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  • From: Louis Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Putting on grafting workshops
  • Date: Sat, 12 Nov 2011 09:39:50 -0600

I was helping our county Ag. Horticulture Extension agent do a grafting
workshop for the Master Gardeners group one time. Had him buy some cheap
boxcutters(not the snap-off blade kind), and it was NOT a good experience -
participants could not make a straight, flat cut - too much bowing/bending
of the blade. Have not tried it again, but it may be that you have to get
'heavy duty' blades, at least.

I learned to graft using parafilm and rubbers. Bought a wax toilet gasket
one time to experiment with. Never used it - seemed to messy and I just
didn't like it.

Have a friend in IA who recollected watching her grandfather graft apples,
when she was a youngster. He'd tie the graft with cotton string and
slather a thick layer of fresh (loose) cow manure over the graft union and
top of the scion.
If you've ever stepped in a cow pie that's been lying out for a day or so,
you'll be aware that they have a nice dry crust, but the inside is still
nice and moist 8>)

I still use Parafilm and rubbers on just about everything, but with
easy/quick-to-callus stuff, like apples & pears, you could probably get
along just fine with nothing more than masking tape over the graft union.

Lucky

On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 7:09 AM, Ginda Fisher <list@ginda.us> wrote:

>
> On Nov 10, 2011, at 1:18 PM, David.Maxwell@dal.ca wrote:
>
> > I am planning on putting on a grafting workshop next spring, ...
> > 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? ...
>
> I'm going to say "no". I went to a grafting workshop, once, and I would
> have found it extremely frustrating if I had to wait to get my hands on a
> knife, and then had people watching over my shoulder to get the knife as
> soon as I was done.
>
> I agree with others that any sharp knife is probably okay. Personally, I
> bought a grafting knife, and I like it because it's easy to keep clean and
> sharp (I don't use it for anything else.) But I have occasionally used it
> with the wrong hand, that is, with the rounded edge of the blade down
> instead of the flat edge, and it still worked fine.
>
> Best of luck,
> Ginda
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