How does rain impact your decision to graft peaches? I’m coming up on a four day stretch with highs in the upper 60s but its showers likely or chance of showers every one of those days.
Its more the lack of sun vs presence of rain… if its cloudy you want it a bit warmer than if sunny since the sun warms up the graft unions. 75-85 and cloudy or 65-75 and sunny kind of thing. This is for peaches. Overall I would say cloudy is better as the temperature is more consistent when its cloudy.
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We might be ok for this stretch then. The problem is, a forecast of 72 and mostly cloudy can just as easily turn into 83 and partly sunny or 66 with showers.
My forecast just shifted down about five degrees for the weekend. Was high 70 now its 65. Its also pretty cold right now. I might still do peaches on Sunday afternoon since Monday is predicted high 75.
How about apricots Scott? Do you think tomorrow is a good day for grafting them?
They are a touch easier than peaches so are a little more flexible but I nearly always just do them while I am doing the peaches. This year I only have one variety I am grafting (thanks for the scion BTW!) so I’ll be doing it whenever the peaches happen.
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I think I will take my chances and do a bunch of them tomorrow and may be keep some backups for a few weeks later when the weather cooperates…
I think I’m going to do the same. I kinda don’t have a choice at this point. Some of my scions are starting to wake up in the refrigerator.
Me too, since the long range forecast after this upcoming warm spell looks dismal.
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Probably same here except will wait til Sunday. Mon and Tues are excellent temps and are the kind you want right after the grafts. Now that there are two 70+ days there and mostly sunny this should be a good window. While the callousing takes a long time its the initial couple of days that is the most critical to build the initial callous nodes.
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Today may have been ok. It’s a lot sunnier than I expected.
That’s my other concern. If Monday and Tuesday end up sunnier than forecast, the grafts could get TOO hot.
I don’t think its going to get into the 80’s. Anything less than 80 should not be a problem. You can put aluminum foil on them shiny side out and that can make them a little cooler. Keep the north side a bit open.
I grafted nearly all my apples plums and pears today. I also did my one apricot since the wood was in with the plums. The apricots are going to drop their blooms soon, they are plenty far along. Peaches I am less sure about, will see tomorrow.
I just measured temperatures outside of the grafts, they varied from 75 to 95F. My guess is the actual callousing area is more like 70 to 85. The air temp is 65, this shows what the sun can do. I’ll be putting aluminum foil on my apricot, the other ones are not sensitive enough to bother with.
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So if a graft does take, about how long is it before you see the scion start to push?
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The scion will usually wake up regardless of whether it took or not. How fast it wakes up could be a factor of several things, when it was cut, what temp it was stored, the temps after it was grafted. I am terrible about leaving things alone, I check my grafts everyday, that being said , it really just needs time and no messing , or pulling tape back or wiggling, all of which I have done.
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Peaches often don’t push at all if they are failures, or they can grow a bit then fail. The time to push depends a lot on the weather, but 1-2 weeks is a rough guideline.
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Looks like three relatively good days in a row so I went ahead and grafted some peaches…
I did about half of my spots, this is one scaffold on my old Mericrest, two other ones as well. The ones with two on opposite sides, I can put two more on the other two sides later if needed.
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I did 30 grafts between today and yesterday. About half apricots and half nectarines 
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You need to remove all the existing growth, it will out-compete your grafts. In particular that top shoot without any graft on it will need removing, it is currently dominant and will keep the grafts from sprouting. Also that lowest graft is not likely to sprout as is it not dominant at all.
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