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gardener365

Grafting Follow Up

gardener365
9 years ago

I've moved everything outside.

Here's a follow up video that goes along with my grafting vidoes. Pretty successful year @ 89.5%.

Dax

Comments (11)

  • baxswoh
    9 years ago

    Do you attribute the smaller flap as increasing the % or is the % close to your prior years?

  • severnside
    9 years ago

    89.5% success (!) I dream of the day I can even reach a failure rate of 89.5%.

    That would be dizzy heights for me.

    Good work Daxmeister, great vid.

  • Cher
    9 years ago

    Your grafts look great and obviously a very successful year for you and considering this past Winter it sounds wonderful to have lost so few.
    Cher

  • gardener365
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I would say definitely. What's equally as important is that I bagged them vs. a tenting chamber with thick white poly. Bagging them or if a person were to put all their grafts on the floor and drape an extremely lightweight piece of clear poly over will accomplish the same thing (as bagging each.) After the first 10 or 20 grafts this year, I started grafting them like Clement showed us in his video where he uses the smaller flap and doesn't cut the front of the scion "method." Of those first 10 or 20 where I did cut the front and back of the scions, I don't think I lost but 1 maybe 2 grafts... so I probably gained 10% overall. I don't know for sure because I changed a lot of things up a lot this year. I ended up removing all the white poly off my tenting chamber to increase sunlight, and just the tenting chamber itself being used prior was killing (more) grafts than the good that I saw, this year... early on, also years ago, I used to use bottom heat and inside my tenting chamber, but I learned the heat was drying up the soil media before I could catch it. So, lots of changes. It took four years at least to iron out these patches.

    This year overall, I borrowed images Henk once posted of his grafts under light poly on the floor of his prop house and Clement's grafting approach. I wouldn't recommended using tenting chambers, anymore. No reason either to wait for rootstocks to wake up. Just graft on them after they've been warmed up for a few days or a week and keep your temps at 40 or above during night. I basically set my heater for 50 but it doesn't have a thermostat, just a dial with numbers. So when night (or day) temperatures plummet really low, there were days I'd wake up and see 35 or some really low #. But as long as it didn't dip to below freezing, I was safe.

    Dax

  • severnside
    9 years ago

    I also wonder about the flap. Before, were you doing a two-face scion cut into a single cut on the RS? What was your success rate then?

    Some of my bought grafts are very incorporated in the flap style into a cup-like deep cut (half the width) in the RS. How that is cut I'm not sure as it looks curved but maybe the union and a couple of years have made it look more-so. It does look like there's a big amount of scion foot faced with the well in the RS.

    A rough diagram

  • gardener365
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    It's not a curved cut. It's just how it appears after the scion (probably larger than the rootstock when grafted) became.
    You can never go past 1/3 of the rootstock when making a cut, either.

    Re: 1/3. First thing you'll notice is you run into the pith/hardwood if you do cut too deeply. And if you do hit the pith, you've already gone too far and the graft will not be a successful one.

    My success rate was high 70's or 80%, prior. And yes, it's always a single cut into the rootstock... that's how you end up with a surface that your cut scion presses up against. Just reducing the flap to completely cover the wedge cut on the scion so it covers it (or slightly more) but never less.. is how the wedge area must be "completed."

    Dax

  • maple_grove_gw
    9 years ago

    Cool video, Dax! The grafts look spiffy. Also enjoyed the chance to get another look at your hoophouse.

    Here's the thing about cutting only one side of the scion. You have to be skilled enough to make your cut into the RS the same width as the scion. If not, if the scion is thinner than the RS cut, then the RS will be left with exposed cambium/cortex on one side without bark to cover it. This isn't a problem with the other technique, since the flap covers all and you only need to match up the cambium on one side of the graft.

    In different venues I've heard of both of these techniques (two cuts, flap versus one cut, no flap) referred to as veneer graft...does anyone know, which is the true veneer graft?

    Thanks for continuing to enable us with your videos. Always enjoy watching them.

    Alex

  • severnside
    9 years ago

    Thanks Dax, great info as always.

  • sluice
    9 years ago

    Looks like the grafts are enjoying the outdoors! Great information and video.

  • gardener365
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I should elaborate. If you cut thru the pith, you've ruined your chances with that particular seedling. When you make your wedge cut into the rootstock, many times you will hit the pith. That's ok.

    Alex, I had I don't know how many grafts with an exposed "cut area" on the rootstock. All that does is callous over.... same as a would on a tree. As long as you have solid connection on both sides of your scion, you should be good to go.

    Veneer, side graft, I think they're the same.

    Severn, no prob. Always been on a mission to show others how to graft. I can't say why. Maybe I just thought it was so interesting.

    Sluiter- you got game.

    Dax

  • severnside
    9 years ago

    "Severn, no prob. Always been on a mission to show others how to graft. I can't say why. Maybe I just thought it was so interesting."

    Suffice to say, thank goodness you do.