That’s precocious.
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Yep….been there! It blows all the time and it sometimes blows like hell!!! We have had bad winds this year….really bad. Can’t imagine what you guys have gone through!
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One of my outdoor avocado seedlings that survived the winter, and had a new successful graft of Stewart that took this spring, succumbed to the most unpredictable of calamities:
Two rambunctious eleven year-olds rough-housing in the yard.
The bamboo stake, large white tag, and ring of mulch weren’t enough to deter them, guess I need to put tomato cages or wooden fences around all the trees. Kids!
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Finishing up 150 Limbertwigs, Iron Buddy tape and some melted Treecote grafting wax, (check using a $4 candle heater/cradle).
These are going to stay in an outdoor shade cover till they go in the ground in Root Control 2 gal bags.
Because I whip graft, I make sure the union is supported by both the melted wax and the strong stretch tape, they are really strong. It saves time and scion wood because there isn’t need to size the two pieces closely.
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I am so excited! I finally got a bunch of apple, pear, and even a few cherry grafts to take and many of them broke through the parafilm today!
In 2 days we are now expecting cold weather between 25 and 32 degrees. Is there a point in maybe rewarping the scions that broke through the parafilm to protect them from the freeze? I am afraid to cover them with bags, etc. I don’t want the covering to catch the wind and break the grafts off. The rest of the tree will have to deal with whatever happens but these precious scions- what should I do?
Thanks!
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Just keep an eye on that tape to make sure it doesn’t girdle your trees once they take off… That seems to be a recurring challenge amongst those using similar tape (including myself).
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Should be fine…could tape a paper bag over scions to act like a greenhouse and soften the frost
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Pear rootstocks (OHXF97) went in ground 5 weeks ago and they are leafing. Started field grafting today, here is my attempt at whip and tongue. fingers crossed …
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Withdrawn
Last year I lost my top on a Susquehanna due to waiting too long to remove the rubber on a Whip and Tongue graft. Fortunately, a single bud survived to salvage the variety. Thanks to the latent bud!
Dennis
Kent, Wa
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Very nice, wishing you 100% takes.
What material is that white putty ?
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It’s a modeling clay
Doesn’t get hard. I’ll remove later this summer. Or it will fall off
Works well
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On. Mar 3 this spring I topworked my sweet cherry trees with various plum varieties using Adara and Cherry plum interstems for compatibility. Process: I wanted to give my chip buds an advance opportunity to callous, knowing that ambient temperature would be very low, I chip budded my interstem scions in advance and let them callous for 3 days at room temperature around 69F before grafting outdoors. Chip buds are now breaking thru parafilm. The native Adara and Cherry plum buds I left on the interstems are growing about 5 days ahead of my plum chip buds. I will be pinching those back to favor my plum chip buds, but eventually I want some to grow for future grafting to fill in empty spaces. This year I have more one year old Sweet Cherry shoots to graft which are much easier to graft than are bark grafts. My sweet cherry trees are about 27 years old.
Dennis
Kent,Wa
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This Pai Li on OHxF 97, grafted over a month ago, shows some mild interveinal cholorosis, despite otherwise looking like a strong take, with many good-sized leaves; it did stop growing a couple of weeks ago, though. Is this a sign of rootstock-scion incompatiblity? I believe Pai Li is P. ussuriensis; perhaps it doesn’t like P. communis? Or maybe it’s a demanding variety, nutrient-wise, and it can’t yet get what it needs from this rootstock to which it was recently fused?
There does seem to be some callus tissue bridging scion and stock, visible through the parafilm. Anyway, I hope it makes it, as this is one I’d like to try . . . Should’ve just put it on a danged callery. 
Speaking of, the quickest take—and fastest grower—has been the Peggy Asian I put on a dug-up dormant callery in late February. Despite an ugly graft, it will have tripled itself pretty soon.
My record is not the greatest thus far. Looks like 5/9 pears (if Pai Li pulls through), 2/3 apples. Seems as though my neatest grafts (relatively speaking) are the ones that fail! Going to try some more grafts this weekend.
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That looks pretty good to me. That’s a lot of growth for a barely connected scion. I think it just needs a little more time to tighten the connection. I’m 6b/7a and they are just starting to break through the tape from 1-2 weeks ago grafts. All of them got about an inch of snow on them. Melted quick and didn’t do to much damage.
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