I don’t graft persimmons, but if the temperature is 80F, ideal for pawpaws, you should see buds break in about 10 days.
Just wanted to mention about the Temflex. When cutting the tape lengthwise, I do it while it’s still on the roll.
I keep several different knives in my “grafting toolbox”. I use one of the razor knives to cut the Temflex longways. I can generally cut through several layers at once so quite a few grafts can be done before having to cut the roll of Temflex again. I cut the roll the same direction the tape is wound, so it doesn’t unroll while cutting it longways. It’s very possible to cut oneself badly doing this, so make sure your hands are very steady, and pull the knife more towards your body, instead of downward toward your hand holding the tape.
Then I pull off a piece appropriately sized for the size of the wood and pre-stretch the tape. This not only makes it easier to work with, but also makes it easy to get the outer skin off the tape. I lay the piece of tape down and do the graft (whip grafts for me). After I cut the rootstock and scion, I wrap the rootstock a couple wraps then put the scion on and continue wrapping. Then I put the parafilm over everything.
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Olpea I know you’ve been a big advocate of temflex. I think it was you that led me to purchase it and try it. As far as what how we use it though we are a contrast in styles. Haha. I prefer not to cut it. I use it after I parafilm everything. I normally cut off a 4 inch piece and use it to wrap the actual graft union only. Prior to applying the temflex I use parafilm to wrap my scion, then another small piece of parafilm to attach the scion to the stock. The parafilm has enough strength to hold the scion in place until I can wrap in temflex. I’m probably doing a little more work than I need to but I have this technique down and it’s starting to feel second nature.
Either way, it seems we both have pretty good success in our respective techniques.
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Some people say they use parafilm as the first layer, others use tape first and wrap with parafilm on top
wondering pros and cons of each method
I take the scions from the frig and let them come to room temp, dry them and then coat them with a melted low temp beeswax (that I use for covering shiitake mushroom plugs in logs) with a soft brush. Easiest way to protect the scions IMHO. The buds grow right through the beeswax and the dried wax is not slippery so it is easy to handle the scion. I wrap the union with parafilm b/c it is the easiest wrap to work with IMHO. BUT it isn’t as strong or long lasting as the Temflex. Like @speedster1 I only use Temflex to secure the join. I’d post a pic but they all look like @speedster1’s above.
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Mine look similar to yours (cover the scion with parfilm first, then tape the union), except that I only use temflex on the union. I’m not mechanically exact/skilled, so I need to use the tape to pull the union closed. if I do parafilm first, I’m not able to keep as good an eye on the union as I wrap, to ensure that it is closing the way I want it. My understanding is that the tape should make a moisture barrier seal, so hopefully skipping the parafilm on the union won’t hurt. Since I’m using it for sealing, I make an extra loop at the top of the union, where I tightly stretch the tape to ensure a good seal along the scion.
I was time pressed this year (and lots of grafting to do- 212 so far), so I actually did a fair amount of grafting in the rain. It’s rained a lot this spring- note the mushrooms in the lower right of the pic. It was anywhere from a fine mist to a gentle shower- I’m not dedicated enough to graft through a downpour. Most of my plums were grafting in the rain a couple weeks ago and while it is still too early to call, almost all of them look very good. The only adjustment I needed was to use an extra bit of parafilm to hold the tape in place- it doesn’t self seal as strongly when it is wet. Just a bit of parafilm around the outside was enough to keep it in place.
One time saving feature I’ve found this year is to pre-cut my wood the night before. I cut 10-20 scions that I plan to use the next day, then wrap them in parafilm and tie a label to them. This way, I can use the dark hours for this portion of the grafting, rather than few daylight hours I have. The one drawback is that when you get down to the last few spots you may want to pick which scion fits the host tree, rather than choosing a grafting site based on the scion.
Thanks, I’ll give this a try…Cutting the tape, hopefully not myself 
That’s interesting- I’ve been trying not to stretch it if I don’t need to, as I want to get as much out of it structurally as I can. So aside from the end of the graft, where I’m using it to seal the top, I try to keep my grip close to the graft so that the force doesn’t need to be transmitted over a long distance (if I hold it farther away, I stretch it out badly).
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ltilton,
I really don’t think it matters too much. I’ve done it both ways. I supposed one advantage of pre-wrapping the parafilm before grafting is would be that it minimizes the risk of the scion moving (thereby mis-aligning the cambiums) vs. wrapping the parafilm after the scion is grafted.
I generally wrap the parafilm after, because having the parafilm on before is sort of a distraction to me. I like to graft with just the naked wood, so I can see things a little more clearly. Just a personal preference.
Here is a graft of some Wisconsin Balmer I grafted about a month ago, or more during a few days of warm weather. I grafted about 8 grafts of this peach on this somewhat mature tree. Only about 4 of them are pushing some growth, so perhaps the others failed.
If you’ll allow me to digress about this peach, it’s been a bit of a journey getting this cultivar. A few years ago, on the old forum, Mile High Girl put me in contact with a lady who had this cultivar in interior MA. I wasn’t looking for a W. Balmer peach but I think Milehigh was interested in it for CO and the lady who had it seemed to want the cultivar saved. Anyway after a couple years of receiving the wood (and fruiting it) we discovered I had received the wrong wood. I received more wood last Dec. and it appears to be growing.
I don’t know if this peach will be commercially viable for me, but according to the lady who has the tree, she says it’s better quality than Reliance and somewhat hardier. She indicated it fruited after -20F temps.
Her tree was in very poor health, so it’s a bit of a rescue story (although I don’t know if the fruit is good enough quality to be worth rescuing). The scionwood was in pretty poor shape. I’ve not seen this cultivar offered by any nursery (at least for the last decade I’ve been looking at peach cultivars).
Bacterial spot is a big issue for me, so I don’t know how tolerant it is for that. There’s not much on the internet about this peach.
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Alan, I know what you mean, I’m always worried about jostling the scion out of position with all the wrapping
I used the temflex tape today. I peeled the backing off and it works great! I think I like it better than electrical tape. It has a nice rubbery stretch that sticks like bud tape.
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Lol. Another convert!
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It’s actually perfect for cleft and whips.
I did a lot of grafting yesterday afternoon- 44 grafts in 6+ hours, which is probably slow for some, but was chugging right along for me. In addition to the grafting, keeping records and remedial pruning takes up some time, as well as just figuring out what to do.
I tried cutting the temflex in half for very thin scions and it works well. I didn’t realize it until I tried it, but I think it is working because you don’t need to put too much force on the thinner temflex. It is the excess force which messes up the small grafts. Once I realized that, I combined this tidbit with Olpea’s suggestion to pre-stretch the tape. When pre-stretching, I didn’t need to cut it in half unless the scion was truly tiny. So my new plan is that tiny gets halved, small gets stretched, and medium to large gets normal.
I also tried a new type of rubber electrical tape on a few grafts. It is sticky on one side, as well as sticking to itself. I think it feels a little stronger than the temflex, but I’m a bit concerned that it won’t come off cleanly later, so I won’t use too much of it yet. It does go on very easily due to the glue.
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These are a few photos taken today of some grafting I’ve been doing for about a month.Brady
Apricot and European Plum on an already multi-grafted tree
Some Japanese Plum scions were added to a Beauty,previously grafted on a Flavor Supreme Pluot
Two Bill’s Nectar Peach Cot scions on a Bella Gold Peacotum
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Here is one of my amadiocot grafts, I think it is really looking good. Thanks for the scion wood @amadioranch! I am really looking forward to this one.
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A couple of peach grafts which were grafted very early (for peaches), in the beginning of April.
And here is the one which was grafted later, at the end of April.
I also removed the tape from the most vigorous grafts because I noticed that the tape began to gurgle the trunk. For the peace of mind I made ‘‘the crutches’’ for the grafts out of the BBQ skewers for the support, because the graft unions are still weak and they can brake easily during the wind. Right after that we had strong winds and a couple thunderstorms and all grafts stayed intact.
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It is heating up very quickly here, as it went from a few days in the low 70’s to a predicted high of 87F today and tomorrow. In all, the next 5 days are all 83+. Is this the point where I need to start protecting grafts with aluminum foil? If so, only recent grafts (last few days?) or even stuff that is a week or two old? Also, are there some fruit types which need protection, while others can take the heat?
Bob, I just did a few backup grafts this morning and am going to go out and put foil on them once the Doc’s dries. My forecast is similar to yours.
I am seeing more evidence for the importance of heat on peaches, my last grafting batch (your stuff, Bob) I was expecting 3-4 days of nice weather but the forecast shifted to cool right after I grafted. None of those guys are doing anything and I expect most or all will fail.
I hope your backups do better and some of your originals pull through. I just started grafting peaches and nectarines on Sunday and have 35+ grafts in so far. I’ll add aluminum to at least some of them today. I took the day off to graft and get the garden in- I’ve been very slow on that front this year.
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Great decision! I’m often tempted to do that too.
Bob,
Taking a day off to graft and garden has crossed my mind I can’t do it now as I have too many deadlines to meet.
I did take time off to spray in the past two years because the only days that were not windy or rainy were work days.
I did 5-6 peach grafts on 5/10 when there were about 3 days of low 70’s. Look like most took. The couple that failed were iffy scionwood to begin with.
Did your peach branches suffer freeze damage. I think mine do. Yesterday when I cut them off to graft, the center of the cross section wood looked dark brown or brownish. They did not look very healthy. Many small branches looked like that. Hard to find good small wood to graft. I ended up grafting a few peaches, apricots and persimmons.
Nikita’s Gift has several tips damaged from cold weather. Fortunately, the die back confine on 2-3" of the tips. This is the 2nd year tree. I winter-protected it this past winter. Not sure how winter hardy it will be going forward.
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