Good thread!! This has been my biggest grafting year! Lots of new peach & persimmons, several pecan, some each of citrus, walnut, fig, apricot, almond etc and like i doubled my apple cultivars and every graft took except a 2nd priscilla, like 14 out of 15 grafts not too bad considering my slow late start and some werent the best grafts either. Encouraged so far!
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If the new leafs (just began to grow) of a grafted scion have dried and fallen off (assuming from heat) and there are no additional leaf buds remaining, is there a way to stimulate some new leaf growth, or is that scion failed?
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Not necessarily, it might sprout a substitutional bud right next to the one that dried out. In some cases I even had do wait for next spring.
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It’s a gonner usually. The starches or sugars the scionwood had kept it alive but the graft (mostly likely) never knitted. The scion grew a few leaves and then died. This can go on for months where you’ll see growth from the scion but the callus never occurred.
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I did some pawpaw grafts yesterday and found that grafting onto thinner than pencil-sized rootstock (with the plant in the ground) is tough. I wrapped with parafilm, but trying to use a rubber-band on it was futile (too thin and flexible). I followed up the parefilm with electrical tape (which I commonly do on grafts) but trying to tighten this was difficult as well. I felt like I was more likely to damage the stem and/or dislodge the graft rather than tighten the wrap.
I was doing splice & whip and tongue grafts.
Suggestions?
Scott
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Beautiful. My grafts are functional but ugly. Ok jealous.
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Even with a single-bevel, I still can’t make a cut like that. It always “bows out” as I slide the knife.
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Sometimes ugly is better. Easier to spot 
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Its unfortunate it can take so long to know if the graft is dead or not. On this particular example, where the dried leaf buds were removed, the scion is green still. If the leafs and scion died rather than just the leafs drying up from the sun, would the green still be showing under the bud?
Give it a week or two and if it resprouts, you got lucky… really lucky! If no growth than chop it with your pruners to look “all the way thru.” Examine the whole pith and surrounding tissue when you chop it. Then you’ll know.
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I’ve used just buddy tape and have had great success.
This is a persimmon I truthfully cut to 1-bud. Right now, growth-shown, is the same height basically as what I removed for graft wood. It branched below as you’ll see (left side), I let that grow to 3-5 leaves and pinched it so it would stop for now and produce vigor to the stem/trunk. If it produces another awaken bud, I’ll either knock it off or, let that grow 3-5 leaves. In this situation since the vigor on the trunk is coming towards a cm in width, I’ll push it off vs. allowing the secondary (branch) below to produce another set of 3-5 leaves. I’l simply bump it off with my fingerprint area.
@murky and I have a bottle of rubbing alcohol nearby so we can work with our hands. If a plant or plants are full of fungus such as rust, we strip the leaves off of those plants as individuals while carefully disposing of the leaves and then spray our hands between plants. If we’re careful enough it’s possible to do more than one plant at a time. I strip all the leaves and put them in a ziplock bag that’s been running for 3-4 months now. And then, I spray my hands with alcohol and when all the stock is defoliated as it should, it’s time to spray with my fungicide of choice, or, yours.
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Indian Free, first time I had tried grafting a peach. Bad timing, temps hovered around 60 for almost 2 weeks immediately after. But now they’ve been in the 80’s for 2 more weeks and it and many others are really coming to life.
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I don’t think I have any special insight into persimmon combinations that do well. I hope I didn’t say I did, or give that impression. Honestly I’m not certain the rootstock of several of my persimmons. I just know that my not Izu is a Dave Wilson tree, so presumably on Lotus. And I’m pretty sure the rootstocks I got from the Home Orchard Society are supposed to be Virginiana. I have Coffeecake and Chocolate on those. They are pretty slow growing and slow to fruit, but I also haven’t been providing enough nitrogen.
My climate isn’t known for persimmons, but they grow well here. It’s not especially hot or long growing season though.
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Lotus is used primarily in zone 9 and higher, will not do well in my zone 7a. Wild persimmon in my area is all I use. I prefer using the seeds from growing wild ones. I only use seeds from one particular tree on my property that produces very sweet, somewhat juicy. Depending at their growth, I might graft the summer after the second year, but third year for sure. Older tree, I don’t use for Asian persimmon grafting. Don’t take that long for them to go into fruiting. Very young rootstock, second or third year, grafting as low as possible, W/T is my preferred grafting. You can’t hardly tell the tree had been grafted.
I have seen so many grafts that looks decent but break under a heavy load.
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I recently heard to the opposite of what I knew or had thought that supposedly folks in California know it’s a “no-no” to graft kaki to virginiana or vice versa. A guy with a lot of experience that interstems are a must.
I’m trying to understand the Ebony family of trees, but only persimmons. The wood becomes streaked often with hybrids and @tonyOmahaz5 in Omaha presumes it’s “persimmon sudden death syndrome” - yet I’m trying to understand if that streaking means anything or not… partially due to folks having trees where all the wood is streaked and the trees have not died for more than a year.
I’m thinking hybridization might be the reason for the streaking, but, it’s all hypothesis to me.
Thanks everyone.
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I had some streaked budwood two years back and it grew fine. The new growth doesn’t have streaks and it’s pure D.virginiana. Might have been a stress reaction, the mothertree wasn’t healthy.
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