North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Scott Smith <scott@cs.jhu.edu>]

I have done quite a bit of spring grafting of peaches.  They are one  
of the hardest fruit trees to graft; they seem to be picky about  
everything.  Over the years I have found a technique which gives me 75+ 
% success, and so by doing several backup grafts of every variety I  
manage to get a take on them all.

1) Graft when temperatures are forecast to be in the 70's highs and  
50's lows for the next week.  This is the most important, they seem  
very picky on the temperature.  You don't have to be completely  
perfect here but the closer to this approximate range the better.   I  
usually do two rounds of grafts a week or two apart to improve my odds  
here.

2) Use parafilm (or other method to keep from drying out) over the  
graft as well as the whole scion.  My personal method is parafilm on  
the graft and doc farwells painted on the scion.  Sometimes this is  
not needed because the grafts will take very quickly, but most of the  
time they will require a lot longer time than say apples and so you  
need to give them some help to stay alive.

3) wrap over the whole graft in aluminum foil, shiny side out.  This  
helps to stabilize the temperature, particularly if the graft is in  
the sun.

4) Use very vigorous stocks.  This helps all kinds of fruits but you  
need all the help you can get for peaches.

I usually do whip and tongue if the scion/stock sizes match, and bark  
or cleft graft if the stock is bigger.  I sometimes do chip or T buds  
for the backup grafts, on an existing tree limb of around pencil  
diameter.  For some reason my buds on fatter stocks nearly always fail.

Scott