when apples were at half-inch-green. Peaches were destroyed by -12 in an otherwise very mild winter (other winters haven’t killed peach buds so completely until it gets below -15).
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Bill - do you have cross-pollination problems with your pears coming in at different times? Or self-pollinating varieties?
I don’t worry about the apples in this respect, as I’m surrounded by crabs.
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I now have enough different varieties grafted in so I will have 2-3 varieties blooming in each of the time periods. Now that I have the time slots covered there is still the issue of the weather being clolder than the pollinators prefer. I hand pollinated some this season to offset some of the cold periods. Bill
I’ve tried that, but so far the grafts refuse to flower. I’m planning to do a lot more bending down, tho some were bent several years ago and OUGHT to be blooming.
Pears are frustrating.
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Grafting in several disease resistant varieties along with bending limbs downward is what I attribute most of my results. My trees are not heavily loaded with fruit but I’m getting more each year. Small improvements add up as time passes. Another thing I’m trying to do is a better job on is doing most of my pruning in the summer as opposed to while they are dormant. Hang in there and it will start working out. Bill
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This is a rambling tip of the day. One of the things I have learned is that growing fruit will not give you instant gratification if all you want to do is plant a tree and harvest a basket of fruit tomorrow. Even if you’re mostly doing things right trees take a few years to get going. My thoughts are to try and learn as much as you can during this time about what is sure to become an unstoppable passion going forward. What I like is learning how to do the various things associated with growing fruit so I am never bored and seldom tired of the pursuits. With all this being said this is as a whole a well-meaning group from top to the bottom. We all bring different experience levels to the table and I like that we can learn from each other. In closing this tip/rambling I would like to mention that we also have some forum members that have been doing this a long time and they have nurtured me along with comments and by what they post on all the various topics. I don’t need to mention their names but you as well as I know who they are and these people have come to our rescue so many times on the difficult topics. What a great asset having these people on board. Enough on this rambling tip of the day. Bill
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