Montmorency cherry grafts on mazzard trying to give me a few cherries 
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Don’t remove a growing shoot at all. Tip it instead. Pinch off just the tip leaving the rest to produce new growing points. Why? Because a shoot that is growing rapidly will sometimes be broken off or otherwise damaged. If you have an alternate waiting in the wings, you won’t lose any time waiting for an adventitious bud to grow.
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i can see two reasons for wanting to remove extra growth, dominance and energy conservation. tipping gives insurance while stunting dominance for sure, but wouldnt it cause it to direct a lot more energy into the tipped growth trying to push out new buds?
My experience is that it does not reduce growth of the main shoot and it has so many benefits that I don’t care if it did. I’ve broken off too many growing shoots over the years. Last year, a bird broke off the growing point of my Tanner pecan. I did not have a backup so had to wait over a month for a bud to initiate growth. Fortunately, it was able to grow and produced nearly 2 feet of growth. I did not have an alternate in that case because the backup bud on the graft died.
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Same experience as fusion_power. Leaving a tipped growing shoot comes in handy more than I would have thought. It’s using a little energy yes, but it’s also producing stored energy for next year at which point you can remove it and that energy will go to the main shoot. More leaves equals more photosynthesis.
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last year for chip bud and this spring I’ve been using this stretch stuff, I get it in bulk for work and it’s been really good instead of using bands or tape at the base of grafts
it comes in florescent colors, whatever, but the black is what I get for work. I just kept a few for grafting. I use a box cutter razor and that buddy tape too that’s pretty much my entire grafting tools on the picture.
taking all the tape and stuff off some old grafts. this is swaar apple on braeburn. it was one of the first grafts I tried. it’s put on all that growth from such a rough beginning. plus there’s a spider living on it
green gage has started to take off already from last year, it looks a lot better than the early ones I did.
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Nice fit. I wish I had some smaller buds on my scion wood.
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Is there any chance that you show me how to tip? Can you mark on the picture I posted where and how to do it? (This is my first time grafting).
Pinch off the terminal 1/2 inch of a growing shoot. This will force the shoot to stop growing until a new bud can begin growth. Repeat the process as new buds grow so that the shoot is kept small and out of the way. As stated above, it is for insurance in case the main growing shoot is damaged.
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I grafted mulberries today with Lawson Dawson, Kip Parker, and Stearns set on rootstock. I also grafted 1 persimmon. I should get the persimmons and apples finished this weekend.
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This is kinda absurd, but I wanted to try grafting to this thin rootstock and my scion was large. even the bud was too big for my typical chip bud. I shaved the sides for that plus did this crazy reverse cleft. Will be interesting to see what happens. Worst case the rootstock can grow out and I can try again next year.
I’ll graft this to my established tree too, so at least it can make more scion wood to try later and maybe taste the fruit sooner.
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Your finger gonna look like mine…
Mine is just from trying to wash a knife though… 
I twitch sometimes.
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I feel like it was inevitable… blood sacrifices must be made sometimes
no more whip and tongue grafting… only cleft from now on
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A few pics some days ago:
Summit cherry on Adara plum
Royal Tioga on Adara
A seedling almond I saw that was giving huge almonds, grafted on another seedling almond
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If I have 2 or 3 shoots growing up from a grafted scion… at some point it becomes obvious which one to choose for central leader.
I put a long garden stake in place and secure the rootstock and central leader to it.
The other shoots I tip prune… and keep them about half has tall as the central leader.
They remain for support of the tree… but I dont want them competing with the central leader.
I want my central leader to make it to 5.5 ft tall… and then I tip prune it. It will then send out a whirl of branches between 4.5 and 5.5 ft… which will be my first tier of scaffold branches.
I have some serious deer pressure here and that works well for me.
This H63A persimmon was done like that last season. When I tip pruned the central leader at 5.5 ft… it sent out that nice whirl of branches… 4 of which will become scaffolds… and one will continue as central leader.
If in the first season you can accomplish that… i think you are doing good.
TNHunter
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Did my first grafting yesterday. Took a recently planted Montrose apricot and added Hardired nectarine, Harcot apricot, and scionwood from an unknown but productive apricot tree in my neighborhood.
I also added Veteran and Frost peaches to a recently planted Contender.
Today I’ll add Korean Giant and Shinko asian pear to a Juicy Jewel, then Magness to a Patten pear.
Can’t wait to see how they do.
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Think I can confidently say 4/5 first time grafts took?! I was so sure they were total crap…crimson crisp, Galarina and triump on G.214 and flavor king on myro. No idea what I’ll do with them as I just wanted to start learning using the wood I headed off these trees. I think Rubysweet is a bust.
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