Great work and description. Please keep us posted along the way. I have not tried grafting (yet) and would like to follow your progress.

Eukofios,
i dont know diddly squat about grafting, often heard about it though and seen some pictures. I find it interesting though that this can be done. What you have done useing simple things from the home makes it simple and inexpensive which i like (ole fashion way) Also i like your Legal Statement with the single edge razor, i got a kick out of that one indeed as it reminds me of how i shave still with the old fashion number adjustable gillette double edge razor and brush with cup of round soap , yes i have old scars to prove it and still use the septic stick to stop the bleeding i think they call it (it burns a little) but what a shave. Anyways please keep us posted , that sure would be a nice way to have more than one type of fig and on the same tree to boot!
Martin

Great thread!! I plan on doing the same with the mother fig tree in my greenhouse. Previously I've grafted some apples, pears and lilac. I can't wait to try the fig. I plan on using the cleft graft that you used. I've used a whip and tongue graft in the past but the cleft is easier. For tape I like black rubber electrical tape, NOT vinyl electrical tape. The rubber stretches without girdling. I found some at Home Depot for a reasonable price. Please keep us posted as to how well your grafts take.

Peace,
Little John

Eukofios, Good luck with your experiment. From what I've heard, it is more difficult to successfully graft figs than other types of fruit. Supposedly, the pith is a problem. There was a previous disscussion of fig grafting with some links to directions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Grafting Discussion

I love your post, very nice, step by step.

My first thought is that the jelly might seep inbetween your graft and cause problems. I would spend the 95c for a block of parafin and melt that on to seal the graft.
Good luck and I look forward to see your success and comments.

Last weekend I went outside and tried the same method on my mature, in-ground petite negri tree. I used the Brunswick, again, and Lattarula, as scions.

Reading through past Fig Forum posts, it looks like this is a long shot. However, a number of old postings do indicate possiblity with more than one grafting method.

It's not clear whether prior failures were with dormant or green grafting methods, or with what grafting style. It may be that it's just so easy to grow figs by cuttings, that grafting hasn't been tried much. We'll see if I have beginner's luck. I'll plan on posting whether there is success or failure.

I did the same with an apple tree last year, with variable success. Some took, some didnt. I tried the apple again earlier this month with 2 more varieties from my Dad's apple tree. Even if only a few take, it's a lot of fun to try and think about. The investment in time and materials is minimal.

Eukofios,
please keep us posted on what happens.
Dont take wrong way but seems you might have a little curiousity or hard headness in you as i surely do and thats a great thing.Personally i have both.
Look forward to reading more of your future post and what happens.
Martin

Martin,

You are right, I am curious, and you are not the first to say I'm stubborn. That's taken as a compliment. Also, it's the hardheadedness that's gotten me past many gardening failures. I heard somewhere that a successful gardener kills a lot of plants. That's me, but now I have a yard with almost 30 fruit trees, and had more grapes, strawberries, and tomatoes last year than I could eat.

Before I grew them, I had never tasted a fresh fig, and now I've eaten plates covered with home-grown figs, several varieties. There have been a lot of comments around here that I can't grow figs, and yet I'm still looking forward to bowls of them this summer!

Also, when I started this grafting experiment, I didn't know yet that it couldn't be done, so it's too late to give up! The scions are still fresh and plump looking. It's too soon to mean anything, only a week. Even rootless cuttings look OK at this point. But I'm still hopeful and who knows, maybe it will work!

Daniel

This is a one month follow-up, and some additional information.

The appearance of the grafts is unchanged from one month ago. That is both good news and bad news. The good news is that they didnt shrivel up and die. The bad news is that continuing to look green does not prove viablity - just as with cuttings, which can grow without rooting, the green color may be related to preservation, not necessarily growth.

Still, I am a little encouraged. They are on the north side of my house, in the shade, so that may be why the buds haven't swollen more.

I found a reference from google's scanned books - not on my own, it was posted on gardenweb fig forum but I lost the thread so I don't know who posted. This is 1901 agricultural bulletin by Gustav Eisen. He states that grafting of figs isn't difficult.

Below are a couple of clippings showing illustrations from that Bulletin. It is public domain. In addition, a link is provided - very interesting reading, especially given the age of the book. I post partly because if I was not so naive (most postings on fig forum are not encouraging about grafting figs), and stubborn, I probably would not have tried grafting. Even though I still don't know whether it will work, I'm having fun trying and may yet (maybe) get to my goal of a small growing, multigraft tree. If not, little was lost & I have lerned a few things.

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Here is a link that might be useful: Gustav Eisen's 1901

Eukofios,
always have a hard time spelling your SN, ; )
Anyways you say it not brown and not shrivled up but yet its green still which does not mean viability.
Well i say odds are better the longer it stays green and in cool shaded weather, like i said i dont know diddly squat about grafting but the longer it stays green i would say the better your odds.
Stay stubborn !
Please keep us posted good or bad, but knowing you if it goes bad you try and try again cause some of us refuse to give up and learn thru this process and eventually have sucess.
Best Health
Martin

Hello,

I just came home after a week and a half vacation. I found that my mother fig tree, which I had grafted 3 different scions onto, had a grafted branch that was bumped. The branch was pointing down to the ground, most likely from our house sitter watering the greenhouse. That branch was shriveled and brown. The other 2 seem like they haven't changed. I put plastic bags over the grafted branches and that seems to help keep up the humidity. The smaller figs that I've grafted are happy that the bags are on as well. Its a bit cool in the G.H. these days but I have a good feeling that I'll have some success when things heat up. A few of the cuttings that I received from gorgi and kkfromnj have buds that have greened up and swollen. WOOO HOOO!!! Come on warmer days!!

Peace,
Little John

Eukofios,

From your reading of Eisen's publication on the fig tree, what recommendations are made regarding sealing and binding the cleft graft?

Thank you for your time, and for finding this valuable publication on grafting figs......this is a subject I have been searching about for over a year now without any success, that is until I found this recent posting of yours!

Scion,

Thanks for the positive comments! I suspect that we can use modern grafting techniques, but with attention to the issues in Eisen's book about the locations of the cuts and the pith. Of course, I'm by no means an expert.

I suspect that grafting wax is probably the best sealant. I liked the vaselline that I used, but I understand the point about it possibly getting into the cleft. Another option is parafilm, which I have not bought but which some hobbyists use - it has the right stretchability and sealing properties. Probably available on the internet. Another hobbiest uses tape, made from cutting strips from plastic freezer bags. I tried that for some other grafts, and liked the stretchability better than the plumber's tape that I used previously.

THe terminal buds on my little grafts have started to split open and baby leaves are visible. I feel SO CLOSE! Not counting the chickens before they hatch, of course, but every day I look at them with hope in my heart!

Best wishes. Would love to hear your experiences, we are all learning here!

Daniel

Eukofios,

Thank you for your thoughts on sealing and binding the fig cleft-graft.

In reply to your interest about my own experiences with fig grafting, I can summarise my personal observations in the field, thus far, as follows-

Chip budding using current season's growth as buds matched onto rootstock material of similar growth maturity, has proven to be VERY easy and successful in my trials recently (we are now in the middle of autumn here in Australia).

"Patch budding" (which is different to T budding or chip budding) has also proved successful for me, however it has many disadvantages over chip budding....The patch budding proceedure can only be done successfully when the bark of the recipient and the donor both slip easily....Also if the bark of the patch is much thinner than the bark around where it will be placed, it will always fail to take in the fig.

I have therefore come to the conclusion that chip budding is BY A LONG SHOT more versatile than patch budding, and should be the preferred method of budding figs. I would also suggest that it is to be preferred ovet T-budding, if only for the obvious reason that T budding also reuqires the recipient bark to easily slip, which adds restrictions on the timing of the grafting.

I have not as yet tried cleft grafting onto figs.

Anyway, keep us posted on your results!!

So far! 6 weeks into the experiment. Both scions have started to show signs of life. I'm resisting the urge to unwrap them to see if they have calloused.

Not claiming success yet - but:

1. They haven't dried out and turned black.
2. The buds are opening.
3. They haven't rotted, either.

Cuttings often get beyond this point, then die due to not rooting. So we'll see.
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Well so far so good and im happy for you!
6 weeks and still going thats great hope you can resist a little longer.
Please let us know.
Best Luck
Martin

Thanks for starting this thread eukofios. This is an easy rafting technique that anyone can do (even me) and if it works I'm sure many will give it a try including me and for that I thank you.

Nice pictures and tutorial by the way.

Eukofios,
How are your grafts looking now?

I have a volunteer in my yard and I was thinking about grafting it--did yours ever start growing???

Carla in Sac