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  • From: Alan Haigh <alandhaigh@gmail.com>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] secular graft questions
  • Date: Sun, 5 Apr 2009 06:27:25 -0400

First of all, I'm a professional grafter... nevertheless I pretty much suck at it.  One needn't know what one is doing to be a professional, that distinction only requires being paid for it.  But then, maybe someone who is paid to graft for only a few days every year is not technically a professional.  When I say I suck, it isn't to say that I can't get a high % of pear and apple grafts to take most years.  My difficulties with spring grafting are with prunus and other species.
 
Question 1.  Does anyone know whether it is the scion or the tree or both that generates the cell tissue that forms the callous bridge between the two?  I always assumed it was the tree generating the connective tissue because spring grafting is generally done when the scion is dormant and the tree is actively growing.  However, I've noticed that I get better growth of apples and pears when I graft immediately before the tree starts budding out and the scion begins it's growth very shortly after the tree.
 
I know people who successfully graft on the same day they collect scion-wood from and to trees already showing tip growth.  I even have an old Gene Logsdon book that recommends grafting this way and I assume that in warm climates this was done for centuries before the advent of refrigeration.  Question 2.  Has anyone evaluated the relative success of this kind of grafting?
 
As far as my poor success grafting prunus, mainly Euro plums, I plan to use parafilm this year and wait until a warm period of weather is predicted because of tips I've received here.  Last year I tried tying white plastic shopping bags over plum grafts and not a single one took.  Total humiliation (if one can be self humiliated).  



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