How to deal with the dried scions

Just open the package and find the scionwoods are dry. Is it OK to soak in the water?

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Yes! And hurry- some of them (especially the ones with longitudinal lines showing) are not looking good.

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I agree with mark. That wood looks like it has some problems.

Soak them for 30-minutes after you’ve snipped off the tips on each to expose green wood. If you don’t see any “green” whatsoever they’re gonners.

Then air dry them and into a ziplock bag into your refrigerator. When you go to graft later, snip off the end again the day prior and see if they appear healthy/green tissue that’s moist-looking. If not, do another soak for 20-30 minutes.

Dax

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Yup. Perfect.

Oops, I plan to soak overnight just like I deal with bare root trees. LOL

Nope! Shouldn’t do that with bare root trees either! yikes!

About 30-minutes in water for bare-root trees too.

If you’re going to plant a lot of bareroot trees at one time, put them in a bucket full of ice and take them to the landscape to plant.

Dax

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Look at post 23 of this thread:

15 minutes wasn’t nearly enough to rewet dried out scions. It took more like 1-3 days. My approach would be to place them in a plastic bag, add some water, and store in the fridge for 3 days. In the fridge they won’t mold or drown. Then take them out and graft or follow Dax’s suggestions to prepare them for storage until you can graft.

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I found 30-min definitely is not enough to bring the scions back alive. I will keep up checking from time to time. If they look like the fresh peach twigs from my peach tree, I will stop soaking.

I’d say there is no chance for those peach/nectarine scions. The wood was collected too late with buds already swollen. In my experience they don’t graft anymore even perfectly hydrated (thats obviously not the case).

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Oh, no. I always soak my bare root trees overnight before planting. Anyway they are still alive though I don’t know their future.

Except for swamp trees, no trees roots like being in what’s horticulturally known as a “bathtub effect” / roots in standing water.

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I can’t see the wood well enough when I expanded the photo but the peaches/necs look severely dehydrated except for one or two scions, possibly. (there was a huge glare on my screen from the sun earlier that’s now gone.)

I like @fruitnut suggestion. Pears look pretty good.

Dax

Yeah they look very very dry. That fact plus the fact those buds are already swollen makes me pessimistic about chances for grafting those.

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I would use them as smoking chips, at least, they won’t go to waste for all the trouble of collecting and shipping. :blush:

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:+1:

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There’s so much good information on this forum but I often forget it’s there. Thanks for reminding us of your experiment.

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@Sophia2017, we have the same type and color of countertop! At first look, I thought those were my scionwood that I forgot on the table. I also use the same blue tape. ha ha ha.

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My approach is cut off the bottoms and stand in 1" of water in a cup in the fridge, with baggie on top. Come back in a few days. I got an apricot that was “wizened” a week ago and its now nice and fat again :slight_smile:

Peaches I have found are less tolerant to any such drying out so I would only graft the best looking bits, just throw out stuff that is not recovering well.

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I have a friend who cuts his apple scions and stands them in a half-full 1 quart mason jar in the refrigerator for weeks, so I guess they won’t melt, but it always made me a little nervous.

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