Looking for tips on the best time to graft these two ? Plums stocks are starting to break bud in the garden row . Plus some larger wild plums I would like to top work . .
Wait until the leaves are as big as a squirrels ear and then it will be time with ideal daytime temperatures in the 70’s and evening temperature in the 50s in my opinion. If daytime temp is 60 and evening similarly variable I would do it anyway. The perfect weather never exists here so we deviate from my own advise frequently. If it’s to cold wait until you see a stretch of warm weather in the forecast regardless the leaf size.
Thank you . I have always budded the plum and peach . We had a cold spell and now it is going to warm up a little . I think another week before I start . Not wanting to start too soon as I have about 50 root stock out in the garden . Too many to fail .
For the peaches I would wait til mid-70’s to mid 80’s if you can. I have a stretch of 60s coming so grafted apples and pears today, but the peaches are going to wait. Plums I will do soon, they are less sensitive than peaches.
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I will wait a couple of weeks on the peaches . I want to top work the larger trees to peach . These are all Chickasaw or sand plum trees . I know they sucker a lot but I have them . I bench grafted 10 St Julian root stock a week ago but they are being held indoors .
Although there is a more recent thread on this topic, this is what came up in my search- so it will do.
I did the last peach and plum grafting in the last week of June which is the latest I’ve done so. The only thing that took well at this time was the Euro plum grafts. Every J. plum graft failed and probably 80% of peach grafts did also. My take away this year is that J. plums can be grafted earlier than I previously assumed, probably at first growth judging from Marmaug’s results. E. plums this year did best a bit later- my first round during bloom didn’t do as well as grafts made 10 days later- doesn’t seem weather related, either, but results aren’t conclusive, just suggestive.
Right now, I believe the best time to graft peaches is at about petal fall as long as wet cool weather is not in the forecast.
I usually graft E plum about a week after J plum. No issue.
Whem you said grafting peach at “ petal fall”, do you mean peach at shuck split or at apple’s petal fall?
I meant when peach flowers have lost their petals- I just don’t like the term shuck split- maybe I need to find out what a shuck is. 
When is that and how many seasons and grafts are we talking about? My experience with evaluating specific timing is still woefully inadequate.
Only four years of grafting.
I need to find ny notebook before I could give you specific dates. I like writing notes in my notebook even though keeping records on a computer is more convenient and probably more efficient.
Shouldn’t rely on my memory. Not quite accurate.
Here’s from my notes. Has only 3 year experience of grafting plums (apples and pears 5 years, peaches 4 years)
2016 J plums. 5/08/16
E plums. 5/25/16
2017 J plums and E plum same day 04/24/17
2018 J plums 04/21/18
E plums 04/22/18
Success rate has been high, in mid 90%. About 30 grafts total.
So only two failures out of 30 grafts? Your limited data suggests timing doesn’t matter much. I have a lot more failures and only about 70% success with plums, but I do over a hundred grafts a season- probably more like 200 of E’s and J’s recently. This year my success with peaches was down to 50%, and I don’t seem to be learning how to improve on it.
Dates are not really the point, it is the state of the trees (and following weather). All your grafting appears to be done pretty early, but this year was over a week behind last in terms of leaf development of previous season. Your trees are presumably irrigated and well established- do your Euro plums get attacked by leaf hoppers starting early summer?
Do you tend to graft when trees are in bloom or earlier? You say you’ve had no success with peaches- do you graft them the same time? What about apricots? Do your trees get much shade?
I believe I get best success on older, more established trees in full sun.
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J plums (planted 2012, 2014) are in part shade. E plums ( planted 2014) in full sun. No irrigation. Plenty of rain and moisture that time of the year.
The only two failed grafts this year were one up side down graft and the other having all buds on the scionwood pushed by the time I got the scionwood.
I have @Antmary to thank re. grafting early. The only thing I wait for the weather is peach grafting. Still, the results have been up (80%) and down (less than 50%). Apricot grafted around the same time as peach. Mostly takes.
I don’t have a high number of stone fruit grafting like you and many other do. However, I am happy with grafting plums early like I do with apples, when tree just start to leave out, with a high success rate,
I started grafting early too thanks to AntMary and others too, but my best success rate is from flowering to petal fall. At least with peaches. Plums, mulberries, and dogwood cherries seem to have a much longer window of time for success. I have not had a peach graft take after petal fall, OK, one did,out of 50. I also kinda suck at technique. I’m a hacker!
With my low success with peaches I’ll try that next year.
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Question about temperature…is it the rootstock or Scion that matters?
Say you want to graft plum to peach. Do you follow “peach rules” for temps in this case?
I usually do the Plums on Peach about the same time,as when grafting them on other root stocks.Meaning earlier than Peaches. Brady
My guess would be scion, but it’s an interesting question. My failed J. plum and successful E. plums grafted late were both to Myro, but J’s had J “interstem”. E’s were grafted to both Myro and Myro with E. plum “interstem”.
I’m thinking scion too. I’ve had success grafting European plum to peach, but no success grafting peach to anything.
Could be my poor scion quality as well though.
Re: peach timing I agree bloom to petal fall is best. I was going to do more timing/temperature experiments this year but ran out of good scions. I did find that sun really heats up the wood and I would now say 60’s should be OK for peach grafting if its sunny. If its cloudy and 50’s or 60’s, as it often is here during peach flowering, I would hold off for a sunnier/warmer stretch.