To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Any opinions on my grafting problem?
Date: Thu, 05 May 2005 10:08:22 -0500
John,
For apples, pears, persimmons, mulberries, oaks, and most other woodies, I
just do a simple bark graft.
Behead the rootstock, make a single vertical slit in the bark, and barely
lift the edges.
Make a long, sloping cut in the basal end of the scion - just as you would
for a simple whip graft. I usually shave just a little bark off the edges
of this cut, to expose a little more cambium on the sides, then slide the
scion down into the slit until the cambium at the top of your cut is just
even with the top of the rootstock. Wrap and seal as you normally would.
For pecans, hickories, and walnuts - species that are prone to 'bleed'
excessively and flood the grafts, I approach them a bit differently - I'll
either cut the rootstock off several days prior to grafting, and wait until
they stop bleeding, or use a modified 'Sapstopper' approach - cut about 3/4
to 7/8 of the way through the rootstock and break it over, leaving the top
attached, then do a bark graft. The remaining top acts as something of a
'pressure relief valve' to take off excessive sap flow.