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Post by smsmith on Feb 19, 2023 8:15:45 GMT -6
I have never brought my rootstocks inside to break dormancy. They arrive in mid-late April most years, and I usually have them grafted over to my desired varieties within a few days. I put them in big pots of dirt and keep them in my unheated shed. I'll drag them out on sunny days when it's above freezing, then drag them back inside at night. Once I know the scions are pushing new growth, I carefully plant them in their permanent homes. Sometimes that's in mid-late May, and sometimes that isn't until September/October. I've had scions take until mid-summer to show new growth. Those that take too long to show growth wait until fall because I don't want to mess around with watering/babying them after transplanting.
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Post by benmnwi on Feb 19, 2023 14:17:48 GMT -6
I also just start grafting as soon as the rootstock arrives and I do not let them warm up for weeks. After grafting I keep all of the trees together in a 5 gallon bucket for about a week or two. They are in damp hay and newspapers to keep the roots moist. Then I transplant them individually in pots that I place outdoors and keep well watered all summer. I fall plant these grafted trees nice they go dormant. Usually they average about 2’ of new growth by then.
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Post by nhmountains on Feb 19, 2023 18:20:29 GMT -6
The only thing I’d add is I keep them in a cool dark room for a few weeks to allow the graft cuts to callous over before they start pushing top growth. I think this step will increase the success rate percentage. I have used moist sand and sawdust/shavings to keep the roots moist while they wait.
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Post by Reagan on Mar 11, 2023 13:04:22 GMT -6
What kind of spacing would you do with trees on M111?
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Post by smsmith on Mar 11, 2023 13:17:11 GMT -6
^^^20'x20' should be adequate. You could go closer if you plan to train/prune
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Post by Reagan on Mar 28, 2023 20:15:37 GMT -6
Got the tracking. Rootstock arrives Monday. Scion is in the fridge. I broke my grafting knife on a pear last weekend so a new one arrived today. I got three kinds of tape with my knife because my dumb self left my tape at the cabin. Anyone know the difference in these rolls?
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Post by Reagan on Mar 28, 2023 20:19:12 GMT -6
So I’ve watched the video a few times now. How important is whip and tongue on a bench graft? Most of my grafts so far have been cleft with a few bark grafts. Is the style important when it comes to long term strength of the graft?
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Post by Sandbur on Mar 29, 2023 4:08:00 GMT -6
So I’ve watched the video a few times now. How important is whip and tongue on a bench graft? Most of my grafts so far have been cleft with a few bark grafts. Is the style important when it comes to long term strength of the graft? I don’t have a long term answer, but I used more cleft with time. Most broken off grafts came from birds landing on them in the short term and I took to putting an e fence post woven in the cage. Keep the top of the e post higher than the graft. I am pretty much referring to top works here but it might be important with some bench grafts.
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Post by smsmith on Mar 29, 2023 5:56:43 GMT -6
I prefer whip/tongue when scion and rootstock are the same or almost the same diameter. I'll go to cleft when they are different. I'll often do a double cleft when I have rootstock 3/8" or bigger and really small scions.
I don't think long term it makes much difference. Clefts take longer to heal completely and are "uglier".
Bark grafts are likely the weakest in the short term, especially when you get vigorous scion growth. Attaching a stake of some sort like Art mentioned is a good idea.
As far as your different colored tapes, it looks like the width varies with each. I suppose the strength may vary as well. I don't use that stuff very much.
I like 1" parafilm with 3/4" Temflex 2155 over the top. I've heard there's a parafilm shortage, I have enough for a number of years so I don't know for sure. There's two types of parafilm....regular and Parafilm "M". All the fruit geeks I talk to prefer the "M" but I'm too cheap to pay for it. I've had good success with the regular stuff.
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Post by benmnwi on Mar 29, 2023 11:31:24 GMT -6
I use cleft grafts for all of my grafting. I found that I suck at whip and tongue grafting, so I stick with what works for me. I've used grafting tape in the past, but my success % was the same as when I tried just using strips of plastic grocery bags from the store. Now I just cut the plastic grocery bags into strips and use that.
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Post by Reagan on Mar 31, 2023 8:22:20 GMT -6
I’ll start grafting 20 trees when they show up on Monday. Looking at the calendar, I need to put them in the ground within a week on the 8-9th or it will be April 30th at the earliest.
Trees are waking up in my area. I top worked a Bradford pear and a wild crab that had leaves last weekend. Most apples were not showing any green last week but might be in another week.
Temps have been 30-60 for the last few weeks. I’ve mowed my grass 2-3 times already. I think I’ll plant the bench grafts on the 9th and hope for the best. We tend to get plenty of spring rain and I doubt we get to the 20s again.
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Post by smsmith on Mar 31, 2023 8:27:47 GMT -6
The fruit geeks I communicate with in TN and KY have been grafting for a while now. I'd assume southern OH has at least similar weather.
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Post by Reagan on Apr 4, 2023 5:36:26 GMT -6
Grafted the 20 bench grafts last night. What a cluster F.
My brand new knife didn’t seem as sharp as the old one I just broke.
After spending too much time on it and failing, I gave up on whip and tongue and went with all cleft.
The pencil sized rootstock ware harder to work with than the inch diameter + that I’ve been grafting in the field.
I bumped a couple after grafting while they rested in my bucket. Did I damage them?? Who knows?
My cousin was going to buy some of these. My confidence is so low I don’t think I can sell them. If I don’t sell, I have 10 more to plant.
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Post by smsmith on Apr 4, 2023 7:20:28 GMT -6
Grafted the 20 bench grafts last night. What a cluster F. My brand new knife didn’t seem as sharp as the old one I just broke. After spending too much time on it and failing, I gave up on whip and tongue and went with all cleft. The pencil sized rootstock ware harder to work with than the inch diameter + that I’ve been grafting in the field. I bumped a couple after grafting while they rested in my bucket. Did I damage them?? Who knows? My cousin was going to buy some of these. My confidence is so low I don’t think I can sell them. If I don’t sell, I have 10 more to plant. It's a constant learning curve. If you plan to continue W/T bench grafting, you may want to buy something like this to make the angled cuts. You still need a knife to make the tongue cut, but that's pretty straightforward with a few tries. Since I went with one of these tools I get much less frustrated with the angled cuts, and they are far "flatter" and cleaner than what I get with a knife. www.duebuoiagriculture.it/en/pr/light_double_cutting_blades_forged_secateurs_for_o/1526.htmledit...as far as selling some of them, I'd grow them out until fall. By then, you'll know which grafts are successful and which aren't.
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Post by benmnwi on Apr 4, 2023 11:22:02 GMT -6
I'm somewhat cheap at times, so I didn't want to spend money on a grafting knife the first year I tried grafting apple trees. I wanted to see if the grafting hobby was for me before I spent money on special tools. I just used a box cutter with a fresh razor for my cleft grafts and it worked really well (I clean the fresh razor blades off before using since some new blades have oil on them). I never did buy a special grafting knife since the box cutter worked well for me.
If a few grafts don't take this year, just plant the failed rootstock in a pot and try grafting them next year. Grafting seems to get a little easier every year, but you never really know how things will turn out until that first leaf sprouts.
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