Bench Grafting - Deciduous Material - Hot Callous Bench 'Style'

70 is okay. That’s no problem. If you didn’t wax or parafilm your scions you’ll want to be sure there is humidity around the graft. If a heat mat is required to generate the mist/condensation you need, then you better turn it on.

Try to use peat moss in the future or another media that will allow air to the roots… mulch is too large of pieces and coconut mulch is like your paper is (too fine) so something that can breathe but hold moisture still.I used promix this year. ‘Easy and done.’

After a couple weeks check the ones that have moved along the most for callous. You seem to me to know what’s going on very well so I’ll leave saying that.

Best regards,

Dax

I’d switch it out if you can man.

Dax

Couple pictures update… How I stay on top of things. Each towel is held together with twist tie material on three or four locations so the towels are securely fastened. On each towel is a tag stating the day that all the grafts inside that towel will be calloused… from there I have my email calendar marked with the # of rolled up towels ready on any given date. Pretty easy system.

Dax

@ILParadiseFarm we’ll compare together your tallies and mine. That’s three differing systems. I like that my towels are very warm at the callous area and the roots are relatively cool. Positioning the towels that way is great. Even if the roots were as warm, it doesn’t matter. You might be dropping 1% because the roots aren’t cooler than the unions. So a climate controlled floor would be awesome to have… just saying.

Dax

Yep and you’ve got it figured out. There’s no doubt about that.

Dax

@Barkslip

I’m about to ask a really stupid question so bare with my idiocy. :slight_smile:

I have been grafting for 2 years, 2016 went considerably better then my rookie year. I had around a 83% success rate, with just an opinel #6, parafilm and some tree kote. I only put tree kote where I snipped off the end of the scion. I’ve never sealed the whole scion. I just let them callous in my basement for about a month then in mid may when its warmer expose them to some sunlight and a few weeks later transplant to the nursery.

First, I hate treekote its impossible to get off your hands and I work in an office. LOL! I liked the idea of your waxing the whole scion. However being a noob, I’ve heard folks mention parafilm, beeswax, toilet bow wax, etc… Inside that deep fryer do you have like a can full of wax with water on the outside heating it up or do you have water in with the wax.

Like i said stupid question but Idk how else I’m gonna figure this out. Now i just need to figure out how to heat my wax as I don’t think the wife will give me here crockpot. :slight_smile:

Yes I fill it with water and I cut and weigh my wax. Paraffin I cut into .5 oz pieces and beeswax .25 oz.

Do yourself a favor and get a deep fryer just like mine. Years prior and I mean many years I messed with crock pots and never got the exact coverage I was looking for. Here’s the info on my Wal-mart crock pot:

LINK

Mixture is 1 oz. paraffin to .25 oz. beeswax in this fryer. I wrote it wrong earlier.

Now that I’m in a rhythm I do my cuts, wrap with a rubber band, and plunge the whole thing in the wax/water mixture and there’s no parafilm involved.

Dax

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1 last dumb followup, how much water do you put in it?

I fill it up to about 1/2 - 1" to the top. Depends upon if you want to stir and get wax on everything!

Dax
P.s. 1" is smarter.

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Your a good egg Dax thanks!

Was checking some of my last years grafts and they still have some of the wax on them. Works well, I even used parafilm and then waxed over it… just have to be careful not to have the wax too hot or you will melt the parafilm. Which, I did a few times… I like the crock pot idea.

Deep fryer, @BobC.

Dax

Welcome! :blush:

Dax, I am intrigued that your recipe for your wax coating contains so much paraffin. Just curiosity provokes this as I have no experience with the process and it’s only that bee’s wax is easy for me to get. No doubt you have experimented with different proportions of paraffin and bees wax and found that this works for you.
There’s no intent to criticise or offend , just a healthy curiosity.
Mick

Hi Mick,

It goes on beautifully. Sometimes we all get lucky I guess. I wouldn’t be surprised however if .5 oz paraffin to .12-.15 oz. beeswax works just as well. I have to rely on memory from year to year and I may have doubled it this year. It sure gets a beautiful coverage though.

I would say to get paraffin + beeswax @Slicko. Beeswax alone may be difficult to get the right consistency with. It’s real thick stuff. I think it might crack off on its’ own too. I’m sure somebody has a recipe somewhere, however.

@ILParadiseFarm What sorts of cultivar of pawpaws/persimmons are you grafting/where do you get your wood?

Dax

I received several pawpaw scions this year from https://ohiopawpaw.com/ they had a pretty good list.

@BobC how did that go, Bob? Did you need become a member/pay for a membership? How much wood did they send/did they send as much as you requested/limits?

@ILParadiseFarm I heard the KSU (Kentucky State U.) pawpaw program was going to stop sending scions, but I can’t say if that’s right or not. Last year they sent several cultivars and for free. They are a part of The US germplasm bank - so send wood to anyone that requests.

I bought pawpaw/persimmon from Jerry Lehman of Indiana this year. He’s great to talk on the phone with because he really knows pawpaws and persimmons. I can put you into contact with Jerry if you’d like. PM me. We’ve spoken extensively and he picked these persimmons for both the home orchardist and the wholesale grower as the ones he likes best. Early Jewel (Claypooly H118), Dollywood (D128), 100-42, 100-44, 100-45, 100-46, Claypool’s I115, Claypools H63A. He sent ‘Maria’s Joy’ pawpaw and some numbered pawpaws of his own creations…

Anyone else liking to get into contact with Jerry Lehman… PM me, please.

Dax

I became a member only because it was cheaper to get as many as I did. So membership was $20 and shipping was like $6,95 or so. Scions alone would of been over $30.00. I contacted them late so the selection was limited. I received 15 sticks of 7 varieties of pawpaw, I can’t recall them right now… I didn’t get Mango that I wanted.

Wasn’t a limit that I know of… scions free to members other than shipping cost. My (THIS YEAR) membership will allow me to order more next year at no cost other than shipping.

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Ok. So my buddy grafted persimmons on a thermostat-controlled basement floor last year. He’s been around the block 30-more years than I have grafting. He recommended 83 degrees last year should I ever do this on my own.

I’ve watched my towels go dry quickly from 77-degrees Fahrenheit that heat mats are manufactured at and… I’ve watched some gather quite a lot of mold.

I called another friend with a callousing heat tube bench. He said 65 F is what he uses. That must be the norm. People who build professional benches are likely to use suggested temperatures I think it’s fair to assume.

My other friend I pal with that had such good success with persimmons got his heat numbers from some guy named Sutton who apparently if you want to search the internet is some sort of guru regarding callousing. What I can tell you now is I’m all finished.

I’m not going to tent them or anything anymore. I’m going to bench graft them. Roll them up in towels and fill a container of some kind with peat moss and my grafts that will not dry out because they’ll either waxed or covered in parafilm, and, they’re simply going into my greenhouse to finish the job.

Lesson learned. I’ll be taking that video off youtube.

Dax

Cool post!
Re: callus formation:
This isn’t about heat but it is yet one more tool in the kit for developing a healthy callus. (From the interweb (Google) search “callus in tree graft.”)

http://www.rooting-hormones.com/cummins.htm

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I believe what you’re doing is perfect.

My heat mats to the touch are so hot it’s ridiculous. An option is to purchase a thermostat.

I’m going to do it the old fashioned way. Temporarily roll the grafts in towels and then transfer to bins. My greenhouse warms up plenty every day to get the job done.

Thanks for going out on a limb to try this method. What you’re doing looks real good.

And, still looking forward to your results.

Dax