I put all my ziplock bags with scions in them inside a larger trash bag and roll it up- a form of double bagging to protect against ehtylene gas in frig from other fruits and veg.
I use the kind of ziplock bags that have a slide mechanism- so I can look at the slide position and tell instantly whether the bag is sealed or open. This prevents scions drying out by accidentally putting an open bag back in the frig.
Whenever possible, I use Chlorox or Lysol wipes, wipe them down, rinse them vigorously and then dip the end in candle wax. I use a candle warmer from the guest bathroom because my wife doesn’t know I do that.
One more tip when you cut any scions. Cut the tip horizontal and the bottom with an angle cut so you don’t have to worry about the up side down graft if you can’t tell which direction the buds are.
Tony
I stopped putting any paper products in the storage bags as they promote mold. As long as the bag has a very small amount of moisture inside the scions remain hydrated.
What is the best wax? Grafting wax, bees wax, or basic candle wax?
Scroll down to Barkslip’s detailed account on this thread:
candle warmer! what a good idea
This is terrific! Thanks.
I also read that especially if you are keeping your propagation pots indoors - mist them at least once a day. I didn’t find out about wrapping them until they were already sunk into their pots . . . so I’ve been doing the misting to help keep them hydrated.
Oops . . . getting ahead of ‘the game’, here. We haven’t come to that step yet. Sorry.
There was a short lived fad in the fig community a few years ago of storing cuttings in vacuum sealer aka food-saver bags. They actually suffocate the cuttings because that type of plastic is not gas permeable, so the bags puff up with gas, and after a while they look watery like they had freeze damage and start smelling funky.
Someone tried it and told everyone before they really knew if it was better than a plain old ziploc and lots of people got excited and came to a premature conclusion that it was the way to go. Stupid me tried it and lost a whole bunch of cuttings. Then got to be the bad guy who ruined the party, fun times.
For long term (6+ months) storage of fig cuttings, wrapping them individually in plastic wrap is the way to go.
Hello, Clorox does not prevent molding, dipping your scions in a solution of Cu fungicide and letting them dry will prevent molding and keep your scions healthy and happy. I use Kocide, 1 tsp in a qt of water, dip and let dry, them put a strip if damp paper towel in the bag. One of the biggest cause of scion storage failure is warm to cold cycling, essentially the same as freezer burn. I wrap my scions in a plastic bag with a tie, then 5 or so plastic shopping bags leaving some air in to provide insulation so when the frig is opened they don’t warm up.
Great topic,
For peach scions I receive from others I usually spray with liquid copper to help sanitize and to prevent peach leaf curl, same treatment I use to treat my dormant trees.
This is my experience with paper towels. Newsprint works better. It’s a source of moisture in case the bag doesn’t seal. Cheap bags breathe a little, too. You want to store scionwood in a separate refrigerator or cold box away from fruit and vegetables. They may come out of dormancy otherwise.
I’ve never heard of anyone else using this but I started trying it last year.
I’m using a couple of these rehydrated in my bags of scion. You don’t need many…one or two in a small ziplock with a few sticks. I had some in the last years scion that I just threw out. Actually a lot of that wood was still green and moist this year. I keep a bag of hydrated beads to use as needed.
These give up water and shrink as they dehydrate so you can tell if they need replacing. It’s easy to put too many in the bag and then it gets wet in there.
How could you possibly not be able to tell?
interesting! I saw these just recently.
Do you just put the bare scions in a ziploc with a couple beads, that’s it?
Yes. If I have a whole big bag full I will put several beads in it but at first I was using too many and it got really wet in the bag. If there is only a couple of scions I just put one bead. If the bag is getting dry the bead shrinks.
I’m not saying it’s a perfect method but I have been trying it and it seems to be working. I was surprised at the state of my last years scions when I removed them from the fridge a couple of weeks ago.
People have grafted scions upside down before. Get into a good pattern and set the scion down wrong, not pay attention and graft. It happens.
Thanks, since the disease is spread by this fungus, good idea to treat it before shipping stone fruit scions.
“ The disease, peach leaf curl , is caused by a fungus called taphrina deformans. … The disease can spread through leaf detritus. After pruning, spray the naked trees until they are dripping with a copper-based fungicide that coats the tree and kills remaining spores so they will not infect new leaves come spring.”
