@dpps
So glad to see you doing more grafting !
The weather should be about ideal for your grafting.
Opening the cleft to insert scions has traditionally been done with a tool like this
No , you don’t need to get one , just insert a flat screwdriver in the center to pry it open enough to insert scion
Thin bark ? You have to work with what you have .
They should show signs of life in a few ~2 more or less weeks .
I usually just use scions with One to three buds .wrapping them in few layers of parafilm before inserting. Longer is not always better.
You could cover scions with some melted wax as insurance to prevent drying . What you have there should work well !
Looks like a good start on your grafting adventure !
A word of caution, grafting can be addicting.
I see rootstocks on your shopping list next year
The buds may swell and even show some green. The scion itself has some energy stored enough to break bud but this does not always mean the graft has taken. Vigorous growth is a great sign and even slow steady growth is good. It’s very exciting to watch. I checked my grafts today that I did last Saturday and have obvious swelling buds on two of them. Now I cross my fingers that it grows and keeps growing. Good luck on yours!
Re: long vs short scions: I think I tried to have 4 buds on most of the scions. Is that too many? Should I nip them shorter? It’s there a disadvantage to having them too long?
Haha, I think I’m catching the bug… I have some paw paw scions in my fridge waiting for the warm weather to graft into my established trees. If things go well this year, who knows what I’ll try next year?!?
I think what you have there is fine.
I just use one or two because that’s all that’s needed.
Shorter = less leverage for the wind / birds ,to knock them loose, easier for me to wrap , etc.
Yours should be fine
I wonder if anyone is going to read the over 200 posts on this thread?
Here’s a tip for anyone that doesn’t have a good grafting knife. A box cutter works. Get Milwaukee blades that are extremely sharp. They are sharper then others and cheap. For those trying to do whip and tongue cuts the Milwaukee blades make that second cut easy.
I have to say that I am doing well with whip and tongue this year only because of a new sharp box cutter. I agree with Dennis. I just could not get the tongue to cooperate using my grafting knife.
I did want to add that after using the zenport grafting shears recently, I am using them for my whip and cleft cuts and making tongue cuts with the box cutter. I just can’t beat the wonderful straight cuts of the zenport. I think the zenport tongue cut is a bit more wonky and I can do better on my own.
I know I said previously that I preferred the grafting knife for all cuts, but I’m going back on that now. Old dog, new tricks.
Here are some grafts that took from last grafting season. Very minimal growth but I guess a good sign to see greenery growing above the graft union. Should I hope for good growth this season from them? Any suggestions on putting fert on them? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
I am now an IronBuddy Tape FAN, FAN, FAN! Drop of liquid grafting wax and good to go. This is my third tape trial. I use tree grafting wax heated to 160 degrees and wiped on with hobby paint brush.
All the scions at my parent’s’ house have swelling green buds!!! Does this mean they’ll probably take? Is there anything I need to look out for over the next few weeks or months? Anything that will increase their likelihood of success?
That’s too early to call, but a great sign. Those are almost certainly going to grow.
This proves the scions were viable and remained so. Unless you did something crazy in the cutting and placing, which would be hard to mess up on pear when the bark is slipping, you are good to go.
LOL I read a post in the last couple days from someone who said he was bitten by the grafting bug and had grafted pretty much every tree in his yard.
I started out wanting one or two grafts on each tree for pollination. Now I can’t stop and my trees are morphing (actually already there) into Frankentrees. It’s so fun!! Call it Scionitis or Frankentreeitis or Polygrafitis. My drawings of my tree limbs and grafts look like detailed scientific charts that are impossible to follow.
That’s a lot! I’m nowhere near 149 so far, but maybe I’ll get there by the end of summer when I’ll stop grafting avocados in the greenhouse. Probably still won’t be quite that many! So far this year I’m at:
One thing I love about grafting . . . if we don’t like a variety, once it produces fruit . . . I can graft over it!
Just by taking ‘my own scion’ from another graft that someone gave me - whose fruit we really like. Or a new scion that I’ve traded for this winter.
Musical (chairs) Fruit . . . (wait - isn’t that BEANS???)
I’ve already grafted over some scions I put on last year, after finding out that the varieties were not really apples that had a chance in my area.
Hi all, it’s been about a month since my last update on my first ever grafts. My dad just sent me a picture from his house.
The good news: all the grafts have little leaves!
The bad news: if you zoom in, you can see that many of the leaves have black edges or tips.
Does anyone have any advice for what that might mean? My dad said that it has been super windy there lately, and there have been a couple of very cold nights. Would that make any difference? Are the grafts still looking relatively OK, or is there something else I should do (or ask my dad to do)? I asked my dad to rub off all the new growth from the callery below the grafts and he said that he did. Would that help?
Sorry that I can’t upload a better picture, this is just the update picture my dad sent.
Too early to tell, Dana, but I would save some of the new shoots sprouting just below the grafts, just in case you need them next spring. If your grafts end up failing, you can at least keep the rootstock healthy by letting some of the new shoots grow. I have been topworking my Sweet cherry trees over to plums, I find bark grafting the cutoff stubs a bit more challenging than grafting the new shoots. So do try to save enough new shoots close to your grafts until by mid summer when you will have a more clear verdict on the grafts! Your trees look healthy enough to support both.
Dennis
Kent, wa
