Cousin, my favorite pawpaw graft by far is the cleft. It’s fast and very effective. I know folks who do a beautiful whip and tongue–it’s beautiful and is more seamless than the cleft in the first year. But it takes me much longer, is no more effective, and by the second year looks about the same as my cleft. I have learned that if you are careful, it’s only necessary to line up one side of the cleft. I start doing them at pencil size stock, on up to about .75". After that it gets difficult to split the stock. Bark grafts work if I have to deal with larger stock. I would rather not have all that dead area around a larger graft. Pawpaw wood is not the most solid of woods.
The cleft graft is also a very safe graft. You can do all the cuts going away from you. Not so with whip and tongue. I’ve heard of whip and tongue grafting clinics with blood all over the place. Not for me. I don’t have the best knife skills, but with a $5 utility knife I can complete dozens of cleft grafts in a day. No blood! Close to 100 percent take. I’ve been experimenting with how important it is to wrap the entire scion with Parafilm vs just the joint area. Full wrapping takes a bit longer, and sometimes the poor little buds struggle to break through. In a completely controlled environment (tunnel or greenhouse) there is no need to fully wrap. But in the orchard, I’ve found that full wrapping does improve your odds. Cut–insert–rubber band–Parafilm–foil on joint.
I teach beginners how to graft, and in just a couple of minutes they can complete a cleft graft that works. Line up the “green lines.” And do it when the temperatures reach into the low 80s. That’s important. In my old age I’m also more picky about my scionwood. Look for buds that look like nice little feathers–the larger the better. Those tiny little knobby nodes without feathers don’t have much of a chance.
