But all that is still true if you are holding it in your hands and trying to make a nice, one swipe, flat cut.
You do have to consider the size and shape of the scion or rootstock… all that I have been practicing with so far has been from Hudson golden gem apple… and they tend to arch up where a bud is on the scion. So yes you do have to be careful how you place the scion in the hole there, takes a little practice to figure that out (like anything else).
One thing I can say that it really helps me with is getting a nice flat cut and if it is a little too short or long… I can adjust it a bit in the jig hole and make another cut or two (which remain nice flat cuts) to get the length right.
When I try to just pull thru them by hand, I often get a cut that is not all that flat… that thumb behind the scion wood to keep it from bending… I have not quite got that right yet. It often does bend a little and my cut is not flat… and sometimes I somehow twist it too… so it is not only not flat, but twist some too.
With the Jig thing… I can easily overcome those issues.
Hopefully in a few years I will not need this, but for a just starting off newbie to grafting, this might just help.
I hope my post wasn’t seen as trying to poo poo the idea. I think its clever and can be very effective. It should allow almost anyone to make better cuts than I often make.
I prefer to graft by hand, but also still end up making concave cuts sometimes. with pliable material, it can be squeezed flat, so no light can be seen between the scion and host, but it would be better if it didn’t need to be bound that tightly.
Also, I do most of my grafts out in the orchard, not bench.
I have used a different grafting tool myself in the past, but there is something particularly satisfying about making those cuts by hand using just a knife.
That may not make a lot of sense from the standpoint of pursuing the most excellent cuts and no doubt, as @murky states, such cuts are definitely better looking than mine.
I’m speaking about field cuts in a orchard, not bench cuts. I have no experience with those.
I have mixed results with most grafting, but stone fruits have always been a slam dunk. I still bud if I can since it’s so easy, but in spring I seem to always have some emergency grafting to save rodent damaged trees. Almond, apricot, plum, peach have all worked out.
I like the jig method on cutting the scions. I made a table top, for the cart for my tractor. Its comes in very handy, when I am grafting. It is easy to carry all my supplies, and I can go tree to tree, without carrying all my stuff. It makes it easy to engrave the tags also.
I like that, I sometimes carry a small table out with me, or an aluminum step bench. But that looks very convenient. May be worth digging out if I’m doing more than 5 grafts or so.
I have a couple of benches, kind of like below, that I keep out in the orchard:
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.
