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[mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>]

I've been using a dedicated fridge for years and have never had an
issue.  I often have cuttings and scionwood left from the previous
year that are still in good shape..

On Sat, Apr 18, 2015 at 8:45 PM, fuwa fuwa usagi
<fuwafuwausagi@muchomail.com> wrote:
>
> 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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