I’ve never used it. I’ve read comments about it and that’s what I kept reading over and over.
Anyways, so it’s fine, sorry. Does it come off w/o having to cut it? My apologies.
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Yep especially with harder to graft species like peach keep most of the tape on for quite a while as it takes a longer time to callous and will desiccated/fail if you get excited and remove tape too early…ask me how I know lol
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Hello! I am new to grafting and have done some wedge grafts and now some bark grafts this year on citrus and apricot. The thing I hate the most is using a UV rubber band to wrap to hold in place. The zip ties look sooo much simpler. Is there any reason to use rubber bands vs zip ties to hold it in place?
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@Barkslip — pretty sure that white stuff in that picture was sap.
PS… that picture is one I grabbed off a youtube video… it is not one that I did.
I have never used zip ties to bind grafts, but was showing that there are a few people on youtube doing that with mulberry grafts… one guy used fishing line… I think they are doing the graft binding that way to deal with the sap flow issue.
That guy that uses the zip ties on mulberry, he often covers the graft with some aluminum foil too. I think he was grafting later in the spring or early summer (rather than early spring).
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those things can bleed anytime they feel like it. they bleed in the summer, sometimes. they piss me off truly is what they do.
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On the zip ties…
The only grafts I have ever done are all shown above… so little to no experience here.
I have done 4 WT grafts (shown above) with apple scion to root stock… and to be honest it was not real easy getting those grafts to stay perfectly lined up while I started wrapping the parafilm around them… I found this to help some… line them up best I could and wrap around once or twice with parafilm… and then fine tune the alignment and then wrap more with parafilm.
The Zip Tie thing … well watching that guy on youtube bind them with the Zip ties… he sure made that look easy. A lot easier than what I was doing.
Probably just the experience making the difference.
You could use the zip ties to do the initial binding, then trim them off short and wrap over them and the graft union with parafilm (so it does not dry out). On something like apple that does not weep so much.
That’s the bomb, photo. I might print a full size banner for my wall I like it so much. It’s that coo.
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My multi graft plum on Myro 29c. All cleft except one W&T.
Multi graft Asian Pear on OHFx333. I did W&T last year but this year used cleft.
T-bud grafts done last fall on C-35 citrus rootstock waking up. Varieties are Sumo and Xie Shan Satsuma.
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The one issue I see with zip ties is that the pressure isn’t evenly spread out, whereas it is with tape or rubber bands. The even pressure gives you more chances for good contact. I hear you on the simplicity, but the rubber bands do get pretty easy with a little practice.
Another issue I could see is that zip ties would be harder to remove without damaging the tree. Not impossible, but harder.
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budding… “it’s the greatest” (signed any anonymous grafter)
Here @TNHunter I know you’re gonna really think this is worthwhile. It’s pretty advance but it’s logical. It’s a block off the back of a wedge. It fits snug. Very-interesting technique that I have never tried…
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I’m sure this could be applied to a number of fruits besides cherries.
Certainly apples.
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I’d also add another note on grafting mulberries. While I’ve heard problems with sap from many members here (same as me), they are mostly from CA, PNW or Texas. Whereas folks like @Drew51 or @IL847 found no such issues. It’s possible there are other confounders like grafting skills, technique, etc but I’d put my money on differences in climate that affects the sap flow. Many of these concerns are probably location-specific.
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I agree it’s climate. I can only do certain grafts as my skill is limited and my grafts are very ugly looking. I have a very high take rate with mulberry.
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Can I just take a minute to encourage folks who may be reading this thread in hopes of one day grafting. Do it now- some of you may still have time to collect some wood on late waking trees- or at least make sure you do it next year. Even if all you do is take wood from one variety you own and put in on another variety.
There is something about grafting that I think is just magical! Really. To cut a living part off of one tree and attach it to another tree/rootstock to create a whole new tree or a different limb on a tree is so amazing and fun. As are “franken-trees” where you have several varieties on the same tree.
But I want to encourage folks that it isn’t as hard as you think. Really. There are countless videos and huge threads talking about the science and some complicated methods and cuts requiring some good woodworking skills and all that may intimidate new folks a little- it did me. But I encourage you to start with some of the most simple methods using very basic materials and tools and just TRY IT. Cut a piece of scion wood at an angle, cut a similar sized limb on an existing tree at an opposite angle, hold the 2 together and wrap them with some kind of tape or plastic, and you have a very simple but fairly effective splice graft as shown below:
Yes, adding a whip and tongue or even a more complex graft might be better, but if you are new and terrible at making good cuts, this simple method is what got me started and works pretty well. With some tape and a $2 box cutter you, too, can enter the world of grafting.
There is something so fun about constantly checking your attached scion wood for signs of growth, and the excitement you feel when you see it pushing leaves is so great! You’ll find yourself worried if the new leaves are just from stored energy or a true grafted union, but that’s part of the fun. Sometimes you’ll be crushed a week later when it runs out of gas and you know it wasn’t a true connection, but everyday it continues to push new growth it gets more and more fun and exciting.
I guess I’m just a big tree nerd if I get this excited by sticking 2 pieces of wood together well enough for them to form new life (well, continue life together_) but this thread shows how much a lot of us enjoy grafting! So if you are new, GIVE IT A SHOT. You’ll learn from failures as much as from successes. It can be very cheap or free thing to do, and I don’t know anyone who has “made a tree” this way who isn’t very proud. It also gives you some bragging rights when you are with your non-fruit growing friends/coworkers! ha. Everyone is impressed when you tell them how you attached a green apple limb to a red apple tree, especially if they see it ha
I don’t know about others, but when I walk through my orchard I remember ever single graft I ever did. Even after 10 years, I constantly find myself inspecting the graft knot or union point on trees I added a variety to, and even on 10 year old grafts i enjoy finding the graft site and looking at in and marveling at how the tree healed itself and then continued life as something new and different. Again, this makes me a tree nerd but I’m ok with that.
So give it a shot. Grafting can be a high skilled, complicated procedure but it can also be as incredibly simple as the drawing above shows. Its one of the most things about fruit growing for me and I encourage anyone who is quietly reading this thread and thinking “someday” to just give it a shot. People here will love helping you. You’ll do dumb things (I’ve attached wood upside down!) and make mistakes but so did the experts here (of which I’ll never be one but I have just as much fun!).
Good luck! Grafting is GREAT.
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@thecityman ,I think you have captured my feeling about grafting perfectly. There is something magical about it. In 2020 when all my fruit was destroyed by frost, I still had the joy of watching grafts take and proliferate. You can make it as simple or complex as you want.
I go all in, reading about each variety, looking up pollination and harvest periods, and making drawings of each tree where I placed the graft. I check them daily in a walk around the orchard. I find it joyful and relaxing.
If you enjoy the outdoors and growing things, you will likely enjoy grafting. Start simple and build off of your successes. Learn from the ones that didn’t take. Laugh when you discover you have grafted a scion upside down. Most of all, have fun!
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As I look at my early apple grafts, quite a few are showing signs of taking. Most of the early takes are early red flesh apples, ghost, apples in pollination group 2. There are exceptions but relatively few. I was curious which of these factors has the most influence on when a graft takes: the pollination/harvest period of the scion, the vigor of the tree, the quality of the graft, or the quality of the scion/freshness/moisture etc. My guess is a combination of all of them, but it is curious the smallest red flesh apples grafts are consistently the first to take off. This is even with all other things being equal, same tree, same weather etc
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I think you’re onto something. But, so many exceptions.
I started grafting 3/15. Six of the first 8 happened to be red fleshed. Only Rubaiyat is a definite ‘take’. But, 7 grafts made on 3/17…produced the first 2 definite ‘takes’ for the year, and those scions happened to be Ashmead’s Kernel and Fameuse. And the scions got harvested the same day as the graft…so there’s you another factor in your ‘project’. (The ‘asleepness’ and the ‘freshness’ of scions.)
Scions that still retain the terminal bud also seem to come alive sooner.
Large diameter seems not as rapid as the small scions.
And on it goes.
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