Decent graft success this year so far.
A few recent and week old pics.
Kokuso mulberry.
Prague citsuma
Kansas sweet hybrid cherry
Persimmons and chico jujube
That top photo looks like Illinois everbearing mulberry the leaves are so large. Never grew kokusa it could look like that as well according to this site FigBid - Online Auctions of Fig Trees, Fig Cuttings & Growing Supplies - Kokusa mulberry seedling . Can’t tell much by the rest of the photos I’ve seen on the internet. That’s a good looking mulberry and they look similar! On the figbid site they showed what they look like.
That’s a nice group of plants your growing!
Thanks! 
Its exciting to look forward to!
I wonder if I need to remove the tape from this Toka plum on P. americana, grafted about a month and 10 days ago? I put two tiny scions of equal size into the cleft. One failed, but this one took off and has really increased in size—in addition to pushing some nice top growth.
I’ve had pretty good luck with pears this year. All of my seven or so grafts on callery took; a majority on OHXF 97. OHXF 333 has been difficult, though: I’m batting sub-50% there.
I did several persimmon grafts(JT-02) four weeks ago—and most look like takes. This one on a local wild persimmon seedling looks especially promising.
Bark grafts on an existing D. virginiana rootstock are also taking off, but my enthusiasm there is tempered by a watch for Kaki Sudden Death Syndrome, since that mysterious disorder may have killed the previous occupant of the stock.
Plums did pretty well. This is AU Amber on P. americana.
AU Rosa also seems to take well on American plum. If all progresses according to plan, I will graft Lavina and one of the red-fleshed Auburn plums—Cherry or Rubrum—into my grove next season.
Most of my early cleft grafts ain’t pretty, but they seem to do the job. Maybe I’ll get a little better at this by next year.
This is perhaps my cleanest union—one of my few takes on OHXF 333.
Guess I was kind of late with pawpaws—only a week or so ago, so no idea how those will go. Except for maybe some attempts at summer budding and perhaps a re-graft on one of those uncooperative OHXF 333 stocks, I’m done for 2022. It was a fun, frustrating, rewarding and instructive first grafting season!
I’m also in the 50% ballpark on OH x F 333 benchgrafts this year…and almost 100% on grafting to callery pear.
Oh, and thanks for reminding me…probably time to cut the tape on the callery grafts before they girdle too bad!
If anyone does a straight whip without the tongue let them girdle a bit to strengthen the graft union. Cut the tape but don’t remove it. The best thing is do a whip and tongue in the first place.
Some of my 2022 Grafts…
Pecan
Killdeer heartnut
Pearl heartnut graft 1
Pearl heartnut graft 1
Pearl heartnut graft 2
Pearl heartnut graft 2
Pearl heartnut graft 2
You gotta keep the rootstock clean and sprouting always-always occurs under tape or between stakes and rootstock. You can use whatever you want but to keep ahead, a little flat screwdriver you can dig sprouting out from under tape saves you a lot hassle the next time around to visit to care for them
My indicator is if there is any shoot extension usually means it’s taking.
Also, I’ve learned that good weather at grafting time has not increased my stone fruit success. I did some Japanese plum grafts back in late March when it looked like we would have a warm spring. The next week it was cool and started raining and hasn’t let up too much since then. I did more in early May when we had some decent weather. The ones in March had a very high success rate, but those in May have been a bit less successful. Probably due to scions starting to wake up.
However, Euro plums did great at the later date, having shoot extension in about 2 weeks and 100% take rate. Again probably because the scions were more dormant in the Euros than the Japanese I’m guessing.
These were all shipped scions, so perhaps if I was using my own I could have kept them more dormant and had different results.
Here are a couple of my less successful (stalled or no growth, but not dead) avocado grafts from this spring:
And did a few grafts of a new addition, from an unknown cultivar or seedling tree growing in a public park in Redlands, CA. The Etsy seller is selling as Mexicola/Mexicola Grande (the listing says both in different places), but that’s based on the fruit appearance, he confirmed to me that it looks like it could be either a chance seedling or remnant of an old orchard.
Did you fertilize/media containing fertilizer?
The chip bud, you probably cut it off above the chip, but, cut it to 1/4" above. dab a little glue on the end.
I’ve changed my tune to what I carry: electrical tape, parafilm, and wood glue… to graft anywhere/anytimne.
Yes, and these ones are the exceptions, most of my grafts from this spring are growing nicely now. The “Long South Gate” and “Stewart” grafts in that last post are also both on the same branch of a multi-graft tree, and that whole branch has been sluggish this spring. I might be reaching the limit on that tree for the number of varieties it can grow well at this size.
Unfortunately, there are two other varieties further up that branch, including the Stewart graft.
I have LSG growing well on a few rootstocks though, so if I have to leave it off that multi-graft I’ll survive.
This year I grafted black twig and mammoth black twig. Are they one and the same?
Loquat graft I did back in March. Pushed some growth…sat stagnant for a while, and is now starting to take off a bit. This photo taken last week.
This was my first year apple grafting. Now able to say 95% + takes using a mix of zenport, omega tool and whip with and without tongue.
Used rubber band around tight around union and then grafting tape. A bit of wax just on the tip of the scion.
Often felt like I didn’t know what I was doing but I attribute the success not to skill of the cuts but mostly to the tight seal on the graft union and the before and after care instructions I found here.
Thanks to everyone who has posted advice and answered questions!
Question for persimmon folks - all of my JT-02 grafts have not shown any growth. I just took the tape off of this one and did a scratch test. It’s perfectly green still but hasn’t budged and has plenty of callus all around. Am I missing something? Most other grafts started at the same time have pushed some growth except for all the JT-02. The rootstock on most of the JT-02 have pushed but I’m hesitant to rub off all the growth in case they didn’t take as I want to RE-graft later…
Evaluation of grape grafts
Today I decided to do an evaluation of my two grape grafting efforts to determine why my seedless concord grafts have not been as successful as my white seedless grafts have been. After several years of trying later in the spring, but witnessing failures due to sap rising pressures and flooding of the graft union, I decided this spring to graft well before sap rising or bud swelling. My thought was that to avoid grafts failing due to sap rising pressures, I need to get the graft union healed before sap begins to rise. So on the following dates as temperatures were holding generally above freezing, I grafted these two varieties:
2/17: Whip & tongue grafted seedless concord scions on others.
2/25-26: Whip & tongue grafted the large white seedless scions onto two vines.
On 6/7/22: I noticed that the majority of my seedless grafts were wilting after bud breakout. A post mortem of those failing graft unions showed that practically no callousing had occurred. The rootstock and scions were easily pulled apart. I concluded that my timing was too early to achieve callousing before buds were ready to open! Actually not until June did we get optimal temperatures for Grapes callousing I my area ( 21-24 deg C. or 69.8 to 75.2 F).
Today I took photos and tabulated my results:
White grape grafts: 6 out of 7 are successful. The one that failed was due to my accidental damaging it while buds were swelling. First pic
Seedless Concord grafts: 1 out of 10 growing and 3 others are marginally successful, too early to tell! The second pic shows the one most successful.
Actual ambient temperature ranges for each group:
Concord Seedless: During the three weeks after grafting the daily highs ranged from 34 F to 57 F, and the daily lows ranged from 27 F to 52 F. This group experienced 4 days of freezing temperatures during the initial 2 weeks of callousing.
Large white seedless: For three weeks after grafting the daily highs ranged from 43 F to 57 F, and the daily lows ranged from 27 F to 52 F.
This group experienced 3 days of freezing temperatures during the initial 2 weeks of callousing; however, 2 of the 3 coldest days occurred immediately after grafting so there had been minimal callousing to interrupt for 2 of the 3 freezing days.
Conclusions: Other than temperature differences, I noted that the scion diameters for the second group were considerably larger (1/2”) than for the first group (3/8”). It appears that the slightly higher ambient temperatures for the second group and perhaps a greater amount of stored energy for the the larger scions may have been the two primary factors that led to this groups success. So I conclude that grafting of grapes is best done when the chances of freezing temperatures have past and when daily highs are well above 50 F, and sap has not begun to rise. Next spring my goal will be to graft slightly later hopefully with no freezing temps and before sap rises. So if you have struggled with grafting grapes try the timing for my second group when similar temperature ranges are expected.
Dennis,
Kent, wa
I’m in Va. Grafted Rosseanka and Lehmans Delight this year. My best graft has about 2-3 inches of growth. Most still have swelling buds. Looks like you only gave them one bud to work with? For me the thicker scion pieces take off quicker and faster.
For me it’s just the opposite. Today it’s over 90. I actually retaped a few parafilms for grafts that were tiny and looked like they were drying up. I moistened the parafilm a little. Probably for naught but we shall see. I did get growth on at least 6 grafts that had stalled which I released from the templex earlier in the week. Just a slit, not removed.


































