I thought it might work to start a series of post along the lines of “Basic Tips for New Grafters”. The idea is that one of us will enter a tip with details, and others will chime in with their own thoughts, disagreements, and refinements. I’ll lead off with a few words about, you guessed it, “Gathering and Storing Scions”. Anybody can chime in, ask questions, raise objections, and so on. And anybody can start the next “Basic Tip.” It would be a lot of fun if somebody did.
So here we go!
The easy way to gather scions is to ask for them here. It might cost you a few bucks for postage or whatnot, and you might not get just what you wanted if somebody has mislabeled something, but odds are you’ll do pretty well. There are a few risks (mislabeled or diseased scions, for example) but I don’t worry about it too much. You can buy them from a few commercial sources, too, with the same risks. There’s a lot of good stuff right here.
But eventually all scions have to be cut from another plant somewhere. Here’s how I do that. I hope others will comment.
I gather scions in late winter before the source has broken dormancy. The best wood grew the year before, and shows quite a bit of new growth- many inches, at least, and a sometimes a few feet. It’ll be roughly the diameter of a pencil, not much larger, and not any thinner than an old-fashioned wooden stick match- especially when you start out! (It’s hard to cut skinny wood without breaking it, or having it bend away from the blade, and the cambium layer is skinny too.) It’s best if the sticks are straight, there’s a decent space between buds, and the buds are well-formed. Once the wood is cut into manageable lengths I wrap it in parafilm, stick it in plastic (often ziplock) bags, and stick it in the refrigerator with a little damp -not wet- paper towel.
That’s it, except for labeling. Masking tape is often used to bundle and label scions, but whatever works is good.
There are other good ways of storing scions- I have a friend who just sticks his in a quart mason jar with a couple of inches of water; some people dip them in wax, which should be great if you have quite a few of them, and some just wrap them in a damp paper towel and stick them in plastic bags. I hope we get comments on that.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
So: what should the next topic be? Tools of the trade? Field or bench grafting? When to graft (spring vs. summer budding?) Best graft for beginners? I’ll suggest Tools, but somebody else may do something else. I’m excited to see if this goes anywhere, and thanks for playing!
