I have some pair scions that i gathered in mid Feb. The buds had already started turning green. Do you think i could use these or wait till next year and gather some a little earlier?
You should be fine I’ve grafted apples/ sweet cherries that had broken dormancy, just wait until there is growth and wrap in Parafilm.
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Thanks… I’ll give it a try and see what happens.
Honestly you could probably graft a fully leafed scion…if, IF you had adequate humidity. I only say that to point out that I don’t think the issue is what stage of maturity that wood is at, the issue is dessication vs callusing…So ultimately what matters is getting a good connection between your rootstock and scion before the scion dries. This depends on a number of things, including how close it is to fully leafing out but also how humid and water exposure, sun exposure, etc…It’s just a multifactorial equation.
So the right answer depends on a number of things beyond just how waked up the wood is. Using dormant wood mitigates other factors, the dormancy isnt critical in and of itself.
Btw siri and voice-texting are the devil, bobby boucher…edited to correct various messes Tim Apple created
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Worst case scenario, your grafts don’t take and you end up grafting the same stock again next year. May as well give it a shot!
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I had success with budded-out sweet cherry last year, and I haven’t been grafting long! I do use parafilm over the entire stick and the buds when I graft.
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Thanks for the replies everyone.
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Im in sort of the same boat, just received scionwood from Fruitwood nursery today and one stick is very leafed out. Like, not just green buds but mini leaves.
Oof, and you’re in such a cold zone. What kind of tree is the bad one?
I’ll receive mine from them this week, too (I asked for that date).
That cherry scion I grafted was really pushed. OTOH, the receiving tree was all awake and great temps.
Illinois everbearing mulberry. It was strange, all other scions were very much asleep except that one. I always thought mulberry woke up later than other fruits? Only thing i can think of is it was maybe in a greenhouse? I think i have another few weeks before i will be grafting, too. Nighttime temps are still going below freezing.
I will give a try either way, using your tip of fully wrapping it.
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I bought a sweet cherry scion from a nursery and this is what I got last saturday. I am not a very happy customer to say the least. I did 3 grafts nonetheless and wrapped the whole scion in parafilm. I don’t have high hopes for success.
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That’s not fair at all if you’re paying for them! But that is like the trade that worked great for me.
Thank you for spending some hope. I got some rootstock delivered with them. Of course the rootstocks were fully dormant… They totally confused that 
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Fruitwood nursery is located in CA. They cut the scions very early. Some scions will sprout even in the refrigerator.
I did a lot of grafts with green buds or even small leaves. Success or not mostly is up to the rootstocks. The young shoots of one year is very easy.
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I bought some rootstocks from fruitwoodnursery. Peach rootstocks are leafing, cherry and pawpaw are dormant. I plant them. They looks finel. I alreafy did peach grafting.
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Since saturday we had some cold nights with temperatures down to 28°F/-2°C. But for the next 2 weeks the forecasts show nice temps for the grafts (50°F at night and 60°F at day). I will keep you updated. With buds that far advanced I will know in a short time if it still worked.
I got some peach rootstocks too. Those are fully dormant also though my planted peach trees all are starting to bloom/leaf out. Looks like they stored their rootstock differently.
I healed the grafted trees in for now in a container. I used whip and tongue, cleft and even a z graft (rootstock was much smaller than the scion). I did sweet cherries and pears (5 each).
The pictures show the more pushed buds of one variety and the more dormant buds of the other sweet cherry variety (they are showing green too).
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I’m going to have to graft two things tomorrow looks like 
I have a very budded out apricot and Asian pear.
Pears should like the weather, but I can’t imagine apricots will. It won’t even reach 60 until several days from now.
I wonder if chip buds are even worth a try with budded out wood? I hadn’t thought of how I usually do a combo.
I had good success grafting pear scions pushing green buds onto an existing tree in spring. I also had 8/9 success grafting new apple and pear growth in midsummer (90-95F every day) last year, which surprised me. This was not succulent growth, it was the base of new shoots that was sort of stiffened up a bid and turned a little darker color. I just pulled all the leaves off and wrapped in parafilm. Grafting apple and pear seems more forgiving than i anticipated based on my reading of extension pubs etc.
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I have grafted a leafing out apple scion before with good success. It can be done, but as mentioned above, I had a leafed out tree in the ground to graft to.
Good luck with it!
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