2016 graft thread

Great looking apple trees this year! My t-buds took one month to sprout out so maybe there is a chance they will still succeed on the trees you did.

I only found 1 T bud take out of 100. Im glad you had better success.

Impressive

I thought they aren’t supposed to sprout until spring - now I’ll worry!

Something major is wrong if you are 1% on T budding and 98% on bench grafts. Any idea what’s going on?

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Mine took one month T-budding tutorial

I did not take much time or thought in the bud grafts. The stock i was using was only 1/4". My technique needs work and my timing may been late in the year (Late July in Kansas). I will try again but, I have learned to concentrate my efforts where I’m sucessful.

After forcing them, or letting them go?

I did force it by cutting off the top.

Proud Dads grafts. Some really taking off and some taking their time.

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The grafts I posted pics of 16 days ago, as they were just pushing through the parafilm today:

The longest shoot is about 14+ inches long… Seems to like the heat. Should I remove the other shoots on this graft, or leave it alone in case I lose one of them to winter? Should I be seeing callous growth where the union between scion and stock are? I will be adding a support stick tomorrow as the new growth is larger than the scion stick.

Think it will harden off sufficiently by the end of Oct (when we seem to get first heavy frosts)

Scott

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Found this excellent article on whip and tongue grafting that I thought might help someone. Whip and Tongue Grafting.

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I think it might be also helpful to point out that the more complicated whip and tongue’s only advantage is that it provides pressure to the wood which is actually only an advantage if you don’t use some kind of tape to pull scion to stock- which provides superior strengthening than the W and T to begin with, and more than adequate strength in my E… An additional disadvantage to what I consider wasting time on a W and T is that it has to make aligning cambiums more difficult.

Unless you are doing it as a hobby, similar to learning Irish folk dancing but less fun, I strongly recommend sticking with the splice. Your fingers may thank you.

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Do you think splice is easier for novices than the cleft?

It is certainly quicker, but neither require the development of much skill, although skill makes everything go smoother (wrapping the tape around the splice while holding it together is awkward at first). As does mental experience, so you don’t do something like attaching the scion with the buds pointing towards the graft.

The reason cleft grafts are so common is because grafting is often done to change over established trees and a wide range of branch diameters can be grafted to using a cleft. With the splice you generally need to use one or two year wood to graft to- preferably near the exact diameter of the scion wood.

The article does mention that W&T is used for bench grafting, doesn’t suggest it be used in topworking out in the orchard

One thing I like about w&t is that the pieces will stay together on their own, same as in a cleft, while you get them aligned and start taping. But if you follow Alan’s method with electrical tape, or use the thick, stretchy rubbery stuff some of us like, you may well decide the tongue just isn’t worth the time. I would not do it any more.

Another advantage to the simple whip (splice) with plastic tape is that there is less time for the pieces to dry, get dropped, or get contaminated through excess handling or blood from a cut. You can even cut both pieces with your nippers, so it’s nip-nip-align-wrap-label and off you go.(Have the tape already stuck to the rootstock before you cut the pieces.)

Just my two cents worth-

And how would that change WT’s value? I’m actually asking, not snarking, as I’ve never done any bench grafts.

The big advantage I see to w&t is if you pull your tape a little early the graft won’t fall off. That being said I did not do 1% of my grafts like that this year. Most of my grafts were splice or cleft because I need to do hundreds of grafts a year. I slow down and take the time if the wood is really rare ( irreplaceable ) like for a seedling.

Just another opinion. Until last year I almost exclusively used W&T grafts with good results. Then I started using cleft grafts. In most cases I can do the cleft graft much faster and I still get good results. I do some side grafts when it fits my needs.

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