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["Tim Inman" <Tim@historicinteriors.com>]

Well, let me throw in my experience grafting peaches.  I'm not a nurseryman, just a 'green acres' hobbyist, so what I have to say should be tempered with that understanding.  Dr. Eldon Everhart, our Iowa State University Extension Horticulturist, has been a great help getting me up to speed with grafting.  He provided an excellent handout he had written on the topic, along with some careful words of encouragement and advice.  Main point:  Keep your knife SHARP  razor sharp!

 

My need to learn how to graft peaches was rooted in a 'rescue' graft of an old Hamburg, Iowa, Interstate Nurseries 'house' peach they sold as Sungold Peach.  My father had one of the last known trees standing, and it was so old and in such bad shape we needed to find a way to propagate it since it is truly a very good peach.  We accomplished the task, and now have several of these trees doing very well on seedling rootstock.  In fact I can offer grafting scions of the Interstate Sungold Peach this spring if anybody is interested.

 

As to my grafting experience, timing seems to be most important, in addition to good 'surgical' or cabinetmaking technique.  I have had the best results collecting the scions in early February, and holding them in damp paper towels in a zip lock bag in my refrigerator until the first of March for whip-and-tongue grafting.  I get over 90% takes when I do it this way.  When I wait until later, I have less takes.  The more hardy and developed the rootstock, it seems, the more probable the take and the more vigorous the new growth (Duh!)  I graft by digging my rootstocks from my garden nursery row when I'm ready to work.  I take them into my woodworking shop and do the joints at my bench.  I wear my clockmaker's 'Optivisor' so I can really see what I'm doing.  I try to keep my skinny little thin knife razor sharp! and I try to work as quickly as possible.  I have been tying with wide rubber bands pulled pretty tight, but not as tight as I could without breaking the rubber.  I also wrap the rubber bands with black rubber electrical tape (not vinyl electrical tape).  I think the black helps 'heat' the joint in the early stages and aids in the healing in.  I also sometimes use dark colored grafting wax sometimes.  I don't use both the black tape and the wax - one or the other.  I'm in a very high wind area, and it seems to me that the wax helps stabilize the joint so it can't move during the initial healing.  May be just my imagination. . . .

 

After I've done the joinery and have the little grafted trees wrapped/waxed, I put the roots into a 5-gallon bucket and cover them with something moist - damp paper, moss, whatever.  I put the bucket into a garbage bag and tie it around the little trunks in a bundle so the roots can't dry out.  I leave the tops exposed and put the whole works in a warm area of my shop office for a day or two.  Then, after a short period of warming, I go back out to the garden and set them into a nursery row for the summer.  So far, this technique has been a real winner for me.  Only problem is keeping the rabbits from munching on the new bark.  It must be a really sweet peach because Sungold is the first peach twig they go for in a row of many different ones. 

 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  This is all unscientific (except Dr. Everhart's input!) and just my own experience and observation.  Maybe it can help work for you, too.  My last comment would be this:  If you don't try grafting, you'll have a 100% chance of failure.  If the whip-and-tongue doesn't take, you still have the rootstock to bud onto later in the summer.  Why wait!? 

 

Tim Inman

 

Randolph, IA