North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Jwlehman@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/29/2009 11:31:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time, skkewing@yahoo.com writes:

> Sounds like a lot of Foxfire folklore at first, but if you consider that the moon has the ability to move the ocean into tides perhaps it stands to reason that it could also pull more sap up the rootstock resulting in a greater likelihood of a graft healing before drying out and therefore being successful.
>
> Thoughts??
?

If one is grafting (generally) hard wood such as Juglans and Carya you do not want the sap flowing. That is why early spring is best for those hardwoods, before the sap really starts to flow. 

Also callousing takes place from top of the cut down. If you girdle some trees they will callous across. Do a double girdle the top cut may callouse but the bottom girdle generally will not. I don't believe the sap flowing up is particullarly desirable. I believe it is more important to watch the temperatures than the sign of the moon which I pay no attention to what-so-ever. 

To keep the scion from drying out after grafting, wrap the graft with Parafilm, or one of several coating liquids that works well.  

Jerry
     



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