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).
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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)
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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.
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@TNHunter, That’s an interesting woodworker’s approach to grafting - but he should have cleaned it up with a smoothing plane.
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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?
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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.
Yes, I think a coating of Elmers or other white glue would also work as a seal but it dries hard and might make it hard to get a clean cut later. Oil or latex paint probably less well. Latex paint wouldn’t stop a scion from drying out, and oil would make handling a graft cleanly pretty hard. If I have a lot of scion wood to handle I just dip them in Anchorseal instead of brushing it on. Barkslip’s wax dipping is very good also, but I live off the grid so I try to minimize electric loads.
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Well my flowering plum is in full bloom. High today is 51 and it looks like it will be high is the 50’s & 60’s and low in the 40’s through the end of the month. I guess it is time to start grafting. Yesterday I trimmed some dead wood and cut a few pieces to practice with. Practicing whip and tongue and bark grafting.
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I started already … 33 finished and a bunch more to go.
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Are you grafting dormant to dormant? We’re running late here in spring but it seems like the whole country is ahead of us. Everything here is in tight bud. A little swelling in the pears but everything else is not waking up yet. Well, blueberries are showing a tiny bit of pink in the bud.
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OK, so the videos make it look really easy but it was not easy for me. I did 4 attempts of a Whip and Tongue that are are so far off the of that I will have to deem them “Mark Grafts” and one side graft that is not too bad. I think one thing that makes it more difficult is that the scions are all 2-3 mm.
Those look like cherry, I’d be surprised if they are compatible with your flowering plum. Is it a different host.
I recommend that you do lots of practice cuts before grafting. You can cut 10 or so water sprouts from the tree and practice making the cuts, matching them, wrapping, etc.
Pretend one end is the host and the other is the scion.
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Yes, my rootstocks arrived Tuesday and I got started on them in the evenings.
130 Apple and also some pear roots.
All dormant. All potted up immediately after grafting. A bunch to go. (Although some I may not get to and end up budding or grafting next year. I’ve also did 3 or 4 grafts to failed rootstocks from the past.)
Sunday afternoon hoping to start putting scions of pears to callery seedlings that are budding up or even some blooming…and adding several dormant scions to one of my apple Frankentrees.
But, it’s gotten colder tonight than I expected…so not positive I’ll try that yet.
Numerous things have broken bud here…I had honeyberries leafed out, but the teens never blackened the leaves last Sat/Sun. But an Asian pear got scorched/blooms killed 100%.
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They are, I could not find anything that was definitively compatible or incompatible so I am going with what I have
Yes, I did that and the associated finger cuts. I have lots of scions so I figured I would try some and learn from that too. Not a lot to lose.
It may make sense to move this discussion to the 2022 grafting thread. There may be better feedback there.
@murky No offense intended! Maybe “better” was poor word choice. What I meant was that it would be a more appropriate topic for discussing and more members may visit that thread who can help.
I’ll try not to take that personally 
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How long before I will know that the graft has failed?