My first experiences in grafting figs where a disaster. They all failed.
The “secret” is protecting the grafts against dehydration. I saw a video of a guy in Palestine grafting some fig trees. He was opening the scions with pruning shears! and doing some cleft grafts. Some of the worst job in grafting i ever saw. He tied the grafts with plastic strips from plastic bags. But then, he placed a plastic bag over the graft and tied it with the most care. And placed another paper bag over the plastic one and tied it. So that make me think about protecting my fig grafts much better.
Axier, that was one of the guys that i read most in the ancient forums was grafting figs at the time, but used mainly Chip Bud grafting. He even recommended not using Cleft or Whip and Tongue because, according to professional grafters he had spoken to, it had a very low percentage of success. Sometimes even 0%!
Next year i tried a few Chip Bud grafts and more than 60% were successful. But i also tried 6 whip and tongue in March, April and even June. I protected them well for at least a month with paper envelopes - the kind that has a plastic bubbly interior. They all!! where successful. So, now, when i receive a hard to get variety, I always graft one of the cuttings to be on the safe side. I am very confident in fig grafting now.
Before making the first cut toward the base, i remove a chip with the last bud in that area and i do a Chip Budding graft with it. Then i proceed with the cut and do the Whip and Tongue. That way, even a very small cutting gives me 2 grafts. They are my best backup and it is working like a charm. I have many occasions where i failed to root the other cuttings (like with some rare Turkish one) and the 2 grafts were successful so i didn’t loose the variety.
Whip and Tongue graft - Done in mid May, photographed in the end of June - notice the protection removed when i saw the first leafs appearing.
I cut one of the corners of the bag 3-4 weeks after grafting to see inside. If i see leaves i begin opening the bag.
Like in this graft of Panaché - whip and tongue done in 17 of June photographed today:
So if you usually do cleft grafts you can do them with fig trees perfectly. Best chances are in March when they begin moving sap. Wrap all the cutting with parafilm and at least a paper bag over it for at least a month, and you will be successful.
Regarding your Portuguese figs you are rooting, PM me and i will be more than happy to help you, if i can.
