Hello everyone and thank you for your reply’s. I am new to the website and have read a few different blogs regarding my issue but still need a little direction. I am also new to bud grafting and branch grafting. I live out in Zone 7a in ut and temperatures anywhere from 60° during the daytime to 40° at night. Most of this week looks like it’s going to be 50s during the day and 35-40 at night. Here’s my conundrum. I watched quite a few videos on YouTube and did research on the Internet. I thought maybe I would be OK to graft this early in the season. But… I should have waited another month or so until the trees start to push. I realize that now. But can’t go back. I have grafted several bud grafts on different trees and a few branch grafts. My main question is how do I try and save them. I know now I need to put parafilm up the entire branch and bud. But should I cover them with a plastic bag? Or tinfoil and then a plastic bag? Or nothing at all. Also most of the bud grafts that I did are on the trunk of the tree. Will these even come out? Or do they need to be on a branch?
Looks like you grafted a little early, as you say, but they’re pretty thoroughly wrapped. Better minds may disagree, but I think I’d leave them as they are.
I would just take what you did as practice, and plan on re-grafting when the leaves are pushing a bit. There is a chance some of them will still make it, but there is not really anything to do to help.
The chip buds you did can be used as a backup graft method but I find they usually fail in spring, they are better in summer. Also you need to think about apical dominance more in your grafts, it looks like there is still wood on the main trunk which is thick and high. The tree will sprout from that and not feed the grafts and even if it was later they would probably all die. You need to put the grafts at the highest points.
Ok well I will keep my fingers crossed makes sense about the dominance. I didn’t think about that.
What does tinfoil do even? And if I were to wrap it in plastic bag with that just help with moisture?
You are good. Let them be. Check the grafted buds after three weeks or one month. If they are still alive and cuts are healed, you should pinch other buds. Let the nutrition focus on grafted buds.
I did chip budding in the spring, summer, and early fall. They all work greatly.
I also started grafting when I found buds swelling on the rootstocks. Works great.
I never tried on dormant rootstock.
I heard grape and kiwi should be grafted in dormancy.
I tried Chip budding on apricots, persimmons, peaches,pears, and plums. I don’t have apple trees to try on.
If rootstocks are healthy, they are pretty easy. On young healthy branches, I can get 100% success with chip budding.
I also tried T-budding. Just cuttings healed are a little bit ugly. Chip budding can be done in three seasons. T-budding has to wait till the skin of the rootstocks can be peeled off.
Sophia you had much better results than I did. I used to do chip bud backups on spring grafts but the success rate was low and I stopped doing it. It works fine on easier to graft things like pears plums and apples, but on peaches it never worked for me.
I don’t have a whole lot to add, except that for somebody new to grafting that’s a pretty ambitious project! Looks pretty good to me, just wait and see
Thank you. It’s fun to learn. I just hope I don’t hurt the trees. This website is great to learn from. I got on a few days ago and can’t put the phone down. Haha. A lot of really good blogs and discussions about things I have been thinking about. Fertilizer. Watering. Wood chips. There is even a discussion about the use of urine with a water schedule. Lol. I have thought about it but haven’t tried to save mine yet. I think my wife would kill me if I saved a jug of urine next to the toilet lol. The closest I get to that is telling my kids to pee on the trees.
The first time that I did chip budding on my persimmon tree. I cut too deep and the tree was broken after one year by wind blow. The tree is only one year old.
I had chip buds on E plum take nicely last spring. Mirabelle on prune. I can’t remember how the prune was growing at that point, but it leafs out later than a lot of my trees.
My tip on chip budding --which is the most fun way to graft, imho-- is that you can angle the bud askew a little to ensure cambium contact. You don’t really have to exactly match sizes, although the height matters more than width, I think.
Hello, i make the grafting early spring, i use 2 metod of grafting - bark grafting and cleft graft.
In the summer i use only Z graft. Thanks ,Greetings from Romania zone 7A.
makes sense about the dominance. I didn’t think about that.
