Charlotte’s Garden

From The Master
Gardener

Is It Too Late for
Grafting?

Grafting Results

Walnuts

Fruit Trees

Is It Too Late
for Grafting?

Question:
Some of my grafts took, and some died.
Many of my late grafts seem to have done neither. These were whip and
tongue grafts done a bit too late.  Do
you suppose they might grow next year - like dormant buds?  Do you suppose the buds are dead but the
wood's still alive?

Answer:
It is not too late to do grafts yet. I did some yesterday: Bark, and whip,
also splice of dormant wood to growing trees. I also will be continuing to
graft the same plus greenwood for at least 2 more months yet. If you make a
nick with a knife or fingernail into the scion and it is not green underneath
it is gone.

Grafting Results

Grafting
results this year have been great, but I think it may be due to timely rains,
which we've not had, than to any great improvement in grafting techniques.

Walnuts

I
attempted a number of early chip-bud grafts, as espoused by my friend Gordon
Nofs.  I tried them with a dozen or
more pecan & hickory varieties and a handful of different black walnuts
and heartnuts without success. We had two nights of
sub-freezing temperatures in early to mid-April, following a couple of weeks
of temps in the upper 80s - I had several pecan, hickory, pawpaw, and
mulberry grafts that were just starting to push leaves, but the freeze killed
them outright.   Perhaps without the
late freeze, I might have had some success with the chips.

Walnuts
are difficult. I've tried chip buds, 4-flaps, bark grafts, Gray grafts, Wood
Sap-stopper modification of the Gray graft, and none have worked all that
well for me.  Guess the few takes I
have gotten with black walnut or heartnut this
spring have been with something of a modified graft bark(kind
of like the Wood Sap-stopper) - I'm not completely decapitating the stock,
just cutting 7/8 of the way through, breaking it over, and leaving it
attached to 'draw sap' for about 2 weeks before I cut it off.

I'm
having good success with pecans, hickories and hicans
this year – best
I've EVER had! My  success rate is probably running in
the neighborhood of 80+%.  I have been
doing both 3 or 4-flap(banana) grafts or simple bark
grafts; both are working quite nicely.
I usually wrap these with Parafilm, then
overwrap with a split 3/8"x.020 budding rubber, and overwrap that again,
with Parafilm.
I have been making 'girdling' cuts below the completed graft, as
recommended by my grafting mentor.
Some of the pecans & hickories have pushed shoots a foot or more
in length.

Oaks
have been variable, but largely dependent on condition of the scions.  Had 100% takes of "McDaniel" BurXEnglish  and overcup scions that I collected personally, but 0% with
bur & white oak scions sent by friends. They were shipped too wet, and I
didn't check moisture levels before I stored them.

Fruit Trees

Apples
have been running close to 100% - I've done simple whips, clefts, and bark
grafts, depending on size of scions & available rootstocks.  The only failures occurred when the
not-so-good scionwood was not very good to begin
with, especially with the Chestnut in one particular spot.

Persimmons
are running close to 100% - have grafted close to 50, I guess, and the only
failures have been with scionwood that was in less than
ideal condition.  I do a simple bark
graft, wrap with parafilm, then overwrap with a
.010 budding rubber.

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