Last year I was gifted some rootstock and scions to learn grafting. I got started very late by my own standards and didn’t have much success. I used paraffin on all of my grafts and was surprised to find it appeared to have girdled the rootstock at the graft point. Here is an example:
I use budding rubbers. I like them because I find them easy to apply. Also like the constant and considerable pressure they put on the union. I usually wrap them pretty tight and have never felt that girdled anything. But they usually come off after 2-3 weeks.
I see lots of T buds on here that didn’t have enough pressure applied to the union. That results in the bark of the stock pulling open around the scion. In fact your T bud above going to the right looks like that. I like a nice tight union. Parafilm won’t do the job. The stretchy tape might but budding rubbers are used for good reason.
In my opinion its not how tight the graft is wrapped but knowing when to cut the tape or whatever you are using. If the wrapping is not biodegradable in short order it will become too tight as the root stock and scion grow. Personally I use materials I know will have to be cut at some point, I feel like my success rate is much higher with tight pressure no matter the fruit type and am willing to spend the extra time to cut the tape later. I cut my bindings roughly 90 days after grafting, occasionally I see a graft that is showing some marks of the binding being too type but it has never killed a tree or scion in that short amount of time.
I didn’t want to use that photo for that exact reason. That T-bud is simply atrocious. (though oddly, THAT one is growing like nuts this year while this one below looks like I prefer but didn’t do a thing):
Well, color me confused. I do feel that I’ve choked a few cleft grafts by putting so much pressure on them with rubbers that I damaged the cambium- but I think that clearly I don’t put enough pressure on buds.
Frustrating, but I’m delighted too to have room for progress and to mebbe see how I can apply it!
When I use budding rubbers on a whip and tongue I like it even tighter than for T budding. Those are removed after a couple months if the sun hasn’t done the job. I did have one last yr that I left too long and the graft union ended up with a waist. But it recovered after removal.
SuperG your’s look like fall T buds. Mine are mostly this time of yr and pushed into growth after 2-3 weeks. I expect 90+% takes on most things. My success with fall T budding hasn’t been that good. They take but then are dead by spring. I’ve only done a little chip budding but that has worked better for fall budding.
Good eye. All my t-buds have been done in fall. I had relatively good take on the rootstocks, but the ones on the legacy tree were extremely low yield. I don’t have access to material for spring t-budding, but the way the bark is slipping right now it would be a dream to do and then a full summer of growth.
I’m not sure I see the girdling you are referring to in your top pic. The T-buds don’t look girdled to me. Are you referring to the dead looking wood which goes to the left after the top Y?
I’ve not seen any girdling from using the Temflex myself. I do generally cut it off for fall T-buds (so I can paint the area around the buds). I almost never cut it off for scion grafting.
I don’t see anything out of the ordinary either. I dont see how you could pull too tight and girdle a graft. Girdling would come from a significant growth and extended exposure with certain types of tape. Parafilm is not going to girdle a graft in no way shape or form. Electrical tape, flagging tape, string, wire, will all girdle a graft if left on too long.
I’m an advocate of applying as much pressure to the graft union as you can during grafting assuming you are not messing up the cambium layer or causing your grafts to shift due to pressure.
I think maybe what SuperG is talking about is the dead part from the crotch(left side) to the top of the rootstock where the graft was. If that is what he is referring to that would be a normal thing to happen when the graft failed to take.
(I see SuperG was posting at the same time I was )
Chatman is right. That is not a girdle graft. It’s simply a case where the graft failed to take and the understock added a years worth of growth to itself.
I don’t think parafilm is capable of girdling, its one of the reasons why I use it. I have gone through several dozen rolls and don’t recall a single girdled graft. It more suffers from the opposite problem, not enough support.
So, my question is why did the paraffin not break away when the RS portion of the graft tried to grow like the rest of the RS did? My understanding is the same as yours, that it breaks down and splits apart. Yet it fairly clearly restricted the growth in that section only where the paraffin tape was. (resulting in killing the section to that line)
Scott nailed it. Failed graft - and with no bud above that crotch, the plant was in the process of ‘self-pruning’ to remove what’s essentially a dead limb.
No way in any universe that Parafilm alone is going to girdle anything.
I graft with Parafilm, rubber bands - and masking tape, on some specimens. I’ll pull the rubber bands as tightly as I can, and never worry about getting them ‘too tight’.
The green grafting/budding tape… I"ve used it rarely… and yes, you HAVE to come back and cut it, or it WILL girdle.
I don’t even see any evidence of remnants/residue of Parafilm in the photos.
On my grafts, I can often see Parafilm residue(or perhaps just mildew that grew on/under it, for several years.
