I don’t ever remember laughing at any of your grafts, you are a true tree surgeon specialist. If I was a tree to be grafted, I would much rather have you as my Dr. and caretaker than myself! My bench grafting skills are descent at best, I have a hell of a time keeping them alive in pots in my KS climate. Trees with established rootstocks in the ground are much easier for me, they almost always take.
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My question is not regarding wax, but does involve constriction. Going back to reread some of the grafting topic. I used a razor to cut a line down my temflex wraps and also cut through rubber bands if they were still intact. If it didnt remove easily, I left it on. I left most of the parafilm intact to fall off on its own. I noticed quite a bit of constriction on those grafts which had the most growth in girth, mostly from the rubber bands. Should I rewrap any of the grafts which seem fairly open or will moisture not be an issue? Is strength of the graft my main concern?
Also, I noticed a trend of really bulky growth on many of my plum grafts in particular. They have the appearance of a knot. I know its a cleft graft and often not known for its beauty, but this seems excessive. On the other hand, the graft seems quite substantial and strong. I am seeing this primarily on plum grafted to peach. Is there any reason for this other than chance?
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Strong work Dax!
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John, I imagine these days that there HAS to be a genetics lab out there that can put controversies like this to rest?
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Have not tried plums and peaches so not sure about the knots and all.
But, I typically find about this time of year great for removing tape from bench-grafts…and on healthy ‘frankentree’ scions, earlier to prevent girdling of some of them as they grow and expand faster.
The exposed wood of cleft grafts I do often re-apply a little grafting sealant
to keep moisture out of the cleft or from rotting the exposed wood that is no longer alive.
(I’ve not seen the wax do any harm.)
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For a price, I’m sure. Not too likely for a rare apple variety to be matched up with an even more obscure apple.
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Manufacturer of gene sequencing equipment? Anybody?
I’m thinking the charge is near $5,000 per variety?
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Which do you use?
Thanks
I use the Trowbridge’s Grafting wax.
Not that it’s necessary if the graft is growing vigorously and healing up the area quickly. (But a large wound coupled with a sickly new graft is where this might come in useful.)
Excellent…that’s affordable if you don’t have too many to test.
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Yoda is back. I have been tied up with a whole bunch of things since April, now I’m trying to get back to the forum again.
In Spring I expanded my small garden to 48’ x 24’ and installed a metal PVC-coated 1" hex mesh fence on T-posts around it, with a doubled-over part of the 6’ mesh extending about 9" into the ground to keep out the rabbits, moles and voles. (A backbreaking job without use of a ditch witch.) Then to the existing patch of 8 blueberry bushes I established a new strawberry patch with 5 varieties, added a black raspberry bush, and planted 4 persimmon trees to join it (Smith’s Best, KBS, Kasandra and David’s Kandy). A Matsumoto Wase Fuyu, 5 DV seedlings, and a Chocolate and Coffee Cake were also planted to follow the back property line for grafting next spring. All told, 12 persimmon trees planted on my little acre this year.
I also had an existing 15’ male DV in another part of the yard, which is where the grafting stuff comes in. I decapitated it in late Spring and crossed my fingers. Sure enough, sprouts came up around the 5" stump. I let 6 of them grow to about 3’ tall, and finally pulled my long-saved scions, courtesy of friends in this forum, out of the fridge: Prok, Tam Kam, Saijo, Rojo Brillante, Chuchupaka, JT-02 and Korea Kaki. TODAY - August 20 - I decided that even though conventional wisdom is to graft scions during the dormant spring period, I was afraid to overwinter them a second year. Cutting off the ends showed they were still a healthy green inside, so I put my new Antonini grafting knife to work and made cleft grafts with Parafilm and rubber bands.
Will it work? I dunno. Maybe too late in the season (SE PA), and it is my first shot at grafting. Has anyone else tried grafting persimmon scions this late in the season? At least the temps are decent, the soil is quite moist courtesy of Fred, and the old rootstock is BIG and pushy. I hope to get some fresh scionwood of Giombo, RB, Chuchupaka and a couple others for grafting to the 5 seedlings next spring.
And not do any more garden expansion at age 68.
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@Rosdonald some of mine have that same appearance. I just figured it was over-growth. ? - and not that anything was wrong. And some are clean and neat and you can barely see them!
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Update on my grafts. Some of them. All 2021
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Fine job it appears.
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Here’s one of my Kieffer pears grafted on an undisturbed callery root that just happed to have been sown in an acceptable spot by the birds. Its a whip with no tongue (experimenting with different techniques). There is about 5ft of growth since March which amazed me! Is it normal for the rootstock to lag behind in growth? Seems scion is a tad thicker caliper.
The original tree is on my neighbors farm and probably 45yr old. We picked probably 200lbs of pears from it last year. They weren’t all that good for fresh eating but perfect for canning.
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At this late and terribly hot, dry time, starting to see some new life on grafts I had all but given up on. These responded in the spring with some signs of life, then withered down to a very dark or black dead looking state. New growth and promising color on Bill’s Red Flesh, Greeming, Waneta Plum, Goldicot Apricot, and German C Pear. Exciting to think they might not be lost!
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I’ve lost a handfull…due to either too much rain or to keeping the rootstocks too hot for too long before grafting.
But, here’s a nice bit–I have Dula’s Beauty on B-118 alive.
Lost a Rubaiyat…that one must hate me as I’ve had it several times and it dies.
And I’ve been eating pears I grafted in April … 16 months ago…
from the pear “frankentree”. 
Callery rootstock.
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Yeah Dula Beauty!!! My tree is not vigorous at all, but I’m hearing that fruit is a nice size.
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