North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Sarah Kehler Ewing <skkewing@yahoo.com>]

What you have suggested is very similar to what the local experts up here 
routinely do with their scionwood collected in February.  They collect their 
scionwood, place it in labelled gallon size ziplock bags and then bend over 
and grab a few handfuls of snow, throw them in the bag with the scionwood, 
seal it up, put all the bags into one twist tied bag and throw the whole 
works in the fridge freezer (not a chest freezer as they are apparently too 
cold, but the little freezer above your refrigerator works just fine) and 
then we graft away about the third week of May!

We find that buds suffer from desiccation even out on the trees up here.  
Budwood collected in February has a much better likelihood of having viable 
buds on it than wood taken off the same tree in April probably because of the 
wild swings in temperature we have: -40 F and then 44 F three days later like 
we had this week. 

--- On Sun, 3/15/09, Steve <sdw12986@aol.com> wrote:

> From: Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>
> Subject: Re: [NAFEX] frozen scion wood
> To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009, 3:26 AM
> 
> 
> Alexander Dragotin wrote:
> > I shouldn’t intervene in other’s talk, but I would
> tell my experience.
> > 
> > I am freesing my budwood since more than 15 years. I
> wrap the wood in 
> > moist paper (usually newspaper), put it in a plastick
> bag and friese it 
> > at ca. 25 Degree F/-4 Degree C.
> > 
> > Up to the late spring meintains the stored wood its
> excellent condition. 
> > I have made it with drupes, pipfruit, persimmon and
> every other kind of 
> > scion wood.
> > 
> > Alex
> 
> Alex, someone (possibly you) mentioned in the past about
> storing scion 
> wood at about that temperature. That might actually be an
> ideal 
> temperature for storying scions because it is cold enough
> to really stop 
> fungus growth but not so cold that it damages the scions.
> 
> The problem is that, for most of us, if we were to freeze
> our scions, 
> our freezers are set to about 0 degrees F. That might lead
> to drying out 
> or other damage. I would not be able to easily make an area
> that stays 
> only a few degrees below freezing. I could figure out how
> to do it but 
> it's not worth my time since I handle only a small number
> of scions each 
> year.
> 
> Here's another thought. When I was a kid, I had a great
> uncle who owned 
> a cabin on Drummond Island (Google it if you are curious).
> We would go 
> out fishing and catch dozens of perch. My uncle had a
> method of freezing 
> them so that they would last for months, even years,
> without freezer 
> burn. We would put a little water in a half gallon milk
> carton, place as 
> many perch fillets as it could hold. Top it off with more
> water and 
> freeze it into a solid block. So, when we say the scions
> dry out, that 
> is basically freezer burn, right? Maybe if there was a
> reason that 
> scions had to be collected at the beginning of the winter
> and held until 
> spring, they would stay completely dormant and completely
> hydrated if 
> frozen in a block of ice. I know it's not necessary for
> apples (I know 
> someone who grafted apples the following year and Lon just
> mentioned a 
> similar story) but I have had trouble with apricot scions
> popping buds 
> in the refrigerator and even pears have pushed out some
> green tips 
> before it was time to graft them. Just some thoughts that
> I'll probably 
> never test myself.
> 
> Steve in the Adirondacks
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