I cleft grafted sweet cherry onto Nanking and Carmine jewel couple of weeks ago, scions are still green, buds seems stay in same size as were 2 weeks ago. not shrinked.
I also cleft grafted J. plum, Asian pear at same day, and all scion woods are all still green. So does this mean grafting success? If not how long I have to wait in order to know? Another words, how long the scion can stay green by itself without rootstock supporting nutrients?
I think you need to see growth, then you know for sure. If the scion starts to shrivel that is a bad sign.
It is not uncommon for it to take 3-4 weeks and longer for some stubborn scions to start growing.
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This year I started to graft on 2/20 and while some of the grafts started to sprout month or more ago, others took much longer. One of my grafts from that time started to push buds just about 3 days ago.
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it is also not uncommon for a scion, even if it isn’t taking, to take over a month to shrivel, sadly. Note this isn’t to dispute what Auburn says, only to point out the flip side as well…NOTHING may happen for a good long time, good or bad.
IL, the first couple grafts can be nail-biters, because you keep checking it and thinking “damit, DO something!” but they take time. A lot of time, in many cases.
Worse, they don’t all sync up well–I grafted some tiny paw paws I have been watching ever since, and one opened leaves over 3 weeks before a second one woke up.
So the short answer to your question is “the scions die when they dry up and die (or, possibly, rot from an infection at the cut…I had several persimmon grafts do that last year).” I would HOPE to see buds swelling and pushing growth within 2 months if I were you, but given 2 weeks (especially if your stock wasn’t leafing out) I wouldn’t be at all surprised you haven’t seen the scions bud out. In fact, I haven’t seen many clearly take and bud in less than 2 weeks. By 4 or 5 weeks I begin to get nervous, and even then I’ve had more than a few surprise “Lazarus-grafts” I was ready to give up on
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Didnt realize they were even compatible. Keep us posted on how that works out.
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Thank you all for the input. I must be patient. I am making effort of keeping scions sleeping, but nature seems winning the game. If I knew some taken,I don’t have to continue store the scions. If the graft is not taken, then I can graft second batch over it. I am running out of branches that I can graft on. My seedlings peach trees all look like just out of army hospital with bandadg allover. One branch with cleft at end and chip budding in the middle. My large peach trees have not leaf out yet so I did not graft any on them. Somehow, the seedlings woke up earlier
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Yup, I’m going to be a nervous wreck before it’s over. I check them every day and it’s only been a week.
I guess that I don’t have to look everyday then.
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I pretty much know what’s a good graft a month after it commenced growth. The ones that are alive then will stay alive and the others that didn’t make it a month… well you know the rest.
In the middle of July I remove the bud strip. Then I look at the callous for my own entertainment I suppose. And, if it’s a real windy spot, I may rubber band it back up and remove it the following year in July.
It’s all about callous in so many words…
Dax
Same here- and at least a couple of grafts healed over but took a year or longer to get around to sprouting. I learned that it’s useful to “nock” a little above the branch to which one is grafting to reduce the influence of auxin produced by the higher tips. (“Nocking” is cutting a notch. I remove a thin strip of bark right down to the wood. The notch is long enough to overhang the branch by about 1/2 diameter of the branch I’m shielding.)
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This is my Van cherry cleft grafted onto Lapins. Even though it has put on 4 branches about 6 inches each, there isn’t a whole lot of callousing. I did make a V in the lapins instead of just a split. I covered it back with parafilm. I’d estimate the graft would hold it’s own by July.
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@bleedingdirt Right. There’s a lot of bleeding and there is visible callous at the base of the v. All that growth is premature and you don’t want to see that unless the wounds have calloused. At this stage in the game it either is too late or you might have success if you were to cover the working area with aluminum foil and tied in place with stretch tape and then take a baggie and split it open and wrap over the foil and then tie it off. Doing that will not allow water to penetrate the graft area. Every week open it up and check the callous and until you see full callous as a ring around the top of the branch and at all the cuts on your v, then you can discontinue with the foil and baggie. Gosh there’s so much bleeding though.
That’s why it’s important to wait until it hasn’t rained for some time and that heat is advancing rapidly/day temps and where your soil is on the dry side to begin grafting.
@IL847 It looks like there’s quite a bit of callous. Pretty blurry though. I’m sorry but I can’t comment on whether apricot grafts onto Asian pear 
Dax