Thanks for putting this together, Ryan, and I really like your Paw Paw website.
In grafting as well as rooting cuttings one of the most important jobs is to protect the plant material from losing moisture while it’s regaining the ability to keep itself hydrated. There are different strategies to do this, and I’d like to suggest a couple materials I’ve found useful. Most people know of Wiltpruf as the anti dessicant you spray on evergreen plants to try to protect the foliage from ‘burning’ in the winter due to drying out. But it can also be used in warmer temperatures. When I did landscaping this was something we used on recently transplanted material as a little extra help in case the plants were not watered regularly. I seem to end up grafting sometimes with really unfavorable timing and conditions, and I also regularly have a lot of cuttings in the process of rooting, usually with some foliage intact. I eventually realized that Wiltpruf could be helpful for both those things. It sprays on so it’s pretty handy to use and I have not had it damage anything when used in this way. The coating is light enough to use on foliage and it will slowly wear off on it’s own.
Sometimes I will give a new graft a spraying also if I suspect the weather will be too dry. But I have another coating for situations where wax might be used. This is called Anchorseal, and it’s actually sold as a coating for the ends of logs to keep them from drying out too quickly and cracking. I bought 5 gallons of this many years ago and I’ve used it for all kinds of stuff where a water seal is needed. It’s made from paraffin oil and comes in two formulas, both non - toxic and water based so it’s easy to thin.
I believe both formulas are freeze safe. I have the original which is, and it’s still sold, now in gallons and quarts as well. A quart is probably close to a lifetime supply for the average grafter. It is white when applied, but dries clear. I use it to coat scion wood for protection and it will weather off in a growing season. I like that it’s clear so I can see if the scion starts to lose color. Usually the scion stays in very good shape, even if the graft doesn’t take so it’s a little hard to know if the graft failed. I generally use Parafilm or something stouter for the graft itself and try to keep any sealing away from places where it might run into a graft and stop it from bonding. Not a problem if the scion already has a dried coating. The main advantage over wax is that it can be used at any temperature, and it generally dries in a few minutes. Before it dries it can be washed off by rain, and sometimes it may temporarily go back to a white color in a rain. It’s good for topworking since it’s made for sealing end grain.
Neither of these will substitute for a skilled graft, but they can help if everything is not ideal.
Yeah, it is helpful to see where the bark slips. The thicker the trunk, the deeper the cambium layer.
I think bark grafting is the easiest, especially so when the scion diameter is small and the host diameter is thick.
Usually the cuts are made longer, which also makes it easier to slip into the bark seam and makes a more secure connection.
Interesting that he paints the cut before doing the grafts. I do the grafts, put putty into any big voids, and then paint over the wound with Doc Farwell’s. I also make all my cuts with the knife bevel edge out. He does his bark stripping/shaving the other direction. Probably doesn’t matter much because it isn’t precision cuts.
In the Texas Aggie videos I watched to learn about top-working, they use glue to seal just the tip of the scion. I’ve been wondering if there’s any reason not to just dip the whole scion in glue (or something similarly occlusive, like maybe oil or latex paint?) and letting it dry before grafting, so that the whole scion is waterproof up to the point where you start making your wedge/chisel cuts to insert into the host tree?
Found a sweet young lady at the country walmart today that took an interest in grafting project. She straight away walks me over to the candle isle and hands me a candle warmer. It’s an electric plug in, size of a coffee cup saucer, name is ScentSationals.
Going to try the treekote grafting wax container, I don’t have a way to keep water hot in the work area, so maybe this will work? Shucks, gonna try it now with a libation…(libation is for me).
Ten minutes later…it works! Have some metal one piece canning lids, going to cut some wax out of the can and heat a couple three tablespoons in that at a time. This trick was only 5 bucks. Gonna lay the oven thermometer on it and check the temp.
Haha, 160-165 degrees, it works! Hey on the deer rant topic, members wanted to make scent caps for electric fencing, (deer shockers). Noticed those were in huge boxes for cheap on the same isle.
I wonder if the heat plate on a coffee maker would be warm enough to keep wax melted…It’s probably a bigger area and I know I can get spare coffee pots from goodwill for about $3. Doesn’t even have to fit exactly, but somehow I feel like my wife wouldn’t want to mix up the coffee and wax pots…
Has anyone thought of this or tried it for waxing scion tips?
you could get the same result by wrapping the whole scion in parafilm. I often do this. Also sometimes wrap them in parafilm when sending them in the mail or storing them in the fridge.
I’m going to use the candle warmers (often found at the thrift store) with a metal can (free) and paraffin wax (from my grocery store on the canning supplies shelf).
This is just one of those things that I would much rather buy used stuff for as I feel bad ruining a new item with all the mess (plus it’s almost certainly cheaper used)
I’m going to end up grafting on a ladder this year to find new locations. That makes me nervous. I plan to use a utility knife for larger branches and more difficult cuts. Some of you have described success with a similar process. When using a tool like this, I do slide it closed right after use however. I think everything I can do to make it safer is a good idea. I can’t use cut resistant gloves. The extra bulk and awkwardness seems to make things worse, not better.
Thanks TN!
That’s pretty good, even with the sound off. I like the idea of using plasticine. I grew up molding that stuff, and it is very stable. Even outdoors it holds up and just hand warm is good enough to use it efficiently. Plus colors if you want to mark out trees.
But bees wax is my favorite grafting sealer. First, I like the smell, which makes it nice, especially for a woodworking finish. Plus, it’s not going to support disease or fungus. I’ve tried using it to make a moldable low temp putty, not too different from plasticine. The key is the right proportion of oil to melted bees wax to make it softer. Any oil will work,even mineral, but I like to use at least some cedar oil to add more fungus resistance and again because I like the smell. Soapmaking suppliers have all kinds, plus finely processed clay and other minerals. The bees wax and oil can be sticky by itself so a clay helps for handling quality, but a little stickiness is handy for use.
Using bee wax also goes all the way back to the earliest grafting so it’s good to keep that going.
By plasticine, do you mean that common kids’ modeling clay that the relatives would give our kids for Christmas and which would invariably end up stuck in the shag carpet or gooped against walls, where it would leave an oil stain. If it works for grafting, perhaps it has some redeeming quality. Do they even still sell the stuff?
If tried making a grafting seal with oil myself. I might have messed up by using candle wax instead of bees wax. But whatever i did, it kept feeling oily. And my hands would be oily, after touching it. I got worried the oil might “leak” or wick into the graft. Do you use the putty after sealing in the graft with tape or parafilm? Or as the seal?
Apparently the original Plasticine was invented and is still made in Britain. But there are a few versions I see online here in the US. Amazon.com : plastilina clay . I assume all are clay based, and I don’t know if “modeling clay” is much different. None seem to offer a list of ingredients, but since they are available to kids they must be non toxic. These are all different from “play dough” which I believe is a wheat flour base and does dry out, even on your hands. I didn’t like that as a kid, and it was miserable to clean up after it dried. The oily stuff did sort of find it’s way into everything. The stuff in the video is for kids, and the package has an assortment of colors, and even a tool.
I think bees wax would require a lot less oil. I use some kaolin clay (actually some Surround, a very fine clay used to repel some pests on fruit trees) to make it less sticky, but it’s not very oily. I definitely try to keep it, and anything else, from getting on the cut surface of a graft. Usually I use Parafilm first and tuck the beeswax in to places that are hard to seal, like around the scions in topworking. But I have also used rubber strips for grafting and I usually give those a coat of Anchorseal , but melted bees wax could work too.
