Me neither. I have only one fridge. Food/veggies/fruits and scionwood are all in the same fridge. So far, I have no problem grafting everything else but peach and cherry with scionwood stored in my all-in-one fridge.
My scionwood is stored in gal bags tightly closed. I assume any gas that fruit and veggie give out can’t get in those bags but I can’t control temp or humidity just for the scionwood. It is what it is 
.
How did everyone’s cherry scions grow? I’m grafting cherries for the first time this year so am quite interested in the early late issue. And any other heloful hints related to cherry grafting. Have had good sucess with apple and plum thus far…
Mine were very successful. I had.one Ranier graft fail but all the other took. Probably 10 in total
So should I wait until February to graft my cherries?
It depends. I think two of the most successful keys to grafting are using totally dormant scions and to begin grafting just as the trees are starting to come out of dormancy. I like leaves the size of mouse ears because it’s proof the tree is waking up but the leaves are still small enough that they aren’t cluttering up your work area. If you wait until the tree is fully leafed out it can be a pain in the ass working around all the leaves.
Are your trees leafed out yet?
Not yet. If the cool weather continues all the way through February, they will probably start leafing out in March.
Then I’d wait until the vegetative buds start to pop open. This is not my image but it is pretty good indicator of when I like to graft.
I went with the ‘earlier than other prunus’ school of grafting for cherries this year. I’m in low chill San Diego, so of course all the low chill cultivars pop out at the end of February. The main concern with cherries is that the scion dries out in warm temps before callousing. For my rootstocks, I planted cheap bare-root trees from Home Depot with marginally appropriate cultivars: Stella and Self-Fertile Bing ( according to Pacific groves – the wholesale nursery who supplies HD – this is not Lapins, but a Lapins x Bing cultivar) on Mahaleb rootstock in early January. I chose trees with a wide vase shaped scaffold system with at least 4 nicely placed branches. Then I grafted on Jan 20th using an omega grafting tool. I placed grafts of lower chill cultivars on 3 of 4 scaffolds, leaving a scaffold of the original understock. Grafts were wrapped with parafilm, scions were wrapped with parafilm as well. Additional pressure was placed on the union with a wrap of green vinyl tie tape. It is now Feb 28th and the understock scaffold branches have leafed out, the scions are leafing out more slowly, and the graft unions are fully calloused. I have removed the green tie tape, and unwrapped the scion, leaving the union still covered with parafilm. The omega graft (the tool was a gift) makes a really nice union – I’m quite impressed with the results.
So If you are in a zone 9-10 it looks like you can graft cherries in late January – no problem. Which is good news for the impatient.
I use that tool too. I like it and it’s fast. It makes great graft unions.
I realize this is an older thread. I was just researching a bit, as I’m grafting sweet cherry for the first time this year.
It sounds like I should do it soon.
I’m just wondering if you would share how your later grafts did compared to the earlier grafts?
I’ve grafted sweet Cherries here in zone 9B in January when the trees were fully dormant. All of the cleft grafts took well. Here they are after 2 years.
Those grafts are sizing up nice! 
My only concern with grafting now would be if the cold weather we might get would damage them.
I’m in 7b/8a and we could still get cold. Our last supposed to be frost date is mid may (14th) but we have had stuff frozen in the garden late may, and our neighbors saw 28 in mid June this past year.
I’m thinking I’ll graft those cherries as soon as this storm breaks. Apricots aren’t blooming yet, some years they were full at this time.
Thanks. Those are some late late freezing temps. Graft now but leave some scions in the fridge just in case…
Excellent advice! Thanks!
Jolene, all grafts took and are doing fine for two consequent years. I have an impression that sweet cherries are easy to graft. I graft early when buds are swelling and no leaves yet. There are always waves of cold weather at this time but they did not stop developing grafts, they all did well. Later I can post pictures of grafts.
That decides it. I’m looking for buds and grafting soon.
Thanks so much for getting back with me on That!
Here’s hoping for success.
Hi Mamuang,
I moved those trees to another location in the garden. They are flowering nicely this year. I was wondering if it would be a good time to graft them. What do you think?
Naomi,
Your are in zone 8, a lot warmer than mine. If I were you, I would graft now. I’ve followed @Antmary’s approach and grafted cherry earlier at bud swell. It has worked out well.
We have an old tart cherry tree that’s just about played out, most of the fruit is way too high for us to pick, and the birds get them anyway. The lower branches are mostly dead or in poor condition.
The tree has two big trunks that branch off the main trunk. So, I’m considering lopping off one of those trunks and grafting some new tart cherry scions onto it. Will cleft or bark grafts work with tart cherry? And if so, when would be the best time do this?
Hi Bob,
The topic " Who are you going to call if you need 10 thousand grafts completed? " links to over 40 videos by Ken Coates specific to grafting cherries. Ken addresses all of those questions in various places.
Based on his videos and my own experience with plum topworking:
Cherry scion grafting should be done very early in the growing season. This precludes bark grafting since you would have to wait until later in the season for the bark to slip. Bark grafting is fine for apples, not so good for cherries. For topworking, Ken demonstrates what he calls a wedge graft and a side graft depending on the diameter of the understock. He makes the wedge graft look easy but it takes a lot of practice to cut the scion and the slot to the correct angles. If you can execute it, it works very well. I have had success topworking plum trees with his method.
Grafting low on the tree while a large amount of growth remains above the graft will result in very slow growing scions due to apical dominance. So grafting just one side of the tree is not recommended.
Trees over ten years old have higher odds of just outright dying when you attempt to topwork them.
Since your tree is worthless in it’s current condition I suppose you have nothing to lose. I would cut and graft both of the trunks and leave some of the lower growth (nurse limbs) until the scions grow out. The nurse limbs will help to keep sap from flooding your grafts.
If the scions don’t take but the tree still lives, it will almost certainly send out water sprouts that are prime grafting locations for next year!
