North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Mauch1@aol.com]

>Chris, You are absolutely correct about needing heat to callous.  I have 
>found that apricot is the most critical with peach about as bad.  Plum is 
>the 
>least fussy of the stone fruit, in my experience. I normally graft plums 
>after I have finished grafting apples and pears as they probably do need a 
>little more heat than Pyrus.  I also wait to graft apricot - usually late 
>March here or bench graft earlier and place in a heated propagation box.

Hmmm, I've formed the opinion that peach is harder than apricot to graft 
(I've never been successful w/ peach and I haven't been successful w/ 
budding in general. )

>If you are getting just 40% something is wrong.  What rootstock are you 
>using?  I use Manchurian apricot seedlings, Myrobalan plum, and peach.  
>Seems 
>that the apricot seedlings do the best.  A good time to graft is when buds 
>are just beginning to grow.

I've been using mainly Marianna 2624 (which I understand may have some degree
of compatibility issue?) and St. Julian A (which is Myrobalan?).  I've 
avoided apricot as my soil is quite heavy clay.

>Chris, did you get the wood from Bob Purvis?  I sent Bob a big package of 
>Puget Gold wood in mid Feb.  My tree died this spring, most likely from 
>bacterial canker.  Maybe the wood I sent wasn't any good.  I haven't heard 
>that Puget Gold is hard to graft.
Well one of the grafts was likely your wood (it was from Bob at the workshop).
The other two were from a separate source.

>One grafter told 
>me to graft plums before anything else, before leaves come out, so the 
>advice does get a bit confusing, but grafting for heat to callus makes the 
>most sense to me.  I have no  dormant scion wood this year so will try bud 
>grafting again this August.Thanks, Del
Hmmm, this may go along w/ what the Fluffster taught me about cherry grafting.
He believes in early (in my area pre- Feb. 15, i.e. graft when its cold), and
I first learned to graft cherries after bud break (when it's warm).  I've 
proved
to myself that both work although the warm grafting seems to work better for 
me (Fluffster had the opposite experience).  But if you graft cherries when
you would normally graft apples & pears (March/April) here, likely all will 
fail.
I suspect plums or maybe just one "kind" (euro or japanese) works 
similarly????

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6