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["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

This is an interesting variation on grafting.   Clive Simms did a story in POMONA on a green to green graft he has used on nut trees with good results.  I have used a dormant to green graft on grapes, which also bleed, with good results.  I don't know if anyone has ever tried it on nut trees, but it seems like it might work.  Green shoots usually don't bleed and they heal quite fast.  And by grafting a dormant scion to a green shoot, the dormant scion is less vulnerable to dessication than a green scion.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, my book, The Grape Grower, at http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner of the Garden Writers Association "Best Talent in Writing" award for 2003.
On May 28, 2006, at 6:24 AM, "" <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu> wrote:

Joe,
Here's another 'tool' for the box.
I've been grafting nut trees for about 10 years now - mostly with low, low success rates - until the last couple of years.  One of the biggest problems I encountered was excessive 'bleeding' of the black walnut and pecan rootstocks, flooding the grafts.  Probably, if I'd waited another month to start grafting, I'd have avoided some of that - but I'm not long on patience.

A few years back, one of the (older)experienced KNGA members penned an article for our quarterly newsletter on the "Sap-stopper modification of the Gray graft"; essentially, it's a simple bark graft, but instead of completely lopping off the top of the rootstock, you just cut 3/4 of the way through and break to top over, leaving it attached, so that it acts as a 'sap-drawer' or pressure relief valve.  I've been doing this graft almost exclusively for the past couple of years, and I've had virtually no problems with bleeding & flooding of grafts.  Once the scion starts pushing buds, I'll snip off the top and pinch out terminal buds on any lower branches to keep them from competing with the graft.

With large caliper scionwood(some of my friends sometimes send some scions 1" or larger), I still do a 3 or 4-flap graft onto a large caliper seedling.

Lucky