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  • From: alexis@conev.org
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [nafex] Best Grafting Technique
  • Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 13:27:29 -0400

Hey folks,
thanks for the information on persimmons. That's helpful.
I have a question about grafting techniques and what other people have found successful.

I learned how to graft some years ago in Tom Burford's class. He is a very generous and helpful person. I wanted to graft a lot more than apples. (Apples are a crummy crop for the southeast in my opinion.) I killed a lot of trees trying to expand my skills. The turning point came from a day-long lesson given by Neal Peterson of pawpaw fame. Another very, very generous man. (I know Neal personally. He does not teach classes to my knowledge.) After Neal's lesson, my grafting success improved enormously. I also have gotten grafting lessons from Clarence Willis (not well known, an older gentleman who runs a commercial pecan orchard in VA.) I have also studied a lot of books, pamphlets, and youtube videos.

I have developed a set of techniques that consistently yields very high takes with every tree, and that is grafting everything in the spring. For early growing trees, I graft in April (pears, apples, peaches, plums). For later growing trees, usually in May (persimmons, pawpaws, jujubes, pecans). At this point, if the rootstock is good, I always get well over 90% takes. I prefer saddle grafts if I have the time. If I am rushed, I use other, simpler cuts.

I have done quite a bit of budding, but it seems like the success rate for grafting in the spring using cleft, saddle, whip and tonge, or bark gafts is better, with much more consistent and positive results. Seems like budding leads to more weak takes, buds that heal but don't grow.

My question is as follows. Given that my methods work better, why does budding seem to be the industry standard? Budding is certainly much faster than saddle grafting. And I know commercial nurseries can compress the time needed to produce a sell-able tree by using greenhouses and fall budding. But I am still puzzled why budding is so popular when it just doesn't seem to work as well. Part of the reason I am asking is that I teach propagation classes now. I teach people based on my experience, but other experience are always instructive.
Any thoughts welcome.
Alexis




  • [nafex] Best Grafting Technique, alexis, 03/29/2013

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