Help with beginner bench grafting

gunfun13

5 year old buck +
Last year I purchased 25 pear rootstocks and attempted bench grafting with scion wood I had collected and some I received from a member here. 0% success rate. I read what I could online, but what seemed to lack from most resources was the timing of when to do everything. Anyone care to walk me through their entire grafting regimen? From collecting scions to post graft care, etc. Thanks in advance!
 
I collect scionwood in February or March in NY or PA. Seal cut ends with wax. Store in fridge with a moist paper towel or newspaper in a zip lock bag.

I try to bench graft in April and plant outside around my last frost date (May 10), a little earlier or later depending on forecast. I want to have enough time inside for the graft to heal without breaking dormancy and avoid freezing temps outside. But I've had grafts get a frost and be ok. And some leaf out before going outside. Trim roots to 1 to 2 inch long when I graft. Keep roots moist. Try not to mishandle the scion after grafting.

I've used PVC tape, electrical tape, and buddy tape. Buddy tape can be left on without girdling it. Both grafting wax and toilet bowl wax to seal over the tape. Mostly cleft but some whip and tongue.

Watch YouTube videos.
 
Thanks chicken little. How do you store your grafted stock before moving outside? I put mine in the garage and wonder if maybe it got too cold. All my rootstocks lived, just the buds on scions never did anything, eventually just drying out and dying.
 
Thanks chicken little. How do you store your grafted stock before moving outside? I put mine in the garage and wonder if maybe it got too cold. All my rootstocks lived, just the buds on scions never did anything, eventually just drying out and dying.

There are some differences depending on what and how you are grafting. Here are some general comments:

Nothing will preserve scion wood like the tree it is on before it is collected. You need to collect it before the buds begin to swell but I like to keep it on the tree until I have to collect it. Dipping the cut ends of the scions in Dr. Farwells or any grafting sealant will help keep them from drying out while in storage. I typically put them in a ziplock bag with some slightly damp sphagnum. If you get things too wet you can get mold. I don't seal the bag, I just fold it over. I put it in the crisper. Make sure you have no other fruit in the refrigerator with your scions.

With most grafting methods used on the bench, Whip & Tongue, Wedge, etc, the key is matching up the cambium layers. I like to use freezer tape when grafting things like apples with these techniques. It degrades in the field and you don't need to remove it like electrical tape. It has a coating on it that is water resistant which helps keep water from getting into the graft.

While I don't bother with easy to graft trees, I like to wrap scions with Parafilm-M before grafting them. This too helps keep the scion from drying out until it has had chance to callus with the rootstock. If you are having high success rates, don't bother, but it does provide more time.

Also keep in mind that there can be incompatibilities between rootstock and scions. For example, some combinations of oriental and European pears don't do well.

Timing can also be a factor. With some kinds of trees, I seem to get better results if the rootstock is actively growing. With others it seems that can work against you. For example, I've tried grafting some domestic apple scions to crabapple rootstock after the crabapples are actively growing. Because the crabs I was using leaf out much earlier than the domestic apples I was grafting, the trees wanted to push out more crab branches rather than pushing the scion. This usually occurs in a field situation not bench.

Having said that, I've also had some good success grafting early and putting the grafted trees immediately into 3 gal RB2s under lights and then acclimating them to the outdoors. This allows for a more controlled environment for the grafts to take and then a good growing season in the root pruning container to build a root system. There are both upsides and downsides to this approach.

Thanks,

Jack
 
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I don't have much control over temperature after grafting. I store in my basement at 60 to 65F. I think ideal would be a couple weeks at 70F for the graft to heal and then back to 35-40F until you plant outside.
 
Thank you Chickenlittle and Jack
 
I don't have much control over temperature after grafting. I store in my basement at 60 to 65F. I think ideal would be a couple weeks at 70F for the graft to heal and then back to 35-40F until you plant outside.

If you you store the grafts for a couple of weeks at 70 right after grafting you run the risk of your scion budding out before the graft union is knitted together. I think its best to store the new grafts a couple of weeks in 45 to 55 temps to give the graft time to knit together before the scion breaks buds.
 
I doubt you can find any pair of successful grafters that do it the same way. Raintree Nursery recommends healing the grafts warm for 10-14 days and then back to cold storage until you plant out. Cummins Nursery says they store at 45F for 2-12 weeks before planting out. Both seem to be able to produce plenty of trees to sell regardless of their opinion on best practice.
 
I doubt you can find any pair of successful grafters that do it the same way. Raintree Nursery recommends healing the grafts warm for 10-14 days and then back to cold storage until you plant out. Cummins Nursery says they store at 45F for 2-12 weeks before planting out. Both seem to be able to produce plenty of trees to sell regardless of their opinion on best practice.
This has always intrigued me. I'd love to hear a botanist talk about the actual amount of cell growth and "healing" that we talk about when we await planting outside of our bench grafts. I have a hard time (I'm not a botanist but was a bio major in college) believing that at cold temps (40-50) that much cell growth actually occurs, so although I follow the practice of keeping grafts in my cool garage before planting I never was really convinced it did much good.
Two years ago as an experiment I cleft grafted outside in my orchard in March. We had several freezing days with temps around 20 and yet all of my grafts took. None of the scions (which we say are ruined if frozen) suffered any noticeable damage. So it seems to me that the ideas of "waiting for squirrel ears" before grafting outside and "giving new grafts time to heal" might not be universally necessary.
 
This has always intrigued me. I'd love to hear a botanist talk about the actual amount of cell growth and "healing" that we talk about when we await planting outside of our bench grafts. I have a hard time (I'm not a botanist but was a bio major in college) believing that at cold temps (40-50) that much cell growth actually occurs, so although I follow the practice of keeping grafts in my cool garage before planting I never was really convinced it did much good.
Two years ago as an experiment I cleft grafted outside in my orchard in March. We had several freezing days with temps around 20 and yet all of my grafts took. None of the scions (which we say are ruined if frozen) suffered any noticeable damage. So it seems to me that the ideas of "waiting for squirrel ears" before grafting outside and "giving new grafts time to heal" might not be universally necessary.

What I've always worried about grafting outside to early is unusual warm temps that get the Scion to break bud then have another hard freeze come through killing the freshly broken buds.
 
Okay, I'm a beginner too and have watched several of the youtube videos. I see in most of them that they only use short pieces of the scionwood that includes two or three buds while bench grafting. So now I'm wondering how long the scions I've ordered from USDA grin will be, and will I get two or more grafting pieces from each stick?
 
Barndog, you can usually get 3 to 5 grafts from each stick. It depends what is available on the tree. I gotten a few tiny twigs when that was the best they had for that variety.
 
Guess I'll need to buy some more rootstocks then. Thanks!

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One other thought... the day of your bench grafting... the environment you graft in... I've always done mine in my garage or a shed due to the mess I make (cool, no breeze, no direct sunlight, to dry roots or scion wood). I ensure that my scion wood is not left out to dry piled up waiting to be grafted and that my root stock is pulled one by one from the chest cooler, I keep the root stock in in damp saw dust chilled with a couple ice blocks in the corners... My scion wood is in a zip lock bag with a damp towel and I pluck them out one by one as well....and once the union is made the grafts are put right back into that damp cold sawdust. Eventually I pot them out then... but they are left in the cool basement garage and gradually brought to the front by the windows ( no direct sunlight) then outside in a shaded area ... long before I bring them out into the direct sunlight...
 
I've grafted a few hundred apple trees with pretty good success. I've probably tried 50 pears or so and have zero success. Just not meant to be for me.
 
I've grafted a few hundred apple trees with pretty good success. I've probably tried 50 pears or so and have zero success. Just not meant to be for me.

Hey Matt

I'm in the same boat. Pears are suppose to be as easy as apples to graft, but so far with bench grafts I've had lousy success. The rootstocks themselves have always died. Last spring I planted 10 pear rootstocks in pots and let them grow. This spring I'll try grafting to them to see if that helps. I've had much better success grafting on to seedling pears that were 3-4 years old growing in their permanent locations.
 
one piece of advice I really found helpful was the importance of having sharp tools, somebody said if you can't shave with them, don't graft with them. I took this to heart, sent all my knives to a professional cutler in the city, he did them all by hand, and to say they are sharp is an understatement, I do a few grafts, give them a couple rubs on the strop and do a few more, they stayed really sharp and I saw a dramatic increase in success after this, apparently I was just hacking away at them before with what I thought were sharp tools
 
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