I found the same thing, With the plastic bag/foil on, success rate increase quite bit. They do better in the dark to.
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How would you deal with a scion blooming? From my observations of past comments I think most people would prefer to use wood that was leaf buds only. In this case the only scion wood available was full of fruit buds. If it is the only wood available do you go ahead and graft as I did?
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I’d cut off the bloom! And hope that somewhere in there were some leaf buds …
It seems like I graft much earlier in the season than everyone. I’ve been doing it that way long before I’ve found this forum so I just thought that is how is done, roughly a month before the root stock buds out. For me in the Z7 TN area that would be February. It was my thought that the cambium is waking up but there no water demands on the scion and the wound can callus and mend. I have had great results doing that but it was always plums and pears. I realize they are probably the easiest thing to graft. I plan to graft some apricots and apples this year and am torn between doing it in February like I’m used to or waiting until the root stock has woke up. Maybe my method works because our typical February temperatures are in the 40s and 50s and it is a long slow growing period cambium wise. I welcome any thoughts or opinions on this.
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Sorry to say I’ve had terrible results with apricots, and I think it is primarily from a failure to callous and that was due to too low a temperature. Apricots, as I understand it, are pretty fussy about callousing, especially if it’s too cool. Don’t remember the actual preferred range, but I think it’s somewhere around 80 F.
As for the plums and pears, I wouldn’t change it if it’s working!
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I pinched the blooms off this morning. Now we will see if it sends out new growth.
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Spring Satin has a small leaf emerging
Removed small limbs below the scion
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Mark,
I’ve had problems with the apricot grafts also. Our weather is so up and down I need to find a better technique. Instead of trying whip and tongue, cleft, or rind next time I will t bud. I feel it’s not just our cold it’s the heat also. In the spring Kansas weather is like a spring jumping from 85 to 20 and everything in between. Those temps are fine for pears, apples, sour cherries, and plums but apricots, peaches, and sometimes sweet cherries don’t care for that.
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I grafted this April 2017. It’s a harrow sweet on winter banana. It took and grew 2 inches but that’s it. Graft union doesn’t look very merged together. What would you say the chances are of this surviving past the first year?
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I lost some grafts that looked like that. They were cleft also, the scion and understock were not the same size . I removed the tape too early and it was hot dry summer weather and the open side of the cleft dried out and split away from the scion. The graft failed that fall. Yours looks a little better than some of the ones I lost , I leave the tape on longer now
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Hi Susu. We might be on a similar path with Harrow Sweet grafted onto Winter Banana. My opinion is that the grafts have a very good chance to succeed assuming that the scion has adequate support this upcoming growing season and all the below the graft competition is regularly removed. Although the graft is less than perfect I have seen much worst survive and develop well. Just as a rough comparision I grafted the following in 2017. Root M111/Long interstem Bud9/Short interstem Winter Banana/Short scion of Harrow Sweet. This grafting was just an experiment but it is now about 6’ high and the graft union looks good (whip/tongue). No guarantees but unless you need the space I would wait and see how it does in 2018. Later I will post a picture of the graft union. Hope this helps. Bill
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My opinion is different from many on this forum. I graft early too. My idea is that when buds become to swell, the trees are waking up and they are ready to graft. Apricots are the earliest threes to wake up so they are the first to be grafted along with A. Plums. I would say that I had been successful this way. Last year I grafted apricots early (and they got a cold spell with 0 F at one night) and then I grafted leftover apricot scions late (end of April I think). The early grafted were very vigorous, whereas late grafted were weak and many of them did not take. This is just my experience on the matter.
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My experience too.
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@clarkinks , among stone fruit, I’ve found that grafting apricots is almost as easy as plums, pluots and cherries.
I graft them about the same time as peaches, when temp is in high 60 early 70 and will stay that way for 3-4 days. To me having consistent temp like that is key to my success for apricots and peaches/Nects. Last year, I grafted apricots on May 1.
I grafted all my apricots on peach trees. Only apricots that are not compatible did not take ( forget the varieties at the moment). The rest all took. I have had good success on peaches/nects/apricots doing it this way in 2016 and 2017.
@Susu, I am not as optimistic as others about your grafts. Not only the rootstocks are much smaller than the scionwood, the graft union do not fit securely. I’d be worried that breakage at the graft unions would happen.
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I’m worried that it won’t make it too. But I will leave it as is and see how it goes. This was an experiment to begin with. When I planted my bare root harrow sweet last year I cut off the top and wanted to use that wood for grafting. So I grafted it on to winter banana. My harrow sweet tree later died and these two inches of HS growth is all the HS I have in yard now.
Very exciting to see which grafts take and which don’t…
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Just wanted to mention that both rootstocks only had a few roots and that probably is the reason for the slow scion growth. The Spring Satin is stating to grow at the top as well as the side. I will probably remove the smaller lower limb after the top grows out a little more. These to grafts don’t look so good but I do think they offer learning opportunities. My plans are to add some other more aggressive grafts as the weather warms up outside.
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I do thousands of grafts each year so I only use parafilm tape and rubber band. They naturally fall off after the grafts have healed welll so that I don’t need to go back and remove.
I tried using the plastic grafting tape which is also very effective but often I forget to remove them especially if I have grafted my friend’s trees. So they are girdled and are cut off.
I want something that I can do once and forget about it and that’s usually using rubber band for the strength and parafilm to seal in moisture. Both will deteriorate and fall off after one season. If I want them to stay longer, I just double up the parafilm covering the rubber band.
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You could still buy a deep fryer and get your wax ready and do all the dipping in advance. Even if you need to cut twice on a scion where there’s wax you can.
I’ve posted many times about the deep fryer I use. Here it is:
I’ve found that about .3 oz paraffin to .1 oz. beeswax is consistent. Once the scions look like they have a watery surface I just cult a sliver about 1/4" of one of my paraffin chunks and a sliver less than that of beeswax and I’m back in business. Repeat as often as necessary.
Then you just add a bit of parafilm to finish each.
My buddy is like you. He never returns to remove budding strips. And I’ve found many year old grafts growing just fine with electrical tape on those. Those are usually bark grafts on larger caliper seedlings. I do unwrap those because it drives me a bit cuckoo to see those. And the wood is usually like a finger that’s had a bandage on for too long. But he tells me, eventually the electrical tape will push off and he’s never had a problem.
Dax
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For bark grafts on very big trunk, I would use the cheaper plastic grafting tape on those and I take note to return to remove them after a year. I finish it off by applying tar on the cut trunk. tar has excellent antimicrobial properties.
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Cool cool, Joe.
Dax
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