North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Lon J. Rombough" <lonrom@hevanet.com>]

Contact the Home Orchard Society   http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/  They 
do lots of grafting workshops.
-Lon Rombough
Grapes, writing, consulting, book, The Grape Grower, at 
http://www.bunchgrapes.com  Winner  GWA "Best Talent in Writing"  2003. 
Grape pruning video: http://www.bunchgrapes.com/dvd.html View a short, low 
resolution clip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q58zFY0B1M
A video about The Grape Grower : 
http://cookingupastory.com/index.php/2008/04/18/the-grape-grower/





On Nov 10, 2011, at 10:18 AM, david.maxwell@dal.ca wrote:

I am planning on putting on a grafting workshop next spring, covering both 
grafting to  
rootstocks and topworking established trees.  I have a good supply of the 
latter, (an 
abandoned orchard), but am unsure how best to manage the former.  Does 
anybody have 
advice to offer, based on their experience?
How many rootstocks should I set aside for each participant?  What sort of 
rootstocks? 
(dwarfing? seedling? Bare root or potted up?)
I have always done field grafting in April/May when the rootstock has broken 
dormancy.  Is it 
feasible to hold my rootstocks for the workshop in cool storage and graft 
them at the 
workshop, then send the parcipants home with newly grafted trees to be 
planted 
immediately?  (ie. can one graft onto dormant rootstock, and then plant the 
grafted tree out 
immediately, and have successful take?  I know that growers who graft in the 
winter will then 
place their grafted trees in warm storage until the grafts take and callus 
over, then cool them 
again until planting out in spring.  What I don't know is whether if one 
grafts in spring, with 
dormant rootstock (and, obviously, dormant scionwood), and then immediately 
plants them 
out, trusting that the rootstock will come to life in the field in time to 
callus in the graft, will 
work.
Final practical details: I have only 3 grafting knives.  If I have, say, 20 
people in my workshop, 
is it feasible to share these 3 knives around? How well do things like Olfa 
knives work, (ie. 
does one require a real grafting knife, sharpened only on one side, to get 
good grafts? (I 
suppose I could re-sharpen a bunch of Olfa knives specifically for the 
purpose if the answer 
is "yes".)  Do I need to explicitly absolve myself of responsibility if 
partipants cut themselves?
Any and all advice most gratefully received, either to the list-serv, or 
off-line  directly to me.
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