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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Grafting in a Botany Class

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  • From: "Kieran &/or Donna" <holycow@frontiernet.net>
  • To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Grafting in a Botany Class
  • Date: Thu, 5 Nov 2009 08:12:06 -0600

Gene,
I'd go the other way actually, as you are supposed to do bud grafts while the bark is slipping. I think even chip buds should be done during active growth.... anyone else on that? Chip buds are certainly easy to do. Here's what I think about it. As much as you'd like your students to go home with trees ready to plant, that may prove to be very difficult and complicated. And anyway, even if you do manage to do that, your students should practice before doing the actual grafts. And that means going out and cutting some branches of something fairly suitable and straight for them to practice on. You can show them simple whip grafts grafts and chip buds, the 2 most practical grafts if the bark isn't slipping, and a bark graft if you can get the bark to slip on anything this time of year. (Hint, water well in the week beforehand.) It doesn't matter all that much if they get to work on real rootstocks, as long as they have had the practice they will feel much more comfortable trying it for the first time in real life. With a pile of fresh cut branches and a cheap utility knife for each student, some rubber bands, some parafilm, maybe some white plastic grocery bags, and masking tape you all can have a blast. The technical tricks are to select a good scion, to guesstimate where to cut to make a perfect matchup, and to fasten things together well. Sterility is not important, someone put an interesting article in Pomona years ago in which they deliberately contaminated grafts with various substances and had no obvious effects on the % of takes. Those utility knives are often greased, something that used to worry me. If everyone had to make 5 chip buds and 5 whip grafts, they'd be pretty busy. Be sure to show them, via diagrams, how to do bark budding, as it is so useful, and be sure to show them what non slipping bark acts like. If you can find anything at all that is still slipping that time of year, be sure to bring it in to show them, or even to work with. I usually show people splice grafts using maple branches, just because they are handy and straight. Crabapple and peach could be good material, and plum.
I cut rubber bands and use them like budding rubbers, as budding rubbers are sold by the 1,000. When I do an iffy graft, scion not quite dormant anymore, and when I did the juniper grafts this spring, I wrap a wad of wet newspaper around the stock just below the graft and then tie a white plastic grocery bag over it. I usually use no parafilm in this case, and give it plenty of time to get going before I take the bag off. Whip and tongue grafts are sure fire ways to get cut fingers, I just don't do them anymore. They are so much harder to do right anyway, I think the tendency of most books to feature diagrams of that graft in particular are discouraging to beginners. Donna




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