What is your Tip OF The Day?

I was reading Cummins Nursery how to graft. They say to mix paraffin wax with bees wax or the buds won’t always push through. They say it’s to hard of a wax.
Here is the page: http://shop.cumminsnursery.com/pages/grafting-instructions

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That probably depends on your good sense. If the coating is very thick like a mummy then likely the buds will have problems. BUT if you make it about the thickness of a parafilm wrap you’re good to go. You can likely wrap parafilm thick enough to stifle a bud coming through.
I did mix paraffin and bees wax and even dipped some 2X and the buds still burst through.

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I did the same as you. They are saying without bees wax mixed in.

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My first season/weeks observation from using surround is that I don’t see many insects crawling around other than ladybugs. It is almost like the ladybugs like crawling over the dust. I have been seeing a few aphids so I have been adding a few drops of dawn to my sprayer of surround. The combination seems to work well together. As of now I don’t see any insect damage on my fruit.

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Dang, my internal feelings make me feel like an antagonist to this very positive thread. But with regard to heating sealing wax, I don’t understand why anyone would go to the trouble unless they are doing hundreds of bench grafts. Just seems like so much work for marginal gains. I use parafilm to seal, which is super fast and does a good job preventing desiccation.

Again, not trying to criticize any method (I think they all work). I just don’t see how it’s worth the time to heat sealing wax, at least for me, unless you are doing tons of grafts.

With regard to the G935 rootstock. That’s one thing you don’t hear as Extension specialists extol the virtues of super high density planting. These plantings can cost 15K or more per acre, but supposedly pay for themselves in the third year. I’m sure there are a lot of success stories, but the risk is huge. No one talks very much about the stories of trellises blowing down, trees runting out, or virus making the whole thing unproductive.

It just seems to me, if land prices are reasonable, why not use the extra investment to purchase more land, save money on tree planting costs and invest in a lower density planting (which will admittedly take longer to harvest full production/acre). For sure, it’s not as exciting, but it seems to me the more sure, steady approach (and more forgiving).

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Maybe it seems harder than it really is. Boiling water isn’t hard - turn the burner on and walk away.
By the time I’ve got my scions and labels together the wax is ready for dipping. And I can dip a scion faster than someone can wrap one. But it comes down to what you are comfortable with. I like this for rooting hardwood cuttings for the same reason.

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I just melt mine in a very small crock pot.

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I waxed all my hardwood cuttings too except the Juliet I did before I learned this. I think it’s way faster. I did 22 bench grafts today and when I was done I cut up all the tops to the rootstock and dipped the tops of them in wax and the bottoms in rooting hormone. Then planted them in coarse sand. I figure what do I have to loose. It only took about ten minutes to do that whole process. I did the thick trunks two so maybe I can graft on them next year. My Juliet’s are on their second leaf. I’m beginning to think hardwood cuttings are easier than softwood because there is barley any maintenance.

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Evidently you’ve never burned boiling water. :unamused:

Seriously though, it’s probably a matter of the perspective which one approaches grafting. From my perspective, I generally have about a dozen things to do the morning I decide grafting/budding, so I take my toolbox with parafilm and go.

I can see where folks approach grafting more measured and carefully, especially with lots of grafts, or lots of benchgrafting, and the liquid wax probably makes more sense. No right or wrong way imo, just offering a different perspective for all the folks melting wax.

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You can wax them days before. You can do a hundred in no time at all and then the day you want to graft take them along. You can wax them after harvesting them in February or March too. They wont get moldy that way.

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I happen to share the same perspective Mark has. When I read about melting wax and all that, I was like “so much work”. Maybe, because I don’t like cooking so when I see anything that requires a stove, crock pot, etc., It remind me of cooking :grin:

The way I do it probably more time consuming but I enjoy doing it. When scions arrive (ordered and exchanged), I clean them in a water/vinegar solution, dry and wrap them with parafilm. Then, they go in ziplock bags into the fridge. No need to put any damp paper in those bags.

I do this in the winter when I have all the time in my hand. Once, grafting time arrives, I grab the bags of wrapped scions and off I go. I invest more time upfront and save time in the end,

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All’s were doing is putting little pieces of wax in an insulated coffee mug dumping boiling water on it. I even put the cap on it. Stays ready for about 30 minutes or so. Whats so hard about that?

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Waxing would be a waste of time for me because I only use a fraction of my wood and what I use depends on the diameter of what I’m grafting to.

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Your method is not hard at all. To each, his/her own, :grinning:

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It is nice to see so many options to wax or not to wax. This has been a vigorous debate about each of our choices. I think several others will benefit from everyone contribution. We all will end up choosing the method of choice.

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I size my scions up too and cut right through the wax. I still use parafilm too. I like using electrical tape also.

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I don’t use wax on my grafts. I like to do a quick simple bark or cleft. Instead of parafilm, I used IV Tegaderm to cover the whole Scion. It is stretchable and waterproof. It cost 50 cents a piece.

Here is my multi grafts of Hybrid persimmons on a 4 years old American persimmon understock.

Tony

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That looks kind of like a bag Tony. Brady

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I just fold the sticky side together to enclose the scion…

Tony

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Tony I have three American persimmons. I bought them off of ebay last year. They were three foot long. Are there preferred American’s that I should graft to them or are they all about the same when it come to the American Persimmon? I’m in zone 6 on the cold side close to 5.