Is it to early to collect scion wood in zone 4b? I likely won’t be able to graft until April/may. I am at my mothers house for the holidays and there are nice crabapples, cherry and peach trees here. I am interested in taking cutting, but was wondering if they’d hold up? Thoughts?
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You can take cuttings this early. They just have to be stored with a little more care. I’d wrap them in parafilm to help them make it until April.
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Yes it is near the limit, yet they can hold that long if stored right. My concern is that you will kill the trees by pruning them this time of year. It is the worst possible time one could prune. See this article just posted, one of many on this site that go into pruning and cold hardiness.
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Do you wrap the scions in parafilm individually or can they be wrapped grouped together?
There are several ways to store them. I don’t wrap mine in parafilm but that works. I put them in sandwich bags and in the fridge. There are some good videos and postings showing how to prepare and store on this forum and YouTube.
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I recommend wrapping them thoroughly with parafilm as soon as you get them in the house. When you go to graft ignore the parafilm- just cut right through it.
Dax does lots and lots of scions and grafts, and he dips in melted parafin, which is probably better but may too cumbersome for just a few scions.
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I quit using parafilm for scion myself. I was told grafting buddy tape (not medical) was superior so tried it last year. My conclusion is it is far superior. I really don’t know why? It seems thinner and all, but my success rate spoke volumes. I won’t ever use parafilm again.
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Did you do a bunch of grafts with parafilm at the same time for comparison? I’ve found that my success rates vary wildly, depending on the weather, the plant grafted, scionwood, etc. So when I’m trying to test out new approaches, I intersperse them with old approaches over the course of the grafting season. Even then, I’m not sure that I have significant data, as I only do 250-400 grafts in a spring.
Parafilm gets pretty thin when you stretch it. Is Buddy tape that thin to start with, or does it get stretched as well?
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Yes, it seems to stay together and stretch even more than parafilm… Yes it is totally anecdotal.
I did use parafilm too, put on at the same time. On fig cuttings, and stone fruit scion. Performance was better with buddy tape. The buddy tape lasts much longer it will keep scion fresh longer. The most dramatic results was with peach scion. I can’t really say how much better it is? Some failures I wrote off to compromised scion or weather, so didn’t count those. Same graft, same time, one with buddy, one with parafilm. I did 10 peach grafts each with parafilm and buddy tape. Two of the parafilm took. Seven of the buddy tape took. So I added 7 new peach/nectarine varieties last year. Blood Cling, Foster, Clayton, Old Mixon Free, Red Gold, Fantasia, And Arctic Jay. I lost June Pride (old scion), and a couple others.
I tried some others later with both, but all failed due to old scion.
With plum, both worked about the same. With figs, buddy tape worked better. I was rooting cuttings in the spring outside. Impressive success rate with very old fig cuttings.
Yes I took cuttings 3 weeks ago from a tree I may not see again.
(And, no, removing a little bit of grafting wood is not going to hurt the parent tree) (Although a major pruning job might.)
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Easy to graft things I grab wood early on … I’ve grabbed a lot of apple wood already from my orchard. For peaches and the like I will wait til next Feb or March.
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I use strips that I cut from zip-lock freezer bags. It takes some practice to get the right stretch. They have give up to a certain point, but over-stretching breaks the plastic. Once I got the feel for it, I find I can make a tight wrap that works nicely. All of mine took last year and I’m not that expert. I like not having to order something extra. I did have some that I forgot to cut off until fall. The grafts survived and grew nicely anyway although there was some restriction of stem girth.
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Can scion be taken from 2nd year growth, or does it need to be first year?
I had a Pristine branch break off my tree, hanging on by a narrow strip of cambium and bark. The new growth was about a foot long, but very narrow caliper. The older growth is pencil thick, which would be easier to work with. But will that older growth take as well as scion?
I’ve grafted 2nd year wood on pear with success, but it isn’t as easy. I agree, very skinny, willowy wood is harder to work with. There are folks here who have worked with toothpick sizes, though, so maybe you should try that just for the frustration of it! You could have the older wood on hand for back up.
I like this video- it might give you some ideas:
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Two year is fine as is 3-year and so on. Sometimes you need 3-4 year wood to do a 3-flap/4-flap aka banana graft for example. It all works… all the varying sizes.
While I’ve never wrapped with parafilm I know it works. I’ve stored scions that other members cut and pre-wrapped in ziplocks in my fridge and grafted them as much as 5-6 months later.
What I do for scions that need be cut 4-months in advance or more is to snip off the end and get a fresh cut and immediately drop the scion in a bowl of water for 15-20 minutes. Then I put them on a towel under a ceiling fan for say 20-30 minutes and then flip them over to dry for another 20-30 minutes. Once you see they are completely dry, you can put them in a ziplock bag for long term storage. It’s a better idea after they are dry and prior to putting them inside a bag to either dip the cut end in wax or put a piece of parafilm over the end. I usually don’t do that but it’s a good idea to go to the extra legwork.
Now you should watch the bag for moisture to accumulate on the inside. If you ever have large water droplets you’ll need to wipe the inside of the bag dry and continue doing so until that no-longer is happening. A light mist inside the bag is fine but not actual droplets.
I’ve done what I do probably as long as many others have been wrapping with parafilm achieving the same results.
Oh and yes to follow up with @marknmt said about parafilm and/or waxing scions for storage I wait until I have grafting to do and then I do a whole bunch of sticks in wax or parafilm to have them ready for grafting. My actual storage is w/o parafilm/wax.
Dax
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Hi Dax- Do you see any disadvantage (mold, for example) to wrapping or waxing for storage? If it’s not a good idea I shouldn’t be going around recommending it!
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You can’t have anything wet when wrapped. Otherwise I see no advantage over the other.
Additionally if scionwoood is collected when there has been no moisture to the tree leading into winter or/and if the ground freezes completely and moisture hasn’t readily been available for months then I would recommend you do a 15-20 minute bath, dry well & then seal with parafilm.
Dax
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With scion you can dip in 1 part bleach and 9 parts water to kill spores. Most let air dry and wrap and store. I myself do not wrap them, I use cellophane. I’ll wrap with buddy tape when ready to use. parafilm only lasts so long, if I did use it to store, I would remove it when ready to use and put fresh parafilm on.
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Yes I bathe and then dip them in bleach water in a separate bowl before I dry. Drew’s absolutely correct.
Dax
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That feels like something I would want to test. Parafilm degrades, but I would hypothesize (hence the need for a test) that it is only when it gets exposed to UV and the elements, not when it is just sitting there in a temperature controlled fridge. I suppose I should probably do 3 groups- 1- pre-wrap and later use as-is, 2- pre-wrap and re-wrap at grafting, and 3- only wrap at grafting.
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