Just an update my bench grafts from this year. Here is where they started
And here is where they are as of today’s
And here is where they are as of today’s
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Impressive.
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Very true, that was my though as well. The scions will be no good next spring. I wanted to make this time of year was not a “NEVER graft this late in the year” type of situation.
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Nice job!!
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" growth on the upper part of a branch is favored"
Thanks, no07. That makes sense; based on that premise, I should offset the horizontal cleft graft towards the top, where more scar tissue should grow. This will make the graft stronger because the top part of the graft will be in tension, where it needs more strength, while the lower part will be in compression, which is inherently stronger.
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If stored well, good chance they’ll be OK next spring. I have at least 3 trees currently growing which were grafted with 1yr+ old scions forgotten in the back of the fridge.
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@MikeC
I would suggest chip budding with those scions this time of year.
Letting the chip bud lay dormant until spring .
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Was looking at my trees to see if I wanted to do some chip bud grafting before the growing season ends.
How in the world do you do a plum chip bud graft?
At least for the handful of Japanese plum wood I have, the first year growth caliper is tiny and the dormant mature buds are really really small.
I’d guess T&G is the only way to go for plums.
If I tried to take a plum bud chip (assuming my no longer young hands could do it) it wouldn’t take a day for the whole thing to dry out if not sealed completely.
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Parafilm or buddy tape work great to seal chip or T buds. I haven’t done plums, so can’t address that part, but if you’re using parafilm or buddy tape then I wouldn’t worry too much about any difficulty sealing them.
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My comment is because the size of a first year bud is just so incredibly small.
I’ll do some photos and measurements maybe today as an illustration.
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I have been chip budding many plum limbs for the last month. I am getting older and my hands aren’t the most steady in the world anymore, so tiny bud sticks are a challenge to work with. To complicate things if you are grafting the bud onto equally tiny branches it is very easy to cut too deeply and compromise the branch. Be sure to have a shishkebab skewer on hand in case you cut too deeply. If the branch needs extra support tape the skewer to the branch to reinforce it using buddy tape. That’s just a precautionary warning, if you’re careful that should rarely happen.
For working with tiny bud chips, buddy tape is really the ticket. Parafilm is too thick and stiff for finesse work IMO. Parafilm is however great for larger grafts such as cleft etc.
Using tiny chips for buds is possible, but it requires a super sharp budding knife. The knife must be sharp enough to shave the hair off your forearm or finesse work is not going to go smoothly.
A trick I sometimes use for really tiny bud wood is to cut two chips at once the same size and length. I then cut a wide slot on a larger branch the same width as the 2 chips when placed side by side. It helps to have a second set of hands for this as you need to hold both chips in place while you tape them together onto your receiving branch.
I don’t do this very often, but I have done this a handful of times this season, and I successfully used this trick once last year. I’m not sure if others have tried this method, but it is an option if your branches don’t match up in size. It’s a bit of a longshot method, but it can work on drastic size mismatches.
Tiny chips are a challenge, but with practice you’ll get the hang of it. The right knife, and buddy tape is really important though IMO.
I’ve chip grafted probably at least 75 plum trees, and a bunch of cherries, apples, pears in addition. It’s all about practice. When you start out you’re really clumsy and it’s slow going. After a bit of practice you’ll be grafting like a pro in no time.
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@tbg9b
Great post to my question.
I’m not sure how buddy tape is different from the parafilm I have. I’ve not found a video that shows it well.
If you happen to have any photos or videos of your wee plum grafts please share… Thanks
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Buddy tape usually comes pre-perforated, so you can break it off evenly into about a 3" long strip that is an inch wide. Although you can buy it unperforated, the perforated version is far better IMO. I usually rip off two strips at once, then use my grafting knife to cut it down the center into 1/2" wide strips.
Buddy tape is thinner and easily stretches much further than parafilm. Initially I was used to parafilm and I didn’t like buddy tape, as it arrived during the early grafting season when I’m often doing cleft grafts. IMO buddy tape lacks the strength for doing grafts that require a fair bit of compression. Where buddy tape shines is when doing those small finicky bud grafts.
Maybe others would disagree with my assessment. I’ve only been using buddy tape since the spring so I’m not well seasoned with its use. Buddy tape is quite expensive and sometimes very hard to find. On the up side it goes a ton further than a spool of parafilm. Even though buddy tape is expensive, I think it is a far better value for the money. A perforated spool of buddy tape may do a thousand or more grafts when cut into half inch strips. I’m not saying you need to have buddy tape for budding, but for doing the really small stuff it’s tailor made for that. I used parafilm all last summer for bud grafting and my take percentage was quite high, so it gets the job done too. However, I wasn’t doing budding using tiny bud wood with the parafilm last summer. I’m not saying it won’t work, but I think it would be about as awkward as using a 6 pound sledge for driving finishing nails.
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I don’t get too complicated, I used secateur to make the cut, used Parafilm for wrapping, electrical tape for securing, and I’m also a newbie, last year I have over 90% success rate. Yeap, some successful stone grafts too. Luck of a newbie, lol.
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Feb 23
Today… Sept 7.
Bark graft 2 scions… 4 buds have put out 6-7 ft of growth.
The graft union has not completely healed over… which i assume is typical.
So what do I do with this next spring pruning wise.
???
Thanks
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Good suggestion. Thank you for suggesting it.
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Looks ready to train to its final shape. I’d cut off those two outermost shoots entirely, then select one of the remaining shoots to be your permanent one. Cut the other short, but don’t remove it completely yet. The other shoot, top it about where you want the height to be, and as it grows select buds/shoots growing in favorable positions/directions to encourage; discourage/remove all the others.
As for the other, shortened shoot, keep it on there for another year or two, but don’t let it grow much. It will help the wound close over faster. Once it’s pretty well closed off, you can remove that shoot.
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@jcguarneri … thanks for the suggestions Jay… that sounds like a good plan to me.
I will have a nice pile of improved kieffer scionwood too.
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A couple more for the end of the season to take advantage of some volunteer seedlings. Redhaven peach and Gerardi mulberry. Chip and t-buds.
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Keeping a little of the “unchosen” one will provide insurance in case the preferred one has failure or breakage as well.
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