Should I remove all green growth that emerges from below the graft before the graft heals on apple rootstock or wait until after graft heals?
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i remove all rootstock buds that brake during graft healing. If the graft fails, apple rootstocks can easily make new buds on internodes. So your rootstock will survive even if you brake of all buds and the graft fails.
why have you put plastic bags over the graft?
Is that for extra heat? or to prevent desiccation?
I’m not a big fan of that. You can run into condensation/fungus issues.
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Thank you. I bagged them for both reasons. The scions are super skinny i was afraid of desperation an a few cold nights ahead. Im only leaving the bags for the first week
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i can highly recommend wrapping scions in Parafilm M in the future. That holds moisture in, but lets air (oxygen trough)
Graft healing isn’t damaged unless temps go below water freezing in my experience.
So unless it gets really cold. I would just put them in a shady spot and maybe spray them wet (like rain would) every week or few days. without the bags that is.
But you could also keep them on. I would not leave them on for long or occasionally check for condensation/fungus.
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Alternately, you can paint toothpick scions with something like Doc Farwell’s Grafting Seal or Seal & Heal (pretty much the same stuff, but blue instead of yellow and easier to come by). Skinny sticks can be hard to wrap tightly with parafilm.
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I can concur. I ordered the wrong parafilm (Petrie dish topper) and drapped it like that over my scions. The scions had surface mold issues in about 3 days. I gently unwrapped my drape/wrap and the surface mold rinsed away in the rain. Grafts have been doing good since.
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Thanks everyone i will remove the bags. I have the scions wrapped with parafilm m so really no need for bags. I worried to much about them dedicating or the graft getting wet. They are wrapped in parafilm m an termaflex over the parafilm around the graft union only
Did you seal the bags around the branch?
Not completely. Left an air hole on each side. But we had rain every day. I didn’t wrap any of my other 100 grafts or so and I did ok. Few desiccated, none of the apples did. Just a peach or two. All my plums and pluerry have taken. I was lucky we have had few sunny days and all rain all month.
I also think having a terminal end helps from my observations. I did not loose any terminal ends to desiccation.
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If you have more of it left, try cutting into little pieces to wrap like normal. It should work fine if you cut it up, even though it comes in bigger sheets.
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do you have a picture of this parafilm? or a link? Is it just the 4" wide roll? (i exclusively use that, much more convenient than the 2" wide roll imo)
The parafilm M is developed for the goal of wrapping petri dishes…
so you might have the “right one”
I’m doing bags on some top-work grafts this year to keep the rain off them. I just left an opening at the bottom of each bag so they still get air flow and condensation won’t be trapped. Every time I’ve checked them they appear to have balanced humidity levels inside the bag and the scions are remaining clean and viable.
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