@fruitnut
This is how those t-bud I did on the pears in the posts above this from last year turned out. Thank you again! I’ve not had anytime this year so they have received no special care.
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Well done Clark. Those look nice. I’m going to start T budding apples and stone fruit later this month. Waiting for the wood to mature. Need to irrigate soon to assure slipping bark.
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Trees and buds look great Clark. But I had to check myself for ticks just looking at those pictures 
Not sure about Kansas but here in the east a grassy field like that is a haven for ticks.
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Kansas ticks mostly live in the woods. This is an example of their habitat Favor for a friend - Top working Pears!. Normally that’s a mowed field where my orchard is but there are other priorities. Chiggers on the other hand will be increasing in numbers very soon. Anyone that smells strongly should be careful,
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My cornelian cherry t buds I made last summer are starting to leaf out, happy with the results so far.
The winter snow crust did pull a few buds off, they are quite delicate little things…
thanks again for the tutorial @fruitnut.
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The rootstocks have had a great deal of influence over my yellow pear tbuds. Had no idea the rootstock would be able to change growth to such a large degree! I’ve not pruned them at all yet but I will. Think the rootstock will force them producing pears early. The pears look a lot like the parent csllery tree.
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I used this great tutorial by @fruitnut to make my first 7 T-buds today (all apricots). The only difference is that I used “inverted T” (the horizontal line of the “T” on the bottom instead of on the top). According to a budding/grafting tutorial by the university of Kentucky, “The advantage of the inverted “T” is that the downward flow of hormones and metabolic products is interrupted below the bud rather than above it. This results in earlier healing and a stronger union the following year.”
What I’m worrying about is that we are having a crazy hot July, temps stay above 95 F and many days above 100 F, and no relief is seen in the forecast. I wonder whether my buds will be able to heal in such weather. I put buds mostly on east and north branches to protect them from afternoon sun. The bark is slipping very well now on both the understock and the scionwood.
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I’ve never had heat damage on T buds in summer. But I do cover them with aluminum foil in hot weather.
That fact makes me wonder some about all the reports of heat damage to grafts. T buds should be just the same as grafts.
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You can see the difficult to graft callery rootstocks having a strong influence over both tbuds. I did not bend those branches that’s natural for that rootstock. I’ve done minor pruning mostly limited at this point to branches growing straight down. I don’t want them to produce that fast. I would like these pears to grow at least 15-20’ tall. They look great to me because I know in a few years I will have pears from trees that proved highly difficult to graft. The pears are my small yellow pear shown below I took a picture of yesterday and the 2 new trees are the pictures below that! You can see one of the pears is to the right of the power line and the other is to the left but neither will grow into it. @fruitnut helped a lot of fruit growers by posting this excellent tutorial.
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@fruitnut,
You can see this tbud which is the better of the two is now over eight feet tall! Turning into a beautiful pear tree! Can’t hardly get anymore in a picture so from now on you may see a partial tree!
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@fruitnut
Steven I wanted to revive this thread because it’s already 80 degrees in Kansas so I figured someone needs this tutorial pretty soon if not already.
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To T bud in spring and early summer you need scions of current growth. So the wait is for new wood to mature enough to be used as budwood. That’s May even in my greenhouse and June in many locations. That’s not far off…!!
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Why do you think you can’t use dormant buds from last years growth? I kept my scionwood well over the winter and used some buds to do a multi variety plum tree a week ago. The rootstock was pushing and the bark slipping. That should be possible, doesn’t it?
Given a choice I would recommend other technics in spring, cause I like the vigor, the stability and the the look (not a very convincing argument, I know) of eg. splice/whip and tongue grafts better. But in this case budding was handy to do the multi variety tree.
I knew I read about it. There @Stan speaks about spring budding. Maybe he can contribute about possible disadvantages?
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You can use dormant buds to T bud in spring. I haven’t done that much and would probably do a chip bud as first choice. Either T or chip I’d probably use parafilm over the bud after wrapping it with budding rubbers. I’m not sure parafilm would be necessary when using dormant wood. It is necessary when chip budding in fall. It’s not necessary when T budding in spring/summer with current season wood esp if wood is removed from the bud.
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In T-budding, I never remove the wood in the bud. I actually cut thicker slices of wood with the bud if the destination has a thicker bark, and this way when I insert the bud, the eye of the bud is at least in level or slightly above the stock bark, instead of swallowed.
I actually get lower take if I remove the wood on the bud because the process of removing the wood, it easily bruises the eye of the bud. I am lousy at handling small things so must have ended up crushing the eye of the bud and thus the lower success rate. So I use the faster method of not removing the wood, but just cut the bud to proper thickness depending upon how thick the bark of the stock is. Most commercial propagators don’t remove the wood either, as it is truly faster to forego this step.
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That’s true. Removing the wood is optional. But if the scion is equal or larger in diameter to the stock removing the wood makes for a better fit. That may partially be due to cutting the bud too deep. Removing the wood doesn’t reduce my take rate on T buds. I’m usually near 90% when bark is slipping well.
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Tell me on the root stock are you grafting to this years new growth or are you grafting to last years growth. How successful are the T bud grafts on 3 year growth 4th years and 5th years growth on the root stock.
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T buds on thick, older bark are a poor bet. Best to do T buds on current seasons vigorous shoots. Or on any current shoot that is bigger diameter than the scions.
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That should help a lot.