It’s just for disinfecting tools. That’s a 12 oz bottle but I only carry an ounce or two with me. I could probably get by with the amount in an eyedrop bottle but with the bigger bottle I don’t have to go looking for it.
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99% - apples, 100% - pears
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It lives! This stubby little BET rootstock barely limped along to the winter after multiple failed grafts last year (pretty sure it was transplant shock, but could have been scion issues). Showed signs of life earlier this month and bark grafted some Korean Giant. Now it’s off to the races. Slow races, but races nonetheless.
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I spray it on my knife and pruners. Sometimes hands, and scions. Occasionally host branch prior to cutting into it. I don’t spray cut surfaces, and I don’t use wet tools or wood at grafting interface.
edit: I also spray my silky saw blade and back drag it against my pants to clean it off before going back in sheath.
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i plan to try korean giant scions on my mountain ash. couldnt find any this season . will try early next season.
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Very interesting technique, never seen it before. Looks like whip n tongue but modified. Fast forward to 6:40 min mark.
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What Silky model are you using? Is it worth the extra buck?
I have a few. A Gomtaro fixed blade that has finer teeth at the tip, and a couple of folders.
Definitely worth it to me.
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I had high expectations for Korean Giant, but it is a bit dry and not as sweet as Atago and Niitaka.
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Follow up on Rootstock grafted with three different Asian: Korean Giant; Shinko; Shin Li.
Follow up on unknown pear regrafted to Kieffer:
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I received my last shipment of scionwood this morning, thought they’ll never arrive, but finally got them after one and half months 
The picture doesn’t look good at all, but maybe there is still a fraction of buds left, that I can use (maybe) (because I am an optimist) 
I unsealed the zip-lock and placed the sticks on grass to let that fungus on upper half of the scionwood to dry out a bit. I’ll then cut off the parts that have fungus. Can anybody give more advice on further handling (some dezinfection or maybe some other ideas would be very appreciated)
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i often use some diluted hydrogen peroxide. Usualy you buy 3% i dilute that by a factor ~10. Spray it on with a spray bottel, and let it dry. After it’s dryed i usualy wrap in parafilm. Maybe the parafilm just “masks” the fungus so i can no longer see it. But i get the feeling it somhow stops or slows down the fungus. Never wrap them when wet though.
Depending on the stock your grafting, (Topworking? or rootstocks?)
I think you’ll be fine with those scions.
If they’r in bad shape i usualy chip bud them onto multiple rootstocks. And keep a rootstock bud above the chip. I think the sap flowing to that bud helps in healing the graft better/faster. Haven’t tested it though. And after you think the graft has healed, i just brake the rootstock bud of, or prune it off.
If your grafting on “empty” rootstocks. You can even graft buds where the bud has broken off, or you had to remove it cus it leafed out (for apples and pears). If you force that graft it will spawn latent buds and still grow. You might have to brake off all the rootstock growth for a month or so for that to happen. (your rootstock will also start leafing out buds or spawning new latent buds.)
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I pour 3% H2O2 without further dilution into a little tray and place the scion in it. Leave it there while I’m preparing the rootstock. Place it onto a dry paper towel and then graft it…
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Thank you very much for this advice!
I’ll definitely try dhp. If I understand you correctly, I add 10% dhp into a 90% filled water spray bottle?
Once they dry out, can I graft them straight away (Top working on big trees) with out wrapping them in parafilm?
I would do like @wdingus suggested by putting the solution in a container and submerging them in the solution completely for 10 -15 minutes. It will give them thorough covering than spraying on solution.
After that, take them out and dry them well. It does not hurt to wrap them in stretched parafilm for scionwood that in transit for over a month.
Another step I would definitely do is trimming off a bit of a bottom part of each scionwood (it show show green wood) and put the wood in a can/bottle of clean water for about an hour. You want to hydrate your scionwood before grafting it. I do that to all my scionwood before grafting. My scionwood is kept in a fridge for months. Re-hydrating them is a good practice to revitalize scionwood.
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Are you not worried it might damage the buds? or do you only do it to fully dormant scions?
If used undiluted hydrogen peroxide before on slices of garlic to test for bloat nematode. If you see how much foam forms and thus how much 3% hydrogen peroxide oxidises living tissue you might want to dilute it. However if scions can reliably take 3% that obviously will “disinfect” better.
If fully dormant the “bud scale” or whatever you wanna call that hard dark brown shell around the bud, protects the bud. And im not that worried about 3%. However if your scion is braking dormancy im worried hydrogen peroxide might get into a swelling bud and kill that bud.
@candyflipper in what zone are you? (fill out in the profile section of the forum 
)
Are the rootstocks/tree’s already leafing out?
Ah, I see that @candyflipper posted pics of scions that had broken dormancy. A stronger solution of h202 or a longer immersion could possibly be damaging in that scenario I suppose. I kind of doubt it would though… Would be an interesting experiment and good for everyone to know for sure though.
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If you have bleach, I would use bleach, 1 part bleach, 9 part water.
Buds on lower part of those sticks are still dormant. They should work.
I have two quick questions about the bench grafts I’m doing.
I’ve been grafting this last week and I’ll be grafting more next week. My plan was to move trees out around 2 weeks after when they were grafted or maybe a little later. Can I move them directly to the nursery bed? It is full sun so maybe I should shade them?
Also should I be sanitizing my tools between bench graphs with isopropyl alcohol? I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of anyone doing that while benchgrafting but I also don’t know why you wouldn’t. I’m not that worried because I got all my scionwood from one source who only gave me trees that he said he didn’t think had viruses. When I was cutting them he told me not to worry about sanitation because it was winter. Can someone explain when using isopropyl alcohol is important?
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@aiden
Assuming the new grafts don’t have yellow leafs on them ,
But just dormant or pushing buds they can be put in full sun .
Yellow leafs ,from lack of sun need some shade until they green up.
I usually sanitize tools between varieties, different scion sources .
Doing a batch of one variety / scion batch,
Sanitize with alcohol
Start next variety .
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