Some look better than others.
Apple cleft graft (Freyberg on a 4-in-1 Gala Franken tree, M26 rootstock). The “matched” side looks great. The “stub” side (not sure what to call it) is wonky but it has grown well - 30” in length and about doubled in diameter.
The unmatched side has some dead stub wood. Is there anything I can or should do about it?
Bark grafts on peach. Is this normal/ok?
It’s growing like gangbusters, however, despite leaving the other scions long enough to assist with callous development, I still have a stub.
All grafted this past April.
about as good as mine are. they look solid enough. cleft grafts aren’t pretty but they work. only one i can get to take for me. as long as they hold and produce I’m not worried about looks. 
Should I try to cut or shave off the dead stub part?
Never. If you didn’t the stub right away, cutting it now will open up a place for water/insects to get in. You’ll likely end up with a bark inclusion.
You need a stake on anything vigorous growing or wind/ice/snow will take it out. I don’t see a stake on that bark graft in particular, Bryan.
Dax
I will stake it. The bark graft (peach) has grown about 5’ and is 3/4” thick now.
I left all four scions there until the growth took off. At the time I removed the weaker scions, it looked like they were all callusing around the entire stub.
But they really didn’t do much after I removed the other ones.
That’s good. You want a surrounding callus that goes all the way around the initial trunk/branch you grafted onto. That’s very smart. Next time if I may, leave a few inches/buds of one should the big one blow out.
Your bark graft Bryan doesn’t appear to be a LONG cut. Next time cut your scion at least 2.5 inches if not 3 maybe four inches if you can. You want that in there deep and so it heals deep to keep birds/wind/ice/snow from breaking it off.
All that black mass is what stone fruits do. Forget about it. If you’re a master at working with a knife and you are not (yet) and you comment about shakiness while handling a grafting knife (and) you were good at whittling (and : ) ) you had more material to work with I’d say go ahead and clean that up but you have no working room. Let me show you what was the beginning of a bark inclusion on a Sassafras that I used a big grafting knife to fix. Notice the odd shape. I made sure I got it all. There’s an entire ring of callous encircling this crazy looking what was once a wound. No nothing after I fixed it. No tape, no parafilm, no wax, no Dr. goop, nothing. Air fixed it and created the encircling of the callous.
Here’s after two months appx. I went and took a picture. I had to carve out a lot of this area for that 1" deep slit and probably close to an inch in diameter too. The more I carved away the more tissue I continued to find that was rotting. I carved it all out. Look at all the intricate callousing the tree did on its’ own. I made sure the callous would all encircle the multiple wounds you are able now to see.
It was probably about a 2 1⁄2" cut.
So this is what I was referencing, you’re saying I should not try to do this? Part way down the page it refers to cutting the stub side at a 30-45 ° angle. I realize these are pecans, but I’ve seen this recommended before.
“encourage rapid wound closure.”
If you think you can do that, then by all means do it. You said the scions knitted in, (4) of them so if that’s still the case and you won’t be sawing into dead tissue, go ahead.
You should only do cutting on live tissue. I don’t know if there’s a need in your case or not. The only time I’d make a slanted cut like Bill is showing at his blog is if there was a chance for water to get inside.
I guess common sense dictates in individual cases, Bryan. I mean could you make it worse if you didn’t see the right “line” to saw? Think heavily before you do any major measures.
What you saw off has to have live tissue to create live callous. That’s the big thing here that we’re discussing.
Do you think the Apple graft above looks OK? The side with no cambial contact does look a little wonky, however, I will note that although the scionwood was originally only about half the diameter of the stock, they are now about the same size (and significantly larger diameter than the stock was this spring).
I looked at that apple this morning and since you didn’t say one way or another if the rootstock bark is alive on the side you have questions about. Go ahead and knick it with your knife if you don’t know. Start as high as you can on the flap there. Find out one way or the other if it’s alive as far as necessary where the tissue goes from dead to alive or none problem. We’ll talk further from there.
Dax
