First grafting attempts - Practice Lemon

You can wrap over the bud but after take cut the tape off.

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After reviewing my various sources, it seems my problems with the cleft graft were:

  1. Making a 45° cut instead of a longer, steeper (shallower?) cut.
  2. Cutting the cleft halfway down instead of 1/3 of the way down the slope.

I’ll have to gather some more practice twigs and try it out.

Update: as predicted, the very poorly executed whip-and-tongue of a skinny twig didn’t make it. Since the twig was unprotected, it already dried out, so much so that I was able to pull it right out of the parafilm. The other two still look OK for now. The end of the twig I budded onto was starting to dry out, so I wrapped it with parafilm the rest of the way. Hopefully that will stabilize it.

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No substitute for making mistakes and learning from them. (You’re going to be learning a lot now …)

:-)M

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Ha! For sure. Just trying to make them now instead of when it counts.

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Well, after some more practice cuts and careful observation, I finally see what everyone means by the curved cuts. I went ahead and reground a disused clam knife to a single bevel and sharpened to a mirror polish. I hate to admit it, but it is definitely easier to cut with, and the cuts seem to come out much flatter (no gaps when I push against the knife blade). Now I just need to figure out what I’m doing wrong with cutting the tongue. I almost always end up splitting the twig instead of cutting a tongue.

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See if this helps: grasp the wood just about where you want the cut for the tongue to start, but back just a hair. Pinch the blade of the knife between your thumb and forefinger. Bring your thumbs together with the backs of the first knuckles of your index fingers bracing against each other, and rock the blade into the wood. You won’t cut yourself because you’ll have such good control of the blade and can make really tiny rocking motions- stop when you need to!

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Cutting the tounge ;
Yah, that a tough one .
For me it’s all about locking thumbs , to gain some control.
Starting with a slicing cut, usually finish with a rocking motion.
Remember …
Knifes + fingers = be careful !

Yah what Mark said !

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For those who are more prone to cutting their fingers than some of the masters, I suggest considering using an old CD-ROM of DVD as a finger guard when cutting the tongue. You hold the scion or root stock just below where you are cutting, then slide the disk over what your cutting by poking it through the hole in the disk. Then make your cut above it. I’ve actually thought about cutting down some disks to make it easier to use, but if you could find some of those small-sized discs they used to make for giveaways, etc. that would work great as well.

It is still possible to cut yourself, but you have to work at it much harder. And definitely do the rocking motion for the tongue which really helps keep from going too far.

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OK, that’s all good advice. I’ll have to gather some more unsuspecting twigs to practice on. Thanks everyone!

Well, I’m 0 for 2 so far. The chip bud defied my overconfidence, as the twig it was on dried up. The cleft graft still looks plump and green, and the parafilm is still tight on it.

When I chip bud on citrus , I do so low ,on a dominant shoot,
Letting the top retain leafs , until the bud has healed.
I think this keeps the sap flowing to heal the bud.
. After 2-4 weeks I break the shoot over, above the bud.
Then ~ 2 weeks or so cut top off just above the bud.
This usually forces it to grow.
I see your chip was placed on a shoot that had been cut off above the chip. This may work on many things , not sure it’s good on citrus ?
Keep practicing !

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Yeah, I guess that wasn’t ideal. My thought was to use twigs and branches I was planning on pruning eventually so that it wouldn’t screw up my plans for the tree if/when they failed.

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You’ll get it. I hold my knife in my hand I’m cutting with holding onto it with my last four fingers while keeping my thumb out of the picture. There’s a space between the blade and my thumb that stays that way. You need to grab a pile of wood and rip thru the pile making a slant. Get that perfected and move on. Get your tongue perfected next.

Watch this guy:

Dax

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I’m just such a butterfingers though. I can’t do it that well/fast!

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Then don’t, Bryan. There are other techniques and one for everyone.

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Sad to say, but I’m 0-3. The cleft stayed green and plump for a while, but I guess it never calloused and finally dried up. I’m hoping that it was more an error of timing than technique. I’ll wait for the tree to wake up a bit more then try again. Shouldn’t be long, the calamonsi in the next pot over is sending out fresh shoots now. I think I’ll also try adding rubber bands or electric tape this time.

This cut you did is perfect:
image

It’s flat. It has the correct wedge size and shape. Keep it up. Remember that the later you begin grafting or (indoors) when temps are above 70 F you’re going to get much greater takes.

Dax

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Thanks! That’s good to hear. I feel like I understand the mechanics and biology pretty well, but I know some things aren’t readily apparent until you’ve mucked around and messed up a bit.

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Yep