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The fluffy one stores scions:

Gang, I thought I would share my new scion storing system.
  
I have been very dissatisfied with attempts to use a refrigerator to store 
scion wood.    In fact last year I acquired a small dedicated refrigerator 
for storing scionwood alone.    Unfortunately I found out the temperature 
seemed to fluctuate significantly and tended to average 44-52 degrees.  The 
only way to stabilize the temperature was to add bottles of frozen water.  
 
This year I tried a different approach and I am extremely happy with the 
results.  I purchased a standard picnic cooler for my endeavor.   Next I set 
aside 16 20 oz soda bottles and filled them 4/5 of the way with water and 
frozen them.   Once frozen I put five in the bottom of the cooler along with 
a damp towel and then added my wrapped and sealed scion wood, and then placed 
6 bottles on top (the cooler is tapered slightly.    I placed some cardboard 
beneath the cooler and draped two old rag rugs across the top. I then place 5 
bottles of water in the freezer.  I was amazed by the results.    The cooler 
held the wood at very close to freezing, 29-35 degrees very consistently.  My 
intention was to rotate 5 of the bottles each day, but found unless it was 
65-70 plus and I was going in and out the cooler all day, it was unnecessary, 
and merely rotated 5 bottles every 3 days or so (I did not experiment with 
going longer, I simply rotated the bottle when then were about 1/5 to 1/4 
liquid).  Even while grafting, with the cooler outside, I found all I had to 
do was rotate 5 of the bottles a day, and sure enough the temperature stayed 
in the low range.  Every 3 days (while grafting) I rotated the bottle 
bottles, which were almost always 4/5 frozen (as the cold sinks downward.  
Interestingly it got cold enough that some of the toweling froze stiff. 

I found this system beyond satisfactory.  It is cooler, more humid, with a 
far more stable temperature than a refrigerator, plus there was no issues 
with worrying about what else was in the cooler that might abort the scion 
wood.     In all the years I have kept scion wood, it never looked in better 
shape.  

I intend to improve the system for next year by creating a wrap around 
cardboard insulator, to increase the R value of the cooler.   The rugs work 
well, but I just wanted something a bit tidier.  

tfb

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