North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Karen Tillou <arboretum@homeorchardsociety.org>]

ummm, confession time: i know my reaction to a tree kote /tar product is mostly a gut feeling i have about tar and trees.  it's maybe a little more than rural myth, but it sure doesn't have a sciencey or 1st hand experience reasoning to back it up.  i just don't like tar.  i like beeswax and linseed oil instead.  it's a little fussier, but i get good results.  

as for lucky's point about parafilm, "No muss, no fuss, no need for coating your hands with

oil(what would that do to impede callusing?), no need for any sort of heater or messy brush."

the oil on the hands when you are using trowbridge's wax is this: if you are heating the wax by using your body heat to get it pliable enough to apply to the grafts, oiling your hands will prevent that lump of beeswax/rosin/linseed oil product from sticking to your skin, an otherwise very unpleasant product to remove. 

i've never used parafilm for grafting this time of year - in the NW it seems to really help to seal all the wounded surfaces of a new graft with something that really keeps the rain out and the tree/scion's moisture in. would parafilm really cover well enough on a cleft graft or topworked tree, or does it only work on whip and tongue style unions (smooth ones with out weird lumps...)? 

getting ready for grafting season,

k

karen tillou

oregon city, OR - zone 8a and wet

On Feb 10, 2008, at 5:10 AM, David.Maxwell@dal.ca wrote:

On 9 Feb 2008 at 18:00, Karen Tillou wrote:

i love trowbridge's grafting wax - you can melt it in your hands (but coat your hands with oil first 

so it doesn't stick or you'll curse yourself) or stick it in a can and use a torch or campstove to 

heat it up to brushable consistency (my favorite way).  it smells great, seals well, and doesn't 

crack.  isn't tree kote a petroleum based tar?  if it is, i'd steer clear.<SNIP>

I am curious as to what your objection to tars is.  I have used black roofing goo for 

years, (cheap, easily found, easy to use), and never experienced any adverse 

effects.  We use peroleum-based products quite happily in the form of dormant oils; 

tars are just longer chain hydrocarbons than oils, but basically no more nor less 

"toxic", and the quanties used in grafting are markedly less than you would use in 

spraying dormant oil.  (In fairness, I have encountered this concern about tars many 

times before.  I just wonder whether there is any evidence behind it, or whether it is 

a "rural myth".)

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