Thanks that is helpful. I will try it.
The grass is always greener on the other side 
I hate that I have to still protect plants, it’s getting really old! My peppers and tomatoes are ready to go in but Mother Nature says no. So out during the day and back in the house at night. I have fig trees too I have to protect. Growing like crazy, it’s a great year except for the late cold. It’s over after Monday. Highs at night will go to the 50’s. that’s warm here
I do this with parafilm, it works great for me. Assuming it is warm enough 
What I like is I can do the whole graft with one piece of tape, first wide tape to get it covered and in the right place, then rope to hold it tightly.
I’ve been using inside out electrical tape, then finish with a layer right side out to cover up the sticky surface.
Am I really missing out by not trying the parafilm or buddy tape?
I think people can use whatever they are comfortable with. That said, sharing experience is helpful. I would not have known about Temflex had @BobVance not talked about it. Now it is my go material to use for wrapping and tightening graft unions. I used it on top of parafilm.
With Temflex, I have no worry about girdling graft unions. It will disintegrate after a few months or by the next grafting season depending how much or little you stretch it before wrapping or how thickly you wrap it.
It’s probably been 3-4 years now that Temflex has been my go-to grafting material to supply the structural strength in the graft. I’ve also used the generic version- it is just a self-sticking, but non-adhesive rubber electrical tape.
I often see it hanging around a year later, but it starts to break up and fall off by that point. So even if it hangs on for another year or two, it isn’t a serious impediment to growth. In fact, I prefer that it does, as it helps me find the grafts. Sometimes unions heal enough that I have trouble picking them out and tags have a habit of falling off…
Unlike the green vinyl (not sticky) tape which I used to use to tie grafts shut. I tend to do a lot of grafts (just under 2000 in the last 8 years, per my spreadsheet), so I often forget to do follow-up on each one. I found a few vinyl ones ~2 years later and they were badly disfigured.
For me, the Temflex is on the bottom. I do like to pre-wrap the scion with parafilm. This winter I even pre-wrapped some when I first received it, rather than on grafting day. But I don’t cover the bottom end of the scion (the part where the union occurs) with parafilm until I’ve connected everything with the Temflex. At the very end, I wrap the parafilm around the Temflex. I’m not sure it is necessary, but I figured that it would make for a better seal and would also cut down on the temperature swings on sunny days by shading the black Temflex from the sun a bit.
Bob,
I use black Temflex on the outside on purpose. To me, the sun/heat in New England is not really that strong compared to further south. Also, grafting time usually is done when weather is still cool. I like the black Temflex to absorb the heat at the graft union helping it callous better (I hope). No need for a hot water pipe technique
I secure a graft union with parafilm first (and cover all exposed area with it, knowing parafilm won’t have enough strength to hold the union tightly together. Then, I tighten it with Temflex.
For storage, I wrap every scionwood that I think I will use head to toe when it arrives. The whole sci9n is sealed with parafilm. I can store it like that in a gal ziplock bag with no moisture in the bag needed. No mold, either.
If I were grafting only apples and pears, I could get by with not much more than a rubber band and a dollop of cheap wood glue to seal the top of the scion, and would still expect consistent success rates in the 90% range.
I like Temflex and used it quite a bit this year, using it mainly to guarantee the tightness of the graft. Then I overwrapped with parafilm. I think on one or two I probably did it the other way - parafilm first, and then temflex for security. And like Bob and Tippy I pre-wrap my scions as soon as I have them in hand. And this year I found myself going with grafting rubbers a couple of times, followed by parafilm. So it’s like mamuang says - people can use whatever they are comfortable with. (And now I see Lucky saying that for apples and pears a rubber band and some glue is good. I guess he doesn’t think the wine is necessary any more!)
LOL, Mark.
I’m still gonna use parafilm, masking tape, rubber bands, and aluminum foil, as deemed necessary…but if I was only doing apples/pears… I coild get by with the barest of necessities.
My thoughts on parafilm…
Well , mostly that "ALL " I use .
I mostly do chip buds or W/T grafts with a short scion of 1-2 buds. Bench grafts, usually in a heated room or outside on warm days, …
I agree that it should be warm to stretch / seal properly.
I , like Scott , wrap "flat "several times ,to seal in moisture,then do the "rope twist " several wraps to hold better , on potted or bare root stock , in a nursery situation, I have had few failures using parafilm alone.
I like it because , …
I don’t need to unwrap it , as would be nessisary with some other binders, ( vinyl, some rubbers, some electric tape , etc…)
It won’t constrict and cause damage.
I only need one thing.
On some feild grafts ( top working ) I may add a budding rubber, to keep the birds from kicking it loose .
It needs stretched to work properly, and needs to be warm to do so.
I use the grafting grade , 1/2 in. Or 1 in.
Some batches are not good.
So I just wanted to say…
I have been using only parafilm , on many grafts, for years with very good results.
It sounds like many of you stretch the Parafilm, then wrap. I’ve been stretching it as I wrap, holding the film about a cm from where it’s being laid down. It stretches and gradually slips past my fingers to keep constant-ish tension. It feels like I get more tension, a more even stretch, and less breakage that way, but it could be my imagination. I definitely get more breaks if I hold it much more than a cm away. Thinking about it, it’s kind of like how I approach thread tension and control when tying flies.
Is there an advantage to pre stretching the film that I’m missing?
Didn’t have grafting tape wwith me, so grafted some paw paws
for a friend today, using the sandwich bag for wrapping. Happened to have wax on truck. Might work, if not it won’t be the wrap at fault. It’d be me, or the scionwood.
Yah , I kind of stretch like you, as I wrap,not pre stretch .
Getting it as tight as you can, like right " before " it breaks
Sandwich bags / bread bags ,work good.
Used them for years before parafilm.
But , they need sliced , in ~ 2 months to keep from constricting the scion
Yep. I ‘stretch as I go’, as well.
Agreed. While I’ve heard the old saying that you can graft pears by throwing the scion at the tree, it’s only a bit harder than that. I bet you could get apples and pears to work with just a knife and a paper-clip if needed. Maybe not at 90%, but at least 50%. Peaches are tougher.
I do a combination. I give it an initial stretch, then stretch further as I wrap. Without that initial stretch, I don’t like the amount of force I need to apply to the scion to get it tight and stretched properly. So the initial stretch allows me to be a bit gentler.
I do the same, and for the same reason.
I guess my “initial stretch” is starting about 1 tape width below where I’m trying to secure. This gives me more leverage, and more area to wrap the electrical tape without sticking. I also start the electrical tape a little low, so I can get a full wrap in for better purchase when I need to crank down.
I bit the ‘buddy tape bullet’ and bought some last week. I tried parafilm at a workshop and found it impossible to work with. I was about to use electrical tape this year when I stumbled upon a video of a guy grafting figs - and he loved buddy tape so much - that I got some.
I like that, Bob! Maybe I’ll try it.