North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us>]

On Nov 2, 2009, at 10:23 AM, Jim Fruth wrote:

> Ginda wrote, "In my experience, parafilm works great for sealing the  
> graft,
> but is not sufficient for binding it in place."
>
>
>    That probably depends on how you do it.  I use only parafilm with  
> good
> success.  Non-adhesive electrical tape works good too and may be  
> easier to
> obtain on short notice.
>
>    When I teach grafting we do whip-and-tongue and cleft grafting only
> because I have about a 95% success rate compared to a poor success  
> rate
> doing budding.  Budding only gets a brief mention in my classes.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but I've had about 95% success with twig  
budding using rubber bands and a good sealer (parafilm, grafting  
compound, strips of plastic bags) and almost total failure using  
parafilm alone.  Of course, I've done these in different years, and  
haven't done a ton of grafts, so maybe it's just coincidence, or  
because I picked different weather, or something like that.

I tried cleft grafting of buds and had problems with the "flaps" of  
bark growing in ways that hurt the union.  I need to try the bud  
grafting as described by Sarah Ewing.  That looks safer.

Ginda