Yeah, I do the same. For W&T grafts, I use a layer of grafting tape, which is pretty flimsy and very stretchy. Then I use a double layer of stretchy electrical tape, wrapped tight to press the pieces together. I have had good success leaving this tape on through the winter. By the following spring the graft is solid and the tape is more frail and easier to remove.
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I didn’t get pictures but had to try grafting in the dark last night after accidentally ripping the one branch of a variety off my asian pear…
It is the smallest one and has not done much. The rest of the tree is more vigorous. I don’t remember what variety right now.
I’ll try some pictures tomorrow.
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The jury is still out. How so? I checked about 150 grafts made over the last 2 months. Of the pears, it looks like I will wind up with 100% acceptance of about 50 total grafts made. Apples are looking like maybe 50% accepted. A huge part of the apple grafting problem is what looks like fireblight getting into the graft in spite of some serious sanitary procedures used this year. I have 50 or so apple grafts. Persimmons are looking like about 80 or 90 percent accepted out of 21 grafts made. Pecan is looking like about 60% acceptance which is par for the course where pecans are concerned. On the positive side, I have a good growing graft of Converse Major pecan which has over 6 inches of new growth. I made a total of 20 pecan grafts and may still make a couple more within the next week. Mulberries are looking poor with only 2 accepted of 5 made. I’m doing a lot better with propagating figs via cuttings which currently are about 85% successful.
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Kabosu on flying dragon finally going. I got the scions later than last year right as the heat kicked up, so glad I still had some success. I did 6 grafts and only this one is going so far.
White goose on the franken feijoa really sped up after cutting off a huge overhanging branch. Hurt to lose the fruit set, but sacrifices must be made to the grafting spirits.
Huia on another feijoa seedling from last year has surprised with how vigorous it is. Blooms and high fruit set on 1 year wood! Kaiteri also grafted on that plant with no blooms. Huia is stated to have heavy fruit set so very excited about this one.
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Tried a little experiment: Doing an interstem is cute, but how about a quadruple graft: 4 consecutive grafts on one rootstock. The idea is to use 8 inch grafts so you can later train limbs on each piece of graft so the 4 main scaffold branches are each of a different variety. I also notched each graft so hopefully I have branches going in 4 different directions.I did the grafts inside in mid april, kept the trees inside and then planted them outside as they started budding (about 10 days after the grafting)
This one has a nice branch forming on the top graft, so hopefully that means all grafts succeeded (all grafts have leaves/sidebranches except for the second highest one). Quite amazing as the lowest graft union broke in transport, didn’t think any graft would take):
Here, I am a little concerned about the top graft, all other grafts look fine, so perhaps 3 out of 4 took?
Fun little experiment, let’s see how it goes
MF
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Deer have ripped up a number of grafts I did 2 months ago. I just regrafted several of them. Never grafted this late with the temps in the high 80’s. Any chance of success?
I cut some wild cherry trees and grafted a variety of different cherries to them this one is
Ziraat 900
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It gets hot here, (95 today!) so I keep my grafts in an area that is shaded after about 1pm. They are slow growing, but all except 2 Japanese plum and pear have leafed out respectably. Those scions had too much pith so I am not terribly surprised. Also in this “nursery” - some apples from seed, blueberries, rootstock, Big leaf maples, sea berries, and a few flowers.
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Apollo graft on a seedling at the farm is successful. Im trying to get all the out of patent NZ ones established here as a scion bank. These seem to be out of stock nowadays with the newer ones being pushed more.
This one had leftovers of Marion and Edenvale Improved. Both appear to be good although still early. I hope I can get out there at least every month to check on these…
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20/20 hindsight, i think i should have sone things differently.
I got super excited about grafting and was chip grafting onto 2 year old trees.
I had much greater success on the larger caliper trees. I also had significntly higher success on the trees where i parafilmed AND rubber banded. I had 0% success on just parafilm.
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This thread inspired me to order some sour cherry scions from Burnt Ridge and try my hand at it. Tried Montmorency on my Italian plum, Van and Bali on my bush cherries.
Plum ones look okay. (Monty)
Van and Bali on the bush cherries not so much. .
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back half of the lot takes and fails
takes:
Hudson and white gold on Sam cherry
black gold cherry on schoolhouse plum rootstock (?)
a late take on holstein
greengage from last year taking off, even flowering late
lamb abbey dropped the one fruit and took off.
Gideon year 3 with fruit
z. reinette going
failed:
white gold on the schoolhouse plum
blue pearmain. a bummer. it’s on winter banana, too
Roxbury russet on ark black. did on a strange spot, but had hoped.
best takes were with the following:
worst were with this plus some clear tape and rubber bands:
I also used some white air dry clay on the later grafts I did at the connection point under the temflex and all the white reflective wrap seems to help. plus it is very visible walking by.
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Just some stuff going on . . .
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Apples (16), bench-grafted in March. A mix of dessert and cider varieties.
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Mulberries (3), bench-grafted in May. Top two are Silk Hope, bottom one is Oscar, grafted at different heights to adjust for the width of the scions. I have two more, one of each, that are either failed or delayed. They appear to be breaking bud, but it’s too soon to tell.
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Persimmons (3), bench grafted in May and placed on a hot callus pipe. These are Dar Sofievki, Chuchupaka, and H-118. There’s more of them still in the garage. I also have some field grafts, including Taishu on IKKJ, executed a couple weeks ago. They look good but again it’s too soon to tell.
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Mulberry, field grafted a couple weeks ago. This is Oscar on Kokusu.
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only concern I have with grafting late is that if you are using a clear tape or parafilm, it could get pretty hot inside the graft with a greenhouse effect type situation. I would probably use a white latex paint over the top to try to keep the graft cool when the sun is beating on it.
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Yes, the general recommendation is 4 to 8 weeks. That said I leave parafilm on for a year until it starts to disintegrate. I haven’t had a problem. Also I had an apple graft that took 8 weeks before it showed green so I would never remove the wrapping until a few months have past.
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Did 6 grafts of James hican onto shagbark hickory. I did 6 2 years ago and got 1 take. It has 3-4 feet of growth. These are in the woods on my property. Still waiting to do butternut onto black walnut.
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I’m curious about the source of your James hican? I have an older James Hican grafted using a scion from a tree I purchased from Stark nursery back in the late 1980’s. It is a poor producer rarely making a filled nut. Most are blanks. Nut weevils love it as is typical of hicans.