I’ve only grafted apples, as best as I can recall. So I guess I shouldn’t be too proud of having pretty decent success.
I graft in a different order than what a lot of people say. I start by tying the scion in place with a rubber band, and THEN wrap the whole kit and kaboodle with Parafilm M.
I didn’t realize there was another type of Parafilm other than Parafilm M. I had a job in a lab when I was 20, and I confess to having wasted a lot of the stuff just because it was so much fun to play with.
I actually learned to graft with a pot of paraffin, just plain melted candle wax. That’s fine for bench grafting, but if you are grafting to a plant that’s already in the ground, it a real PITA to get hot wax over it. I tried beeswax once, and that was hard to work with, too.
Then I read that some people use Parafilm. Bingo! I bought a roll. I’ve been using that roll for nearly 20 years, now, and it still works great. I’ve never had it crack, or fail to stick to itself. The only problem I’ve had is that it leaves a sort of ugly black mark on the twig – I think it promotes surface mildew or something. So sometimes I peel it off after a year or two, just for esthetic reasons. But the black doesn’t seem to do the tree any harm.
And Parafilm is still way fun to play with. Any scraps – yeah, it will get stretched and twisted and balled up before it makes it back to the house.