“The “rule” to “wait until the tree’s leaves are the size of a squirrel’s ear””
I have been only grafting for 3 years, but I keep meticulous records on when I graft, weather when I graft and after I graft, bud size/leaf size,… and, quite frankly, that rule should be more “wait AT LEAST”, aka it is a minimum condition, not ideal condition, at least here in KY.
So, for grafting apples/pears, I am going to wait till the weather is consistently in the high 50s-60s, which should be April. Too many failed grafts from being too early, even after the squirrel’s ear leaf sizes show up.
Just some musing but is it possible in some regions the trees’ leaves being a squirrel’s ear corresponds to temperatures of 50s-60s in those regions, and since those regions were big fruit regions, the rule worked in those regions, but go South or North, it no longer works (causation versus correlation)?
That’s interesting @MF25. I wonder if that’s been the issue with some of my grafts. I knew about the squirrel’s ear rule for grafting on mature trees (and I usually do those quite late after all my rootstock is done), but for some reason (maybe because my grafting class didn’t heed it) it didn’t occur to me that that applies to rootstock as well.
I’m curious also. I just received my order of apple, pear and plum rootstocks. Wondering if I should bench graft then plant in pots or pot them up first and wait for growth. In ground Pears and plums here are already growing, apples aren’t yet. My weather is predicted to be lows between 36-51 and highs 58-71 over the next week or so. I’m wondering if I should go off the growth stage of the in-ground stuff, the weather, or wait for my rootstock to actually start waking up.
Oh my. I haven’t had issues with the squirrels yet, but there’s definitely potential. Maybe I need to leave a dog run around the perimeter of my tree pots!
@Fishsauce I haven’t seen that before - is it a specific brand or a common modification? How does the back side of the cut look with those? Does it mangle bark or leave it intact?
I am going to stick with the ideal callousing temperatures as a guide:
It can be very frustrating as a beginning grafter to see your grafts fail after you graft during the correct time per the “squirrel ear” rule, as you can easily write it off as “inexperience in grafting”, but then you get some dormant apple rootstock in April, which you graft using the same technique and you get a 90% success rate…
So yeah, ambient temperature > squirrel penis rule or whatever, for me
I haven’t found this modification or design for sale anywhere except on on a Chinese commerce site call Taobao…so I found a friend of a friend to order it and shipped it to me. I was intrigued when I stumbled onto the video that I linked in my original post. The back side of the cut is untouched and intact.
Jose told me I should cut my cherry knee high, otherwise they are for the birds. So I did just that for 1 of the 3 cherry. Now, I’ll wait 5 years later to see what the truth is. Sweetheart cherry was cut knee high. It’s a wasted not to graft a few limbs. So, 2 Sweetheart branches was grafted back.
I’m using 1" Parafilm. I used to paint over part of the tape with Doc Farwells , but I don’t think it’s necessary for bench grafts. I enjoy whip and tongue, but these chips are so much more consistent and tidy, I hope they’re successful.
What can be grafted to apricot trees? I dug a bunch of suckers from the tree we have and I was planning on getting some sions from purvis nursery of the late blooming type, but never got around to it. I was wondering if there is something I can graft to it like cherry? Peach? Plum as interstem? I’m shooting for a more hopeful long term compatible rather than only 1 or 2 year lasting graft.
Oh my. I haven’t had issues with the squirrels yet, but there’s definitely potential. Maybe I need to leave a dog run around the perimeter of my tree pots!
