I’m not trying to tell you how to run your business. I’m fairly new to grafting this is my 3 year. However I’ve had 100% sucess rate the last two years (including this season). I just want to share my method with everyone, so they can have a better sucess rate. Its fairly simple actually.
Cleft graft and ram that scion down deep on the cleft. Cherry will have some bit of dieback on the rootstock at the point where you pruned it. So you want a cambium contact down deep in the cleft.
Last year I had i think a bird land on the scion, it still took but was at a bad angle. I left it alone and planted it out and it grew just fine. So this year I stablized the graft with a zip tie over top of parafilm, it’s as tight as I could get it by hand.
The zip tie stablizes the graft and also compresses the cleft for good cambium contact. I then coat the whole graft area with tree coat sealer. Cut the zip tie off after you have a stable graft. Then give the graft area another application of tree coat, to keep it water tight.
I grafted 10 cherries onto mazzard root stock this season, I’ve already set out 3 in the orchard. Here are the remaining 7, I’ve yet to set out.
Edit… forgot to mention keep the root stocks good and hydrated. If you think it needs water, it probably needed water yesterday. So what i’m saying is water everyday.
3 montmorency
2 utah giant
2 north star
