I have something similar:
https://www.amazon.com/Bucket-Boss-Gatemouth-Brown-70012/dp/B00GK4TRKO
I was actually looking at similar ‘open top tool hard bags’ hour ago, as i wanted maybe a 2nd one for less used stuff that I keep in another bag.
2 Likes
Humidity is what kills me every time. Things dry out. 6000 ft elevation - UV rays burn everything. Rainshadow side of the mountians. As soon as night time temps rise from 20s and i can start grafting (i actually start earlier because of how dry the air is and have reasonable takes on apple and plum) the daytime humidity drops into low twentys or even teens. 15% humidity will dry anything out in no time. Grr.
I grafted a few apple trees this spring and had them in pots behind the house. My wife had a ~$20 vertical “greenhouse” she had a few vegetable and flower seedlings in close by. While we were out one day the wind must have gotten fairly strong, blew the greenhouse over on top of one of the grafted trees. I mentally wrote it off as a goner and just planned to graft that variety again the next year. A month or so later I noticed leaves and chuckled at how resilient they can sometimes be. Today I finally took a closer look at the (cleft) graft union. Wow!
4 Likes
6 Likes
Nothing spectacular here. Much of my recent grafting seems to be fine-tuning – top-working other varieties either to upgrade or to experiment. Nearly all the grafts this year are bark grafts of normal sized scions onto bigger branches and trunks. Here’s two examples.
I have an Alderman (American hybrid) plum that has bloomed profusely but never born fruit. I’m sure it’s a pollination problem. A nearby Black Ice fig did not help. Worse, it had disease problems of its own. So as part of an attempted solution, I’m top-working the Black Ice. The top pic shows LaCrescent scions on a Black Ice branch.
Meanwhile, I have a Bluebyrd (European), which has given me good plums, near a President, which has bloomed but not fruited. It may just be a maturity issue for the President. In any case, this second picture shows Empress grafted to one branch of President, both to test Empress and to facilitate pollination of President. I just noticed activity yesterday.
Also, I am adding Nikita’s Gift hybrid persimmon to an established DV tree. Those grafts haven’t shown anything yet. But before, I grafted NG to a potted DV seedling, kept under lights in the basement. This technique has worked well for me getting a head start on the season.
4 Likes
Thanks, may try that fly fishing vest.
Scion can initially leaf out even if they’re detatched. If it’s still attached on one side I think it would still grow.
1 Like
What’s a good cheap alternative to Doc Farwell Grafting Seal available in most stores … have to do Is a quick cleft graft for someone today… Elmers Glue, Rubber Cement, or just Parafilm wrapping the top?
I literally use an old cardboard shoebox. And when it starts coming apart grab another from the closet 
I prefer the grafting tape. Just tricky to get good seal between twin grafts in a cleft.
I have a bottle of this, works great, recommended by my Uncle who took over the orchards from my Grandfather and great Grandfather. My Uncle says just get it from your local co op. Hahaha i live in so cal - rural but so cal. Local co op hahaha.
Walter E Clark 00032 Treekote Brushtop Container, 32 Ounce Amazon.com
1 Like
Thanks!, thats what I ended up doing (and running a few scotch black tape stretched out over that as well).
I have been liking the “Scotch 2242” and “Scotch Linerless Rubber Splicing Tape” people recommended here (forget if i liked the Temflex 2155 tape).
So I use either grafting/buddy tape 1st then the black sticky tape (assume it’ll be easier to cut the tape and pull it off later in the summer if i do the grafting tape 1st),
or do the usual ‘rubber band then grafting tape’ method.
Rubber bands are hard to wrap tightly on very small diameter cleft grafts without breaking them, so the tape works out well for small grafts too.
2 Likes
I was a bit worried about how long I had to leave my stone fruit scions from @marta in the fridge. But the scions were really healthy and they held up extremely well. They sat from late December to late April, and perhaps theyre a touch slower to wake up but any of my failures on these seem due to technique rather than scion age. Here’s a feicheng tao peach budding out (I suck at focusing my phone camera…) – received late December, grafter 4/30, and pulled from the hot pipe 05/12.
3 Likes
I grafted to an established crabapple a month or so. The graft is on a branch about halfway up the tree and seems to be putting on new growth, so I’m fairly confident it “took”. I want to leave a bit of the original for pollination purposes, but at what point should I start cutting back the original to divert energy to the graft?
I took inventory of growing vs not growing apples a few minutes ago. So far, 24 out of 75 grafts made are not growing. A few are obvious scion failures while many more are still green and healthy but have not pushed a bud. I separated growing vs not growing grafts two days ago. When I checked today, 2 of the “not growing” group had pushed buds. Based on previous experience, I expect another dozen will eventually wind up growing.
I just finished checking pears. Failures to grow are: 1 - Ayers, 1 - Hood, 1 - Maxine, 1 - Potomac, 1 - Red Li, and 1 - Shenandoah. Successes are: 1 - Ayers, 1 - Bartlett Nye Russet, 1 - Bell, 2 - Blake’s Pride, 1 - Duchess, 2 - Flame, 2 - Foley’s, 1 - Highland, 1 - Hood, 1 - Hosui, 1 - Kalle aka Red Clapp’s Favorite, 2 - Maxine, 1 - New World, 1 - Red Li, 1 - Scottsboro Callery, 1 - Seckel, 1 - Seuri Li, 2 - Shenandoah, 1 - Shin Li, 1 - Spalding, 2 - Summer Blood Birne, 1 - Turnbull Giant, 1 - Tyson, and 1 - Warren giving an 86% success rate.
4 Likes
Persimmon grafts after one month. I was starting to worry about the JT-02 grafts, but they really took off this past week.
3 Likes
This is a wild dv that I transplanted from my field… to my daughters place… whip/tounge graft of Kasandra pushing 3 green buds now.
Looking promising.
5 Likes
What graft would you do for a 1" thick rootstock persimmon branch, and a pencil-sized scionwood (well maybe larger 1.5x pencil-sized) that only has 1 bud on it (its a small 1" length scionwood leftover piece I thought I’d still try to use as an experimental graft). I did a cleft graft this weekend but the angle is very wide on that piece to try to wedge into the cleft (some air gaps i noticed ). In the future might try a different graft… bud/chip? or modified whip and tongue? a bark graft if the bark peeling?
Not sure what the chances are of the original graft… but here is how it would look like (contact at the top, but a bit of an airgap lower down… i wrapped with parafilm to keep that airgap area from desiccating next few months):
I would probably do either a chip bud, or some sort of bark graft, whether on the end or the side. I’ve done a bark graft before where I cut a slit as for a t-bud, but insert a stick prepared with one flat side, and two smaller sides forming a triangle (but with a strip of bark left to allow for cambium contact. I think I’ve seen this described as an arrowhead graft.
2 Likes
That open gap will fill in. Personally I prefer the cleft as they seem stronger, but often the bark graft will grow faster.
1 Like
