North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 06:09 PM 2/19/2008, you wrote:
> Looking for advice on grafting a very young seedling pecan.
> Any special tecniques? This seedling is a little thicker than a  pencil. Any
> special time other than when the rootstock starts waking up??

Pete,
I'll defer to Topgun, if he weighs in, as he's done more of these 
through the years than me.

I do a modified bark graft for most all of my pecan/hickory/walnut 
grafts - a modificaton of the so-called 'Sap-stopper modification of 
the Gray graft'.
I make a transverse cut in the rootstock, approximately 3/4-7/8 of 
the way through the stem, then break the top over, leaving it 
attached, to act as a 'sap-drawer' or 'pressure relief valve' of sorts.
Then, I'll make a downward vertical incision in the bark of the 
rootstock, and gently lift the bark on either side.
Scion prep consists of making a long, sloping cut in the base - just 
like you would for a simple splice graft, then 'shaving' a bit of 
bark off the two sides to expose some additional cambium tissue on 
the sides, then slide the scion down into the vertical slit in the 
rootstock bark until the uppermost cambium on the base is just at the 
top of the nearly-beheaded rootstock.  Wrap & seal.
Seems like I've seen some recommendations (OK St. U., maybe?) for 
doing whip & tongue grafts prior to budbreak - and I think I've done 
a couple that way in the past, with maybe a 50% success rate - but 
again, it's only been a couple.  Here 'tis: 
http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-1020/HLA-6205.pdf

Lucky Pittman
USDA Cold Zone 6
AHS Heat Zone 7
Hopkinsville, KY