Hot Callus Pipe DIY

I have grafted apples and pears with success without using the heat pipe, but it only increases the odds. I also like seeing good callusing prior to bringing things outdoors. I’ve also enjoyed doing chip bud grafting too. It’s a good feeling when you removed the grafting tape and see that the bud graft took. Even better the following spring when it puts out a shoot

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Anyone with experience with peach on the pipe? The scionwood seems a bit tender, some of mine got burnt (died and looked brown).

Also, any difference in success rate with peach on the pipe versus just having the grafts brought in room temperature inside the house? Room temperature should have the right warmth to get peach callusing.

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The pipe is so inexpensive and the answer is yes, yes, yes, it’s great for everything. There’s no taboo to it. Citrus, who knows. I live in IL. But it damn sure is gonna help and it’s gonna help, a-lot. If you Google hot callus pipe you’re immediately explained the reason invented. For “difficult” species to graft. It’s that plain.

Cheers,

Dax

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wowza pushing buds, guessing its fine to remove from heat at this point. was at 70f for about 3 weeks…

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@TheDerek Cool deal, did you say you used Carmine jewel rootstock for these?

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yes carmine jewel seedlings, 1 year old

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It is 15 days on the pipe for my grafts now and I have a few persimmon grafts starting to push buds. They’ve greened up and and are about to break through the parafilm. I’m wondering if it makes sense to take those off the pipe and pot them up.

I also have some dormant buds on the rootstocks starting to swell and green up and I’m rubbing those off as I can see them and get to them, but since I have the whole contraption jammed into a tight crawlspace to keep it cooler it is hard to really look things over. In order to make sure I’m getting any pushing buds off the persimmon rootstocks I probably need to pull them all out and inspect them. If I leave them in place and don’t get every last bud that is pushing off the rootstocks do I risk grafts not taking. I know with persimmon it is essential to get anything off the rootstock that is sprouting, but I didn’t know if that is just as essential when they are still healing on the pipe. I’m just trying to decide if it is better to disturb them all and risk harming any callousing going on or if it is just better to leave them alone for another 6 days to get to the full 3 weeks. Any thoughts are welcome.

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I had a hard time deciding on this too on how far to let them go before taking them off the pipe. Dax says 1/4 inch leaves, but that was hard for me to tell. I wouldnt let the growth below the graft determine anything. Rub off what you can, but I had some major growth inside the pipe from the rootstock and it didn’t affect anything on mine. When I started seeing leaves opening, I started pulling just those grafts and left the others on the pipe. This pic was probably three days before I took off the first ones.

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no, no. I can’t tell you though how much during hot pipe callusing it means to not zendog, that is to not remove the growth - you should. In yer situation I wouldn’t put two thoughts into it.

@Clint is right. What determines in addition and Clint did it all right, he took them off about three days after that photo. That’s correct. And what I was saying is one the green coloration fades to between yellow and white or far too much white (no chlorophyll - at all) that’s when you’ll need to take extra precautions or steps that the light is only indirect after until they get some chlorophyll back into them. Then start with morning sun for an hour on day one and go slowly. You can also put them under shop lights: led or non-led, old-school bulbs. That’ll green them up, completely.

Dax

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Great post. About using damp paper towels to wrap the roots, did you need to go back in and moisten them during their time on the pipe? I’m worried about the roots drying out. I don’t have enough cloth towels, so paper towels will be the way to go. Feedback from your experiences will ease my mind. :crazy_face: Thanks.

BD

I’ll just jump in. I checked mine in my refrigerator after months of correct moisture level to start with (pretty damp cloths but not sopping) and they are perfecet.

Dax

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I haven’t had any issues with roots drying out. I just put a wet/damp paper towel around the roots, bag and wrap them. For the 3 weeks they will be in the heat pipe you will be fine. Afterwards I get them into buckets or a large Rubbermaid bin with moist soil. I get them under a light and just keep an eye on things. Once the threat of frost is clear, I plant them out. I’ve found that planting on a mild or cloudy day if possible helps. Your new shoots won’t get fried like they possibly could on a sunny day, the cloud cover softens the exposure. Planting when you got a stretch of cloud/rainy days has worked for me.

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Gotcha. Thanks for the reassurance! …and the other tip. :+1:

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I took one of my persimmons off the pipe that was budding out pretty well. This is at 16 days. There are a few more like this that I’ll probably take off to green up under the lights. Most aren’t pushing yet and I’ll leave for at least 21 days. I’m just hoping there aren’t a lot of rootstocks with buds pushed inside the pipe that are robbing energy from the graft. I did find two like that, but don’t want to mess with all of them and disturb the healing.

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You’ve done well.

6/10 coming from the fridge. I’m beginning potting-up, today:
Edit: one was in my “good bucket” so 6/10
another ‘Lake Icaria’ shagbark it, was.

I just remember for the customer I need to write species on a couple. TAkes a few minutes to get a system going.

See ya,

Dax

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I’m getting 9/10 or 10/10 today. That first batch had some really stout rootstocks and scions and undoubtedly were very difficult to pinch together between my fingers to keep contact while wrapping.

Anyways, I talked to @SkillCult and (everybody) that I knew I’d see some interesting healing.

Here’s my Example 1. On the side of the whip and tongue you see two long callus areas touching. They are vertical. That happened because I shaved the bark off - which exposed “green.” That green was warm and toasty inside the callus pipe and simply said, callused itself shut and touched it’s “neighbor” cut (both that I made on purpose) for callusing to each other. So there you see extra strength added to this graft.

Take’s it easy,

Dax

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Here’s bleeding right from the fridge. It was/is bleeding thru the rubber band at the base of the V-shaped graft union… You can see it’s sunken. Well I wiped a blob of sap off and then thought to go get my camera because you guys are going to need to know what to do for each situation, so, here’s the remedy: (a) 1/16th in. bit below to make it bleed below the union and at least slow down the sap flow, a lot.

When this happens during outdoor field grafting you usually drill a couple inches up from the base of the tree-rootstock. Sometimes you might pass thru one direction and then drill again but the second time you drill another (the opposite) of your first pass thru - an inch above/below the first.

Bleeding%20Occurring%20Therefore%20Drilling%20one%20sixteenth%20bit%20002

Dax

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Here’s another interesting callus - I did on purpose of course.

Example 2 Completed Callus Rings Created from Inverted but Touching Wedge cuts during Whip and Tongue Grafting:

Hickory on pecan, again:

Dax

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Here is an update on my peaches. It looks like they’re callusing well. Only one has broken bud. I see lots of new root growth. Can I get them in the ground soon you think?

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