Well the spring one was such a hit, curious if anyone is doing any summer grafting.
I grafted some loquat scions from Marta, a few a couple days ago, and the final 3 today.
6 in total, 1 Avri, 2 Kando and 3 Argelino
6 in total, 1 Avri, 2 Kando and 3 Argelino
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Had very good luck using the tinfoil method with persimmons last year Late season grafting experiments only. Using green wood cuttings, Plastilina, tbuds, chips, and other methods - #119 by clarkinks
I’m watching this thread this year and will post frequently since i enjoy grafting all summer.
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I’ve had some success grafting in August, Sept and October but only a few. It would be worth trying June and July. My earlier attempts this year grafting mulberry failed so that’s a good one to try again.
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I was just thinking about this in the morning. I have a pear that I really want to graft. It was on my old farm and the best pear I have ever seen in person. Well now I have a good branch of it on a Bradford pear.
I don’t get much new growth and was unable to get a good graft this spring. I still have the rootstock alive.
Do you think I could just patch a branch of it on top and see?
Edit: I’ll study it, but what is up with the tinfoil?
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Tinfoil keeps stray ether emanations from compromising the graft. Nobody wants some alien fruit tree trying to take control of our loquats!
Seriously, tinfoil reflects sunlight and moderates temperatures. It is important for certain types of grafts. I wrap whip & tongue pecan graft unions with aluminum foil if temps are in the 90’s and I am making grafts with black tape. The tape can overheat in direct sun. Wrapping with foil increases acceptance.
I routinely do greenwood buds on walnut in late July which requires keeping one leaf attached to the bud and wrapping the bud with plastic with the leaf around the stock. Sunlight on the leaf triggers callus production which dramatically increase acceptance.
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My summer avocado grafting season is just getting started. I taught my 13 year-old how to graft yesterday and he did his first cleft graft without any injury! He had more trouble with the buddy tape than the knife:
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I wasn’t planning on grafting any persimmons this time of year, but my 6 year old daughter REALLY wanted me to use the branch I pruned off of Prok to graft with. I did find a few buds that looked ready enough, so we did one chip and one t bud. I wrapped the rubber bands, she did parafilm. We’ll see what happens!
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I have many dormant plum scions unused as time got away from me the last month or so. This time of year with the high heat, is it best practice to chip and t-bud only or will a whip and tongue still work out if it’s kept covered with foil or padded envelope?
Or would I have better success waiting until later summer to graft these? It’s my first year grafting and have mainly done whip and tongue and a couple cleft so far on pears and apples about a month ago.
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My neighbor has an ailing Montmorency cherry tree, and next to it a healthy cherry has grown, I suspect from the rootstock but maybe a volunteer seedling. Here you can see the old dying tree on the left and the new tree on the right:
The small tree makes smaller, staining fruit with mediocre flavor, so they really want to graft it over to Montmorency and remove the large tree. Last summer, I added T-buds to the major branches, hoping they would take and could be forced this year. However, they all failed. You can see one of the failed buds in this closer photo:
I seem to have poor luck with summer budding for all species I’ve tried except mulberry (near 100% failure for citrus, avocado, peach, and apple), but I’d love to try one more time to graft this over for them before they give up and just remove all the trees and plant new ones.
I have much better luck with bark grafts, cleft grafts, and W&T grafts. Is it feasible to stump this tree and bark graft scions from the Montmorency? It has some new growth that seems hardened enough to use, but I’m not sure if there’s some reason it would fail. Here’s an example of what I’d collect, trim, wrap in buddy tape:
And just for fun, here’s a comparison of the fruit, rootstock fruit on the left and Montmorency on the right, with a bite out of them to show the staining flesh of the dark one:
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This is my first time grafting in summer, but I figured it would be a good time for loquat since I needed to prune after removing the fruit anyhow. I haven’t checked on any of the grafts just yet, I only cleft graft basically. However I grafted a citrus rootstock with Kishu in may and it’s currently pushing growth. I’m sure I have a hotter May than you have June or July, so maybe it was just throw enough until something sticks? I had a few chip buds fail prior to this kishu taking
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I had good luck with loquat grafting in July last year, two out of three of these grafts took:
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I have a question about the timing of bud grafting. I’m in zone 5b in eastern Canada. I’ve only done bud grafting (mostly chips) in which I try to time the graft so the bud remains dormant until the following spring. That window is about Aug 20 to Sep 10. If I bud graft any earlier often the bud heals and starts to grow before the end of the year. And it’s hard to graft much earlier than Aug 1st as the buds take forever to mature in our season.
I ordered bud wood from Summerland last year and grafted around the last week of august. I had pretty good results with sour cherries, Brookgold plum, Asian and Russian pears. However the sweet cherries were a diaster, perhaps 10-20% of the buds grew this spring (Mazzard seedlings). Testing with a knife, almost all of the chips are green and alive, but the bud died or didn’t grow.
Wondering if anyone has knowledge of how the commercial Canadian nurseries time their grafts? I’m now thinking I should graft cherries or perhaps all trees early enough where a small stub grows before the end of the season. Also, I’m not sure if the bud should be covered with tape. I used bio film avoiding the bud, and then a small strip of buddy tape over the bud to seal the joint and hold the bio film, in hindsight this seems to keep the bud too moist for the dormant period from Aug to May.
Speak for yourself. I welcome our alien overlords.
I’m curious about this technique. Do you have pictures?
I don’t, but can describe it well enough that you can make them.
Start with very well developed vegetative buds on a greenwood stick. On a rootstock, usually about 3/8 to 1/2 inch diameter, make a coin purse type vertical slice and separate the bark from the woody core. On the greenwood stick, slice a bud off with a very sharp knife so the bud is at least 2 inches long, 2.5 inches preferred, with a green leaf attached. Insert the bud into the purse on the rootstock by slightly bending the rootstock at the bud cut. When the bud is fully inside the purse and NOT extending above the cut, wrap the bud into place with grafting rubbers. Wrap the leaf around the rootstock and secure it lightly with a budding strip. Wrap the entire bud rootstock and leaf with a piece of fairly heavy plastic. I’ve used quart to gallon ziploc bags cut to single thickness with good success. Tie the plastic top and bottom with budding rubbers. Sunlight through the plastic on the leaf triggers photosynthesis which encourages callus formation. After 2 or 3 weeks, check the bud and if it is callused, remove the plastic and leave it in place for next spring. In the spring, cut off the top of the rootstock to force the bud into growth. I have forced buds in fall with some success but growth may be too tender for winter. John Brittain showed me this method in 2003.
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Thanks! I think I mostly follow. What’s the advantage of the single slit vs a t bud slit?
Do you see any better take rate vs the side grafting technique you’ve described elsewhere? Or is it just dependent on what makes sense for the rootstock and bud in question?
Summer greenwood budding is a different process than spring side grafting but shares similar elements. I don’t know if t-bud would be any better or worse because I’ve always had good success using coin purse. Bark on small stock is flexible enough to form a coin purse easily, especially when you bend the rootstock slightly. I suspect coin purse is better because it maintains sap flow in the cambium.
Mature buds are absolutely required for greenwood budding to work. I’ve tried several times with buds near the growing tip with 100% failure. Success is with mature buds near the base of a greenwood stick, a healthy leaf attached, coin purse on the @1/2 inch rootstock, and tight wrapping with budding rubbers. It helps if rainfall is abundant.
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All right, that all sounds good. I’ll have to try that out sometime.
I didn’t get any responses about whether it’s feasible to bark graft a cherry this time of year in the PNW, so I figure I’ll give it a try and just see what happens.
I’m not sure whether it would be better to cut it to a single stump and put a few scions around it, or to stub the major branches and put a scion or two on each of those (other than the smallest in front-left, which I’d just remove).
Any votes for Option A (red cut) vs Option B (blue), or does anyone have an Option C to suggest? I would rather not try budding again, I’m just apparently not very good at it, but I’ll consider it if there’s very low chance of bark grafts succeeding now.
Does anyone have experience greenwood budding persimmon trees in July/August? If so, what budding method did you use?
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