I actually wanted to cut a foot of two higher. My husband was doing the cutting, and when he cut the first big trunk, the bark ripped like a foot down when the top fell over. So we cut it again lower below where the bark ripped, and cut the other trunk down to the same height just cause I didn’t know if it would make the tree grow funny if they were different heights.
But you live and learn! Now we know to cut a little on one side first before cutting all the way through on the other side
One of my most memorable experiences as a young adult was the first time I threw in a line with fish heads as bait. It was at Nags Head We had two large coolers and were pulling in the crabs as fast as we could go. Those coolers filled up mighty fast, and we got to hear them clicking and moving around all the way home.
I had no idea it would work that well but you had to be early and get a good spot. It cost 50 cents apiece to crab off of this lady’s dock and you couldn’t come back to the water once you went to your car. Not sure but this probably dates me.
@ddps… On my phone I can really zoom in on the pics and did to read your tags on that first graft pic.
Just past the end of the fence on the right… there are a couple of fishing poles… one right off the end of the fence, and one over to the right a bit. Sure look like fishing poles to me.
Not as clear when I do the zoom from my computer… but anyway it looks like someone has a line out.
Some people here do that when fishing for cat fish… toss the line out and stand the rod and reel up in a rod holder on the bank… and just wait until that line starts running.
Girdling- if you used the kind of tape that has some stretch to it, should be no problem. If you see signs of strangling, untape say July, and re-tape with black elec tape that stretches (rubber based).
I’m just sitting here waiting for a good temperature window for stone fruit grafting, which I’m cautiously optimistic might be next week here on the East Coast.
It looks like we’re finally going to get a multi-day stretch of 70s and possibly even 80ish.
Once you use up your parafilm or decide you don’t like it anymore, try Buddy Tape. I haven’t used parafilm but from all the videos I’ve seen it’s basically stretchy parafilm.
I’ve used both, and I think good quality parafilm (genuine parafilm “M”) is a little more stretchy than buddy tape even. My buddy tape seems to be very temperature dependent and tears pretty easily if it’s been sitting in a cold greenhouse overnight and I do morning grafting.
But they are both so much better than that plastic film stuff that is sold as cheap grafting tape, and the roll of buddy tape that I bought will probably last a few years at least, and I’m happy with it overall and won’t be getting anything else before it runs out.
I’ve been grafting with Parafilm M since 1995. Tried the Parafilm Grafting Tape at a Master Gardeners grafting demonstration I helped our Extension Horticulturist with. I did not care for the Grafting Tape formulation.
It just seemed not to be as stretchy, conforming or self-adherent as Parafilm M - but may have more ‘structural strength’… I would never expect Parafilm M - even if I put it on 3 or 4 layers thick - to have enough integrity to hold a graft together without something else… rubber bands, poly grafting tape, even masking tape… to actually HOLD the graft union together.
90% of my grafts are wrapped with Parafilm M alone… A particularly thick stock or scion or both, where the W&T graft needs more encouragement to mate together sufficiently, then I might wrap with something stronger after the Parafilm. Admittedly though, I do wrap the Parafilm quite a few times…
You’re ‘braver’ than me.
I rarely go more than 2 layers, but I’ve done some way back in the past, Parafilm M only… and within just a couple of days, the parafilm was cracked over the edges of the graft union. Same with T-bud placement… Parafilm M only cracked and allowed the bud to dry out before callusing in, but that is later in the season, so UV light intensity is greater, and the Parafilm likely breaks down more rapidly than if you were bench-grafting or even field-grafted at budbreak.
Maybe with apples/pears and the like, one could get away with it, but I’d never expect it to hold up long enough for a pecan or hickory graft to callus in.
To hold the graft union tight I’ve had pretty good luck with Parafilm alone, with numerous layers at least. On more difficult species I usually wrap over the Parafilm with a rubber band or strip of plastic or something. For moisture reasons I usually paint a good portion of the scion, and over the Parafilm and down onto the stock a bit, with some kind of sealer. At least for the past few years, prior to that it was Parafilm only.
Anyway… There’s definitely a hundred “right” ways to do it…
I bought a tub of " Tanglefoot Tree Wound Pruning Sealer & Grafting Compound" in 2020. It was about $9 then, looks like it’s about $13 now. Still a good deal, it will last me many more years most likely.
I dab a little on the cut tip of the scion and over the Parafilm on both graft unions. Because the bottom union was > 1/4" wood I tightly wrapped some additional plastic over the Parafilm. Hard to close the gap on a W&T without some fairly serious pressure, more than Parafilm alone can manage… I usually dab a bit on each bud I cut off on the middle (interstem) piece too.
Unlike previous years I have these in a tub in the basement with the roots kept moist, in hopes the unions will “heel in” before I pot 'em up.
The apple grafts are on rootstock, vary in size, so using whip graft to save selecting/wasting expensive scion wood.
I have mentioned using grafting wax heated to liquid in a candle warmer, $5 at walmart. Got a pack of $4 art brushes.
Slather the liquid wax onto the graft and wrap with several tapes of choice, then dab on a bit more at the top seam to hold. It solidifies in a few seconds and is extremely structural stiff.
I dropped a small radio by mistake into the finished box and figured the grafts were ruined…nope, they are firm and well held.
I did my second ever grafts today! I had a large (about 10 feet tall) aronia bush in my back yard that I grafted over. I did Harrow sweet, Harrow delight, and harvest queen pears. I also did a bunch of sorbopyrus that I got from GRIN: Shipova, Smokvarka, Bulbiformis, Washington Park Arboretum 569-60, and a pollwiller seedling called CIGC 42.
I chopped the aronia bush down at around hip height, because I read in another thread that it’s important to leave nurse branches when grafting pears to aronia.
I tried to do cleft grafts, based on @clarkinks advice from another thread, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it! I couldn’t keep the clefts open wide enough to slot the scions in nicely, and the scions kept on getting jammed up and mangled when I tried to insert them into the clefts. So I ended up doing mostly bark grafts instead. I only cleft grafted on the thinnest rootstocks, the rest were bark grafts. The aronia bark was pretty thin, though, so I hope it worked out? I wrapped tightly with grafting tape (like thin Saran wrap) followed by a tight wrapping of electrical tape, and I dabbed glue-all on the scion tips.
Now that I’ve done the deed, could I ask some basic grafting questions?
The weather today is high of 48, low of 35, which isn’t ideal. It’s supposed to be highs in the 50s-60s for the next two days, then highs in the 70s on Wednesday and Thursday, then back down to the 60s for a few days after that. Will the temperature swings mess with my grafts, or are the temperature ranges ok?
How do you get scions into cleft grafts without jamming then in and mangling them?
Does it matter that the aronia bark was super thin when I did my bark grafts? The only other thing I ever grafted was into a callery volunteer, and that had much thicker bark.
How long will it take to see if the grafts were successful? When will the buds start to grow?
