2016 graft thread

I’m primarily moving stuff around now. I did add Hope this spring, the one U Ark new grape that I had not put in before.

The only grapes worth it for me are Muscat NY, Golden Muscat, and the new U Ark ones. The first two are good in the kitchen and the UArk ones are for fresh eating. even Jupiter and Swenson Red are on the way out, the former is not crunchy and the latter is good tasting but has seeds.

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I spent quite a bit of time today grafting black walnuts using the Alex Suchan technique:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQv65gYTtNU&index=1&list=PLoFvmRTfCHkZkUPTubNuzZ3q6_GbWJ4NP

I decided that given my lack of success in the past with walnuts, I needed to try something different. Desperate men do desperate things. I need takes. Alex has been grafting since the 1940s, and knows walnut grafting. So I’m copying every step of his technique, including the black goop and white paint. I even bought a Tajima utility knife, which I recommend. I talked to Alex’s daughter, and she reports that the family business of grafting and growing walnut rootstocks is facing challenges. Tissue culture is replacing much of the old ways.

Here are a couple of photos of today’s efforts–Rowher on seedling rootstock my dad planted almost 20 years ago. I’ll report back in several weeks with what I hope will be good news. These grafts take plenty of time to install. Fingers crossed.


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Mark,good to know,Thanks

Here is an unnamed crab that has grown about 20in already!

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Just had a couple of real hot days. Was looking at my grafts and noticed that the nectarine grafts that I have on plum are starting to look like they won’t make it. Which is no surprise. I know peach on plum is typically not compatible. And I think I’m starting see that. The peach grafts I did on peach look good for now. Plum/pluot grafts along with pear are easily my best growing out of the bunch. Apple is pretty slow at this point.

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A few more of my grafts. Almost 100% take so far this year !

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[sigh] The leaves I thought were some of my grafts taking turn out to be from the stock

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I need to follow up to my own post, looks like my green grape graft is also working. This is a graft on a green (new spring) shoot putting a dormant scion on to it. I don’t know if its an “official” green graft, usually green graft means both stock and scion are green and growing. Anyway, it worked and so I will be trying more of those as well.

@ltilton, I have had that happen many times unfortunately.

My recent tragedy was a deer got at my Pitmaston Pineapple graft. It was growing extremely well, over a foot, but got completely munched back to a stub. :rage: :rage: :rage: Now I have a sprinkler aimed right at it.

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I’ve had decent luck so far with apple grafts this year (my first). Of the grafts that I have seen it looks like I have 7 of 12 for sure growing, 2 that I’m still waiting to do something, and 1 that I knocked off and have re-budded with left-over wood. I’m hoping to force it this summer yet.

Here are some pictures:

G.969 roots with Hawkeye x2, Enterprise, and Kidd’s Orange Red.

This Hawkeye Delicious graft has been struggling, though is showing some sign of doing better in the last couple days and might be forming new leaves again.

This was my “ugly graft”. The scion is Empire, and it had side branches on it. I decided to use it all, and it looks to be taking. Apples are forgiving.

Ashmeads Kernel in the foreground. St. Edmunds Russet is covered in parafilm in the background. Not sure if the St. Edmunds will take since that batch of scion wood had some green showing on it when I got it late.

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Variation of the ‘Z graft’ Bassam (treesofjoy.com) taught me for mismatching scionwood (when scionwood is usually smaller than rootstock)…
Its a bit easier to remember for me (its just missing the top portion of the Z graft which is harder for me to figure out).
You just have to measure the difference between the top and back of the scion, and just cut the rootstock the same distance as the longer side of the scion wood (and cut deeper in the rootstock the same distance as the back shorter part of the rootstock). Will let you know if it works out.

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PS i usually just get all my rootstock and I put 10 per pot and I graft when i have time outdoors or in my garage at night :). Have like 6 pots with 60 grafted plants that I usually will try to split up and give away towards mid/end of summer (not that hard separating roots in the pots, just spray jet and ‘rain’ setting on a hose gradually to move all the dirt and separate the roots without damaging them).

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None of those scions are wrapped with parafilm, I notice

I’ve taken to wrapping my scions this year but only because I’m trying anything I can for success. I don’t know anybody in my area who wraps their scions completely. It’s expensive and time consuming and apparently not necessary typically. The graft needs to be sealed and the tip (if cut) needs to be sealed. From what I understand, that’s it.

Hey @ltilton all my grafts have parafilm? Was that comment about my pics? I rubber band first, think it’s easier than parafilming first. I took a little poll last month, seems like something people like either way. I just like rubberbanding first to get scion and rootstock easily lined up. I find parafilming first harder as if I rubberbanded afterwards it’s hard to know if I knocked scionwood out of alignment.

I think they were referring to not wrapping the entire scion head to toe. Seems to be a hit or miss preference. As mentioned, I’m trying it this year as additional moisture retention, but the people I’ve learned from don’t do this. They just seal the cut bits.

Gotcha @SuperG … yeah wrapping whole scion seems too much and not needed.
Like if grafting success rate is so good for most people who are seasoned grafters ( > 80%), then doesn’t seem needed I think.
But I guess doesn’t hurt to try to see if want to increase your success percentage.
Everyone has their lil’ quirks to grafting…
… I actually rub my spit be4 rubberbanding and after on the rubberband to keep moisture inside the parafilm lol.

My feeling is there will be no moisture loss from the area covered with rubber bands. I don’t cover that area with parafilm. I do often cover all, scion and rubber bands, with al foil. That’s as much to reflect direct sun/heat as to hold in moisture.

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Well, I’ve been wondering if my general grafting failure might be due to my failure to wrap the whole scion head-to-toe, not just at the junction with the stock - for the same reason, fear of knocking it all out of alignment

Thus I pay attention to the various techniques I see here

I have found zero need to wrap the scions while doing apples, plums and pears in the field where I live. I seal all exposed cuts with wax or one of the pruning sealants. This is my first year grafting other stone fruits so I have experimented with both my usual process and with sealing the entire scion in parafilm, at this point I can see no difference in takes when comparing the two methods. I think your local environment plays a very important role in determining whether wrapping the scion is necessary.

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Update - 2 of the 12 no parafilm grafts have since taken. Maybe it just takes them a bit more time, when there isn’t a built-in greenhouse around the scion. Of course, this is compared to >95% success from the grafts I did with parafilm covering the whole scion (and during the day :slight_smile: ). One other thing which stacked the deck against these grafts is that they were mostly very thin scion wood (some double-clefts)- I did 2 normal grafts with the nicest wood for each of the varieties (which have since taken) and quickly used up the second choice wood at the end of the day.

Maybe parafilm makes a bigger difference with thin wood, as it has a higher surface area to volume ratio. More surface area (compared to the enclosed volume) could lead to faster dehydration and hence more benefit from an all-over parafilm wrap.

My very first cleft graft. This is Korean Giant aka Olympic on one of my 4 in 1 Asian Pear varieties. I made a terrible cut with a blunt knife but it still forgave me! :blush:

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