Just curious, a novice grafter here, about ready to cut my fingers and I have been reading/watching about grafting and ran into this in the SSE videos.
SSE says that they put their grafted rootstocks in a plastic bag with moist material on the roots and keep it at 34-42F for 30 days after the graft, to allow the graft union to mend before planting and setting out. Sounds like a good idea, and obviously not something you can do with field grafts, but I was curious if the grafters here have done this and found it helpful?
Also, I am dealing with some scion wood which is considerable smaller than the rootstock, and have been thinking of the bark graft for those (or perhaps Konradās modified bark graft). Cleft or the side whip and tongue could work too, but the bark graft seemed easier. Just curious what the experienced grafters here thought was the best for these circumstances.
Iāve never tried the storage thing with grafted root stocks,just kept them in pots.That may work fine though.
I havenāt tried bark grafting yet,so my way right now with a really skinny piece is a cleft.
Bob Purvis recommends side grafting on his order form,for stone fruit,in the field,during Spring.Thatās another technique I have yet to attempt. Brady
I have the highest rates of success with the cleft grafting in those circumstances.
As an aside, if you are grafting peach/nectarine, or apricot, I and others on the forum, I believe, have had the best success grafting in warm weather.
Iām no expert but I am a compulsive researchers her. I donāt doubt storing cold is common practice and probably works by extending the healing, but the recommendations Iāve seen have been to try, when possible, to graft at the optimal callous forming temperature. For apples, thatās around 55F, for stone fruit its more like 70-80F (I think, it seems less consensus). I think a lot of bench grafting assumes you wonāt have time at the proper time of year, but you have time in winter.
Weāve grafted and then refrigerated four months, they sprout in the refrigerator, and also grafted then planted outside immediately in 100F heat, they sprout just fine. Iād do whatever works out for your schedule.
Not saying our method is the best,but it works for us. Several hundred pear and apple bench grafts have done well. We try to start grafting 3-4 weeks before our last frost date as that way we hopefully dont have to put anything back into cold storage. We graft and place everything into giant rubber maid type totes, with a sheet of plastic lying loosely over the top, some layers of wet newspaper inter mingled with the grafts. We keep the grafts between 50-60 degrees for 16 to 17 days. During that time the callusing process begins.After the storage phase if the weather is hot and sunny we let them acclimate outdoors for a couple of days limiting them to direct sunlight if they have started to leaf out before planting. If you do them earlier and frost is still a real threat for a few days we have put them into cold storage to slow the leafing out process.
I have had my best success by planting the rootstock as soon at they arrive and grafting to them when they start to open buds. If starting them in pots you have to be able to manage moisture in the soil. If left out in the open, spring rains can drown them.
Iām getting some conflicting viewpoints on root stock grafting. Iām hearing that it only works on apples and pears and not on stone fruits. That stone fruits should be budded, and not grafted. Iād like to hear some comments on this.
IMO I think a lot of grafting technique is geographically influenced. At least I hope so. Budding might be the preferred method in some locations due to weather, timing, location of root stock (already planted or in storage), etccā¦ I have had miserable luck with chip budding, T budding, etcc. I wish I knew why but as of yet I do not. I had good luck last year planting my plum root stock and then cleft grafting it once the root stock had broken dormancy. I have 90% take or better on my bench grafted apples and pears. I think I have gathered that the biggest failure reason on stone fruits is the temperature for callusing. I am hoping that I can over come that by āpottingā up all my stone fruit bench grafts, callusing them indoors and then moving them into the nursery.
@rayrose That essentially matches the advice I have read most other places, but it doesnāt get told that way here. It seems like most of the people here use their preferred method on almost every type of tree, whether itās whip and tongue, cleft, or something else. I am not even sure how many people here graft a stick and put a back up chip under it, but I have read that advice other places.
I like to do that, and Iāve had it cover my mistakes. Other times the main graft has taken and the chip has fallen out. Iām not a very skilled grafter so I like to have a little backup.
and I have been reading/watching about grafting and ran into this in the SSE videos.