2020 Grafting Thread

I bought a roll 2" x 250’ roll of Parafilm M on Amazon, and they sent me a 4" wide roll. I cut strips pretty sloppily from the roll, and it shows on the scion.

2 Likes

Finished my grafting for the year a couple of days ago. First time doing it solo. Usually do it with my dad, who learned from his dad, and has way more skill with a knife than I do. So, a bit amateur hour out there, but I still have all my fingers, so that’s a positive.

Just grafted a few things:

Belle de Boskoop, Blenheim Orange, Bramley, Claygate Pearmain, and Kerry Pippin on G41.

And Dana’s Hovey, Korean Giant, and Magness on OHxF333 (probably not ideal for the KG but we’ll see - it’s for a Belgian fence so I don’t really want it getting too big)

All cleft grafts, and tried to do multiple grafts where I could. Used a utility knife.

One issue I ran into with the cool-to-cold spring we’ve been having in New England: my apple rootstock got going while we were still having nights dipping down into the low 30s and even high 20s. Last year, I tried to wait until things were warming up a little more (like early May), but the rootstocks were pretty well along at that point and I had a number of apple grafts not take or take but not thrive. So, I concluded that I had been a bit too late and should try to go by the waking of the rootstock more than the temperature. We’ll see how it goes, but I would appreciate any insights that people might have.

Interestingly, my rootstocks (G41 and especially G202) seem to wake up well before almost all of my grafted trees.

2 Likes

James,
I grafted all my pears, apples and plums last Sun, too. I wonder how well they will callous considering temp was cold and no heat from the sun after grafting. Awful waether we have had.

I want to see how they will do myself as I could not recall temp after graft was this prolonged cold.

I suspected my Korean Giant was on OHxF 333 which seemed more common 10-12 years ago. The tree has grown well and would be over 15’ tall had I not cut the top off.

When I grafted some apples late, like in May, there were no issue but those were grafts on existing trees, not on rootstocks.

4 Likes

Thanks for that perspective, mamuang. I should have clarified that when I said rootstocks, the roots have been in the ground for at least a year if not several. And good to hear about your Korean Giant. I remembered you recommending that as a good Asian pear for our climate.

Hope your grafts do well - a few nice warm days would be good for everyone around here right now!

1 Like

When I picked up my root stocks from Cummins this spring (March 16th) they were grafting apples. While they grabbed my order I was able to speak with one of the guys grafting and he stated the grafts would go to refrigeration and then be planted out in May.

3 Likes

This was my first time grafting. I’m sure I will have some duds based on technique. But it seems after a week and a half my dripping honey pear tree on OHxF 97 is starting to sprout. I was going to ask, should I get rid of the rootstock growth yet or not yet? I’ve heard mixed things like yes because it will focus on the scion wood but then the rootstock could help give some energy then remove it. Could anyone help please?

4 Likes

I would cut everything off except the graft,
And only let the graft grow.
And I would have done this from day one.
Your scion is pushing growth, so good job.
Your off to a good start.

9 Likes

A few likely takes, and a maybe.

Orange Red apricot

Redhaven peach

Harrison apple

Indian Free peach, hopefully a take and not just growing prematurely.

20 Likes

Glenglo peach. Concerned that the parafilm unraveled.

6 Likes

Just put a little on,to cap the end.bb

@jcguarneri They look good Jay, how many days after grafting are those pics? You keeping them inside at a constant temp?

2 Likes

I don’t think I have ever seen that much tape in one place and I have been in a lot of home depot stores. I’m Jealous.

8 Likes

This is at 11 days for the peaches, a day or two more for the others. I kept them inside, but 60ish at night, 65-70 during the day. They are in the sunny mudroom/porch now, which is closer to outside temps, but still warmer. My other Redhaven grew a bud about half as much, then it withered. It still has a few buds in reserve that are just starting to grow, so it may be ok.

3 Likes

I have had no issue getting peach grafts to take when grafting at temp in the 60’s consistently for 4 days ( more is better but not really possible outside).

2 Likes

@Auburn

I am a bark grafter for life with those rolls of 3M electrical tapes. Lol. Btw,
I just started to root some Basils, herb, and a top of a carrot for kicks.:blush:

8 Likes

I am just now starting to see results on all my grafts. Boy did they take forever to get going! I grafted the plums a month ago and the peaches three weeks ago. It looks like they didn’t stall and die (yet), that has happened in the past when long cold stretches hit.

My biggest observation for this year is on scion quality for peaches. A couple peach scions had some brown bits on the inside, none of those appear to have worked so far. But I did a couple backup chip buds on them and the chip buds at least seem to be attached; I am going to force them now to see if they will go.

So, lesson #1 is if peach scions look iffy, do chip buds instead of using a scion stick. I think this may be because there is the same amount of contact area with a chip bud, bud less “weak wood” to be supported by that contact point.

Some of the scions I almost hydrated in water because I knew they were weak; I think that was a mistake not doing so and in general for peaches lesson #2 is it is always a good idea to nip a bit off the bottoms and put the bottoms in water for a day or so. I have some wood left which I am now hydrating for a second try once it warms up a bit.

And of course, lesson #3 is to get as good as possible wood of peaches. All of the unhappy ones had to sit out for a period, e.g. were from a swap meet.

The really fat and really thin wood also didn’t do as well, so lesson #4 seems to be that the perfect thickness for peaches is a standard pencil or maybe 30% bigger or smaller.

In general, this year I paid close attention to the quality of the scions on my peaches (after last year where I noticed a correlation); and, the ones that I thought were really outstanding indeed worked consistently well. Along with the issue of scion quality is stock quality, I think all my stocks were pretty good this year but that has been a problem some years. Peaches are basically unforgiving on everything!

19 Likes

Three weeks ago for peaches seems early. What where the temperatures.

1 Like

Too late to need to worry. Those are keepers!

3 Likes

It was in the high 60s - low 70s for four days… a perfect stretch really. The problem is it never got warm since then. In terms of tree maturity it was not early at all but that was because March was so warm. I was thinking the warm trend would keep up but it turned south big time.

There has not been a single good window since then… maybe next weekend we will finally get another window.

5 Likes

This weather in MD has been miserable. We might be starting to come out of it late next week. Fingers crossed.

1 Like