Carpenters Glue As Grafting Sealant

I’m sure many of you have seen the video of the guy bark grafting
and using Elmers outdoor carpenters glue as a grafting sealant. He
states that the product is no longer available. Has anybody used carpenters
glue and does it have to be outdoor rated.

I have a gallon of regular elmers glue that I tried at full strength as a graft sealer but it seems to wash off in the rain. I do mix it with water and paint the scion with it after grafting to help seal in moisture but again I think it washes off if it rains.

That’s why I think you have to use the indoor/outdoor version. http://www.homedepot.com/p/Titebond-III-16-oz-Ultimate-Wood-Glue-1414/100522343

Has anybody used this product?

Good glue, I use it on my beehives.

I used grafting wax this year. I heated it, and in the sun stayed pliable enough to use for hours. It seals very well, I’m sold on it. Messy, but unlike tree sealers, easily washes off with auto shop soap. I also tried toilet ring wax, and that works very well too. Like a buck fifty for a year’s supply!

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Titebond III is also what I use for wood glue, somewhere I read it was the best made these days. Not sure about your application though. I jus use Doc Farwells for graft sealant.

I also like titebond for wood glue but I’m a 100 convert to toilet ring wax after using it this year. I can’t think of anything negative to say about it. The consistancy is perfect. Before that I used the Bonide tree and pruning sealer.

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putty used in grafts called mastic

http://www.kendon.com.au/Catalogue/gmcbz.htm

One issue with glue is that, typically, it needs a curing/drying time in a dry setting. The point of covering, say, a cleft graft is to protect the exposed, moist area from drying out, so the most critical area to protect creates a weak point in the covering. Maybe it would work in other types of grafts where there is essentially no exposed area and the sealant is for ‘just in case.’ Titebond 1 is brittle, best used where there is ‘no’ expansion and contraction from heat or humidity changes, thus: indoor. Tb 3 is just the opposite…kinda stretchy, thus: outdoor; and Tb 2 is in between. I wouldn’t use any of them for grafting here in W. Orygun. It’s a great brand. I am very new at grafting but, not so much with glues. I’ve used TT wax so far. (Thunder Throne Wax, the Sealant of Kings; aka toilet ring wax.) It’s cheap and easy to use. One ring controls them all.

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I’ve wondered if latex paint might work, dipping the scion into it before grafting

I would really not want to use glue in grafts for a couple reasons.

First, I am fumbly. My scionwood gets moved around a fair bit as I line it up, and if I bump it, guess what? It gets moved some more. With glue all I can see myself doing (your mileage may vary) is glue-plugging huge percentages of the cambium layer I’m trying so hard to expose in the first place when I have to keep repositioning the scion.

Second, I don’t know that I want to babysit any graft for ten minutes before moving to the next one. And clefts tend to stay where they are, but for me bark and whip and even some whip-and-tongue don’t.

I can see where if you didn’t have better options glue might be a choice, but I DO have better options: Parafilm. Not everyone likes it, but it works fantastic for me. Sometimes part of that is that there is 10-15 wraps of it around a wiggly union, but I can do that…the first wrap or two start to stabilize, and I haven’t been able to “over-wrap” as the stuff breaks down over the first year. If I didn’t have parafilm I would buy some, or perhaps try the nonadhesive electrical tape mentioned around here, but I don’t like the glue idea at all…again, at least in my hands.

I hope Dax reports in here. When he collects scionwood he puts hot water and paraffin into a milk jug and then dips the entire scion branch, giving it a nice coating.

Oh, I like that idea a lot