Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - Re: [nafex] Winter grafting Early

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: alexis <alexis@conev.org>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] Winter grafting Early
  • Date: Sat, 28 Dec 2013 20:02:05 -0500

Jerry et al,
My experience with grafting in various seasons follows. My intent in recent years has been to develop a set of grafting techniques that works reasonably easily on all fruiting plants as I grow eclectic orchards and teach propagation techniques. Early on in the process, I tried many different things, and killed hundreds of small trees in the process. I tried dormant grafting, with no great success. I budded all manner of plants at many different times of the year. Fall budding has some success for me, but is not as reliable.
The "universal grafting technique" I work with now is that I graft everything in the spring. Apples and pears can be grafted on rootstock straight out of the box, or established rootstock in the ground. Most other common fruits, if they are transplanted, need to wait at least a few weeks for the rootstock to recover from transplant. Some plants that recover slowly from transplant (pecans, pawpaws, persimmons) want to wait a year from transplant to graft. The vigorous rootstock is the most important part by far. In VA, pears, apples, peaches, plums, mulberries etc. are grafted in April. Pawpaws, pecans, and persimmons are grafted in May. Either way, I am waiting for that first burst of energy in the spring growth to graft. Generally, the shape of the cut doesn't seem to matter a whole lot. I adapt the cuts to the situation. Sticking with spring grafting, I get very high sucesss rate with all fruiting plants.
My success rate with grafting in other seasons is always lower. I sometimes wrap the whole scion in parafilm, as well as the grafted area. Even doing that, the success rate is low for grafting off-season. Controlling dehydration seems to fail much more easily in off-season grafting.
The pamphlet I have developed for teaching this is at
http://conev.org/fruitbook9.pdf
Take care,
Alexis




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page