Thanks Mamuang. I have to admit I don’t remember that, but sounds like some precautions I would take.
Just goes to show what kind of person you are to remember that. A very sweet lady.
Some people take so much care collecting and mailing scions for no benefit to themselves. It’s a conundrum human beings are capable of the most selfless acts (and the most selfish).
Bob from the Noth east traded scions with me once. His were labeled with perfect handwriting and perfect size, I was delighted. (Note I can hardly read my own hand writing. )
I feel a real obligation to ensure my grafts take and use every stick of scion knowing that someone took time , the most valuable thing we have, to collect and ship them.
Scott has sent me budwood. I can’t remember one that i didn’t get a take on. Maybe one of the plums. I lost a few because i budded several to a Tomcot and then the tree died the following spring. I know the one time i got them and it was like 90F+ heatwave and i still had plenty of takes. I will add that i use every bud i can and try to do it half way quick. So if i don’t get take on tree one, i hope to get one somewhere else. I think all he did was put them in ziploc with some wet paper towel. I then kept them in the refrigerator until they were gone. Really all you need is one take…and then the following years you can multiply and/or move what you need to … it works… I never T bud…always chip.
If that was anything other than pear I’d say you are way too early to declare victory. But since pears can be grafted by stevie wonder wearing mittens I’d say you are good to go.
Thanks Olpea, that’s what I suspected. I had a decent success rate this spring or dormant peach grafting so I’ll probably stick with that mostly for acquiring new varieties.
So I was wondering, where do people come down on shaping versus maximum growth? I can’t seem to resist nit picking my trees trying to get them to grow exactly how I want but I always worry I am overly stunting their growth. For example, my apples are supposed to be eventually espalliared walls on the side of my yard. I try very hard to only let the leader and the arm tips grow, but I wonder if I should be letting it go wild and winter prune only? I am getting probably two or three feet of width and three or four feet of height each year. I take the leader and fold it to start each level each year. It’s only their third really good year and I am getting impatient to fill them in.
I am asking here because my dapple dandy and black ruby graft are getting to four feet or so, so I am tempted to top them at 30 inches to start the scaffolding. Should I just wait for winter and let it get as tall as possible? They are staked so I am not super concerned about wind or storm breaking them.
I believe I have an English Walnut on Black Walnut rootstock.
Here is a pic where you can see the change in the bark at graft union.
The suckers are definitely Black walnut but I cant be certain what scions were used.
The leaves above the graft union appear to be some type of English variety.
It was probably grafted in the '70’s.
Ok, I went out and risked unseating the grafts by wrapping them with parafilm. Do you think three weeks unwrapped is too long or is a take still possible? I also wrapped the ones I did last weekend.
Also a quick parafilm question. I’m using “parafilm M” is this what everyone else uses? I have a huge roll that will likely last me years, so I hope so.
I got some apple takes on USDA budwood last summer, which survived two trips- to the original requester, then on to me. The wood still looked great. I think they took the leaves off right away, which probably helps. This is the wood I mentioned in another thread earlier today which worked better in cleft grafts, than in my clumsy chip buds.
It’s possible you are referring to me, except that my handwriting is actually the opposite of perfect, as every teacher I ever had would attest. It was made worse on a few of the scions I sent out this year when the ink from one pen gradually blurred. Thankfully, that only went out on a few scions, but I need to be more careful to use tried and true sharpie and masking tape, instead of paper covered in clear tape (which worked fine for most of the pens I used).
The wood I received from Olpea was very nice- great sizes and quantities and I was able to make out all the hand-writing without issue. In fact, I’ve received high-quality wood from so many people in the forum that I don’t want to list all of them, for fear of forgetting someone. But I will say that Bob Hawkins sent me the most impressive collection of jujube wood. He packed a gallon bag for each of 9 varieties and sent it in a box you could fit a watermelon in. It was so much more than I could use that I was re-gifting it for the rest of the spring.
