I don’t see any problem concerning his knife skills.
Nor do I they are much better than mine!
I manage to cut my thumb almost every time I graft but the grafts take Maury every it’s the added iron from the blood
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Neither do I, JSacadura is very very knowledge and skilled. A source of knowledge and kind to share is knowledge to us.
Thank you @Jsacadura 
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His skills are good. His technique is difficult and dangerous, and doesn’t take good advantage of the tools, in my opinion. Not something good to emulate for folks trying to learn. It’s more dangerous and difficult than necessary to make the cuts.
I don’t care for the whittling, or the extra fine motor control required to do those push cuts with his finger in the potential path of the blade applying pressure to the wood - stuff like that.
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Oh, is he one of the members here. @Jsacadura , I apologize if my amateur critiques seem disrespectful.
I very much appreciate the videos that you’ve shared on Youtube, and I have learned from them. Thank you.
@Carld thanks for drawing my attention to the username.
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Did about 265 grafts this spring with all except about 5 that didn’t take. All heirloom apple varieties all mostly on G969 and 10 on G890 Soon to go into the nursery.
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How many working hours did it take you?
Did you buy these rootstocks last fall?
What grafting technique did you find most suitable for this?
What’s that greenish mastic you are using?
@murky scary indeed…perfect way to shave off a few grams of flesh for not so skilled like myself… I don’t think I can whittle to make a good cut either coz I tend to not have even pressure to make a levelled cut.
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It took me about 50-60 grafts per day working about 10 hours a day and that was with breaks drinking French cider and almost cutting my thumb off multiple times before wearing a glove to make the tongue cuts. I collected the scion wood from all over including my own trees. I ordered everything in early spring including rootstocks, which I bought from Cummins. I had extra scion wood so I bought some extra 50 rootstock from a nearby nursery and it wasn’t half as good as the Cummins stock. I also wouldn’t waste your time getting scions from anywhere else but Cummins. I spent over $100 from an orchard in ontario and the scions were all trash except for a few and the caliper was tiny which restricted me to cleft grafts. Having a large assortment of rootstock and scions really enables you to get a good match for your graft. I’d say that 95% are whip and tongue while the rest are cleft grafted for the small scions. Always at least 2 buds and 3 at most to give better odds of finding a stronger bud before pinching off the others. I used a razor blade that I cleaned with rubbing alcohol before the cutting began. I have a grafting knife but only used it to open cuts for fitting, not preparing the graft cuts… I used grafting rubber bands to hold the grafts together because that’s what I see the larger nurseries do and it holds things together right. I was after I wrapped them too tight but it didn’t hurt things. After the rubber band I would dip the end in 50/50 blend of beeswax and paraffin to seal the end. Then wrap the 1” Saran Wrap grafting wrap along the length of the whole thing. Tag it and then wrap the roots in a paper towel and soak in water to be wet but not sitting in water. I did the grafts mid March and then they sat in my cooler for a month at 45 degrees. At the beginning of may I gradually warmed my cooler up to 55 and then put them in these bins with soil still wrapped in the paper towels which will come off when they go in the nursery next week. Check out my other posts to see pics of the process.
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Asked and answered
It’s Doc Farwell’s Heal and Seal. I think its tougher than the grafting seal, and in retrospect, don’t think this was the best application for it - at least not on the buds. Underneath is yellow modeling clay to fill the gaps first.
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I made this, for you, my friends Dax
I’m wearing three sweatshirts, btw.
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Grafts look good.
I suppose the tags you made for them are intended to be temporary, but I still suggest you put a date. If you do end up keeping them on the graft, you’ll appreciate that date every time you check in for the next 10 years +. Also, I’m a little worried about the way a lot of your new persimmon leaves are wrinkled. Nothing to do with the graft, but when mine do that it means my tender, new persimmon leaves are being damaged by Persimmon Psyllid. Yours aren’t bad enough for me to tell for sure that you have that problem, and others here will know better than me, but I get them almost every spring on my new, tender persimmon leaves so at least be on the lookout if your small, new leaves are wrinkled/ contorted
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Most of the various Geneva roots I’ve ordered from Cummins over past half dozen years have been fine, except the G30’s, that had scarce roots.
But I’ve had just as fine material come from burnt ridge or Fedco. For less money.
And I got a bundle of 100 apple rootstocks from Oregon for $118 including shipping …
so if one or three are poorly rooted, a dozen crooked, and a half dozen under or over sized I still saved a fortune vs getting them from Cummins.
But, all experiences are different, and every testimony is valid.
How do you get rid of those psylliums. Not familiar with them
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Where from in Oregon did you get your rootstocks from? I’m not sure where Cummins gets theirs from but I know that they don’t propagate them themselves.
I’ve been told neem oil spray will do it. I didn’t have good luck with it. The old carbaryl sevin would work if you go that route. However the only time the psyllids are lethal are in small trees—-as in new grafts and even then I think I only lost one. They make the leaves ugly but they grow out of it. I have used netting to protect my brand new grafts but other than that I haven’t messed with them much.
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Thanks.
I’ve got seven in a pump up sprayer. I’ll try that