For those in MA, I think this year we have the worst peach grafting weather since starting grafting peaches 4-5 years ago.
It rains almost every other day. We have not had 3 day in a row of temp over 60 and dry. I have mostly peaches to graft. Not sure when it can be done. The next 10 day forecast predicts even cooler temp.
@SMC_zone6, @galinas. Do you guys experience the same lousy weather?
Thatās just like Western Washington.bb
Yep. I do not graft peaches, but I am afraid my potato will rot.
Yeah, same bad weather. I donāt mind waiting a few more weeks. Although, peaches sometimes start pushing growth and can become kind of fragile in the fridge more quickly than other scion. So hopefully the weather cooperates sooner than later.
Are you folks soaking your scions in water before grafting? Iām thinking of the experiment Fruitnut did last year(?) and I believe he got better results if you cut a little off the bottom of the scion and let it sit in water for 12(?) hours or so.
Thanks ILPF! Iāll back off my soaking time by 98%! 
With healthy scions, I donāt put it in water. I hardly ever do that.
Except for peaches/nects and persimmon, my success rates of other fruit grafts have been in a high 90%. With peaches, itās quality of scion and the temp. I have to wait for higher temp while the scions are pushing buds in the fridge.
Three-week update:
Peach/nectarine: 11 takes out of 12 (twelfths may be on its way)
Cots: 10 takes out of 18
I have a question for you: How long do I wait after grafting to judge the graft failed?
@scottfsmith @fruitnut @Barkslip @fruitgrower I removed the parafilm from a couple of grafts that donāt have any growth and scratched the bark and both showed green cambium layer, so they look alive (bark is smooth with no wrinkles or signs of drying), but their buds donāt want to grow. Could the grafts be alive, but the buds dead (from overheating or any other cause)? When shall I call these dead/failed? Any other comments?
Note: All are cleft grafts, wrapped in parafilm and covered by paper brown bag for the first 10 days. Graft unions were thoroughly tightened with electrical tape on top of the parafilm.
Wait until itās an obvious failure unless thereās some reason to be in a hurry. Iāve got fig grafts that took 6-8 weeks to decide to live or die. I thought they were goners based on excessive bleeding. But the wood is still green and some are starting to push buds. Iāll give them until the scion wood turns brown.
I was all set to graft my peaches and everything else (apples, and plums) this weekend, but I just checked the weather and itās supposed to be down to 48 sunday morning and 37(!) Monday morning. The weather after that looks fine, but Iām only out at the orchard on the weekends so I canāt easily wait until Monday night or Tuesday.
Questions: Should I graft anything this weekend? (apples, peaches, plums)?
If I can make it out there one night after work, is it a bad idea to graft a few hours before the sun goes down as opposed to early in the morning when the tree and scion have 12-14-16 hours of grow time before night fall?
Additional data: The weather a week/10 days from now looks pretty good: High in the 70s, lows in the 50s and 60s.
Thanks folks!
Same advice as fruitnut. You gotta wait and it can take a couple months I suppose. Itās rare too but Iāve had grafts that waited until the following Spring. Thatās not the case of your grafts, but, itās something to know.
Dax
Peach grafts usually fail pretty fast though, the union doesnāt stay viable for long. I have been pulling some duds and while the scion/buds were fine all union areas were completely brown/dead on every one I pulled. Gotta be careful though, I have gotten on a roll pulling and then pulled out a good one. Overall, for peaches if they are not going in a month they are perma-duds.
I didnāt have very good peach odds this year. Discounting the really weak or partially pushing scions I still did poorly on peaches, maybe 1/4th pushed. Since I did plenty of grafts its looking like only one variety of the viable wood may not make it (out of 6), but the take % is far lower than usual. Another reason to do a ton of peach grafts!
I grafted a bit earlier than usual and the cold waves that came through really stalled things and that was not good. @Ahmad I will try your longer cuts next year and I may also try bagging them. We just didnāt have enough heat this spring; the bags could help with that though.
Bart,
I looked back my past 3 years. Apple, cherry, plums, pear were grafted based on their growing stages (half inch to one inch green). I go by a state of their growth than temperature.
Coincidentally, , the time I started grafting was around April 14-20,with temp high in the 50ās and low in the 40ās. Almost all grafts took.
Only peachs/nects/apricots I waited until temp was in high 60,low 70 at least 3 days in a row (consistent tempwould be ideal). My success rates were inconsistent. They were as high as 75% and as low as 40%.
I would say, in zone 7, Iād go ahead and graft apples, pears, plums, cherries tomorrow.
Thanks Mamuang!
Plums are well past blooming stage. Peaches just finished.
Really bad peach grafting results this year. Of 5 grafts 4 are confirmed failures and 1 is likely on its way out. I think I need to be better about wrapping the entire scion in parafilm the next time and add a paper bag / foil as others mentioned.
I think it was a rough year where we are, the temps were cycling too much. I would definitely wrap the whole scion, also use a longer cut as @Ahmad is doing, and bagging could also help.
Right now several peaches that I did over two weeks ago are starting to push, this recent heat came just in time. Once the graft is calloused a bit it becomes important to have the heat to keep things rolling, cold can stall the graft and it may not pick up again. In the end it looks like all my varieties but one (which had already-budding scions) have a take somewhere, thatās 7/8. But I did many extra grafts to get to that ratio.
For me the interesting observation with cot grafting this year (which I havenāt been very lucky with, especially compared to last year when I had 100% success with cots) is that mostly, for a given variety I either had all takes or all fails! This makes me think that I did some systemic error that was tolerated by some varieties more than others (failures: 3 Shalah, 2 Moniqui, 2 Ilona, 1 Robada, 1 L Mashad. Successes: 2 Early Blush, 2 Mirsunjeli Late, 2 L Mashad, 2 Moorpark, 1 Hargrand). The ones that took are growing very well now. My biggest suspicion is removing the brown bags too soon at bud swell rather than definite green growth.
Thatās happened to me before with other species of fruit as well. I figure it was the difference in scion quality.
