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["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

>What I did stumble on that might be of interest to NAFEX grafters is a statement Ferree made in one of his articles that an annual shoot has buds of varying quality and those buds on the base third or so are incompletely developed.  I've long been puzzled by the inconsistency of some of my grafting projects where 2/3rds of the sites I do grafting I get almost 90% success and another 3rd I'll get only 50%.  I wonder if it is related to using wood with poorly developed buds.  Anyone out there with more info on this?

 

 

 

I tend to avoid the bottom of a stick of budwood, and really like to graft the terminal end.  It's just me, and I tend to get good results doing it, but after years of no takes on walnut I read that the tip of a walnut branch is useless for grafting.  They said discard the pithy part of a stick and use only the solid part.  So I was doing it wrong all along. 

    Also, there's something a little bit weird about the "latent buds" way down on the stem that normally wouldn't come out.  They seem to be there in case the plant is severely damaged, and are to be a common source of bud mutations.  So if you are happy with what you have, you may not want to get down into those buds.  On the other hand, you might get something a bit different if you can convince the plant that the latent bud you have added is all it's giong to have to work with.  You might have to deprive your stock of any other buds.  I think about statements that Van Mons "tormented" his pear trees, and I wonder if he got mutations that way.     Donna