North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["victoria l. caron" <vicaron@gis.net>]

There are several ways I handle the 'mis' takes. All of the following I have
done many times with good results.
1-Sometimes I regraft onto the stock that the graft did not take on later in
the spring or early summer of the same year. I do either bark or whip &
tongue and wrap with surveyor's tape. After trying many techniques over the
years, this type of graft and wrap has worked so well for me that I no
longer have any interest in trying new ideas. When you start getting into
early summer, you can staple a white paper tent/envelope over the graft to
keep it from getting too much sun.
2-I often bud onto the stock later in the season. This gives me a chance to
use varieties that were not available in the spring when I was getting my
scions. I have gone back to rubber bands for tying my buds.
3-If I haven't gotten around to doing anything with the stock by the second
third season, or the bud did not take either, I still just regraft onto the
stock again. With whip & tongue, as long as you line up the cambium on stock
and scion, the stock can be quite large and still have good results. I find
this easier than the cleft graft and wax.
A couple of hints,
- Practice by using prunings for both ends, or whatever cuttings you can get
if you don't have x-tra apple wood.
- I don't discard any scionwood from the frig until July. I have
successfully grafted from tree to stock in July by removing leaves from the
scion and using the paper tent to shade the graft. I use white paper so the
light can get through to stimulate the new leaves to grow. I would only do
this if I could lose a variety otherwise, or just for experimental purposes.

- If you graft onto a stock twice in the same year, be sure to leave
something of the stock growing to ensure its roots are getting fed so it
won't die. This can be a sucker (especially M7) or feather. If the grafts
continue to fail, you can always graft onto the sucker later.
- Don't over complicate things with wrapping, waxes and paint. We use and
teach with surveyors' and similar plastic tapes. They stretch, can be tied
in a figure eight (my favorite, quick!) or wrapped and tucked and later can
be removed by a simple vertical cut.
As you can see by my numerous alternatives, I've certainly had my share of
no-takes!
Good luck! ..................vic

tugger@netreach.net wrote:

> I grafted about 400 M7, B9 & M9 apples trees last spring and had
> probably an 85% success rate of takes. (We'll see when spring gets
> here) I want to regraft scions to the remaining live in-the-ground
> rootstocks this spring and assume that I cut the rootstock down to 3
> or 4 inches from the ground, do a cleft graft, wrap it with a
> rubber?, coat it with latex paint and let it go and hope.  I would
> appreciate any and all suggestions on how I improve this approach.
> Mike
>


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