Grafting items and cheap air pots?

[bigboreblr]

What tools and stuff you use to graft? You need the fancy knife if your only doing a few a year. What tape and coating you use? I read here n there some folks use treekote and most dont. Grafting year old bareroots and fresh ones this year.

Putting new barerootssome in air pots this summer to plant up north in the fall. What gallon(s) size would you recommend? I see there's numerous knockoff ones, anybody try them?

 

[williams111]

I use an Obinel #8

https://a.co/d/1Ndp12q

I have also used these https://a.co/d/eGu4BRe they create impressive root structure. They're not heavy duty, but they're on the second generation of trees in them with no issues thus far.

 

[Lucky_P]

I have a pair of Felco hand pruners and a Victorinox double-bladed grafting/budding knife; bought them both nearly 30 years ago. I do hundreds of grafts most springs. Misplaced my knife once, and made a serviceable fixed-blade grafting knife out of a piece of an old hacksaw blade... they're actually pretty good metal and will take and hold an edge well. I never could get a straight, flat cut with a boxcutter, but see that a number of folks use them
I wrap/seal with Parafilm M.
Depending upon what I'm grafting, I typically use masking tape and #64 rubber bands from OfficeMax, but if I'm topworking a large pear, persimmon or pecan, I'll use rubberized electrician's splicing tape or good ol' duct tape.

 

[hunts_with_stick]

not to hijack the thread but I too have some questions... so you use electric tape or duct tape? not special grafting tape? Also, do I use this coming years water shoots as the "scion" or is there another piece I am supposed to use? Also, any recommended videos to watch on how to graft? Basically I just want to take from my asian pear tree and add to my keifer and transfer some of my apples from my home to my property a hour away/ ty

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

For grafting I just use a box cutter. I've tried grafting tape in the past and it didn't work too well for me, so now I go the cheap and easy route and just cut plastic walmart type bags in 1" strips and use them for grafting. Those type of cheap bags have a little flex in them and they work well for me.

I use water shoots for scion if possible, but any young growth will be fine. I'm in Minnesota and I cut the scion in February and then just wrap it in a plastic bag and keep it in the fridge until I graft in May. I have the best luck when the scion and rootstocks are the same size. There are a lot of youtube videos there about grafting and they are great. I would recommend cutting a bunch of branches now and practice grafting since it takes a little practice to get good and it is better to practice on branches you don't need as opposed to the rootstock that you don't want to mess up on.

 

[Lucky_P]

No grafting tape for me. I learned to graft with Parafilm M and grafting/budding rubbers - but switched over to office-store rubber bands, when my supplier of grafting rubbers went out of business. I had one bag of rubber bands, from Wal-Mart, that would photo-degrade and be peeling off within just 2 or 3 days, so I started doing a wrap of a couple of layers of masking tape around my graft unions before overwrapping with rubbers, just in case they break down too quickly.
I graft a lot of oaks, pecans & hickories... they take longer to callus in and commence growth than do apples/pears/persimmons, etc., and need longer-lasting 'wraps', hence the use of a more long-lasting wrap such as rubberized electrician's splicing tape or duct tape.

I tried Parafilm Grafting Tape once... but for my purposes, it was vastly inferior to good old Parafilm M.

For small stuff, where I'm doing a whip & tongue, cleft, or simple bark graft, I'll wrap union and scion with Parafilm, then overwrap the union with a layer or two of masking tape. Then, overwrap that with a #64 rubber band.
If I'm doing a TX bark inlay type of graft on a big rootstock (like the persimmon in the photo), I'm going to wrap with rubberized electricians splicing tape or duct tape, then cover the graft unions and exposed top of the rootstock with aluminum foil. Then, later in the season, I'll come back and remove the foil and cut the tape so that it can fall off rather than potentially girdle.

If you're going to be grafting pears or apples... you don't need much. One of my friends and orcharding mentors ran a noted fruit tree nursery (Rocky Meadow) in Indiana for many years... Almost all of his apples & pears were grafted with a whip & tongue, and the graft union wrapped with nothing other than masking tape.

 

[hunts_with_stick]

do you add any wet paper towels before wrapping in plastic and storing in the fridge? I plan on grating right to the tree, no rootstock.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

do you add any wet paper towels before wrapping in plastic and storing in the fridge? I plan on grating right to the tree, no rootstock.

Yes, I add a couple of damp paper towels in the plastic bag that contains the scion.

 

[Lucky_P]

I've had issues with mold growing on paper towels &/or newsprint, so I will moisten cedar shavings (I usually have a compressed bale of them around to put in the purple martin houses) and pitch a handful of damp - not dripping wet - shavings in the bag with my scions.

 

[yoderjac]

What tools and stuff you use to graft? You need the fancy knife if your only doing a few a year. What tape and coating you use? I read here n there some folks use treekote and most dont. Grafting year old bareroots and fresh ones this year.

Putting new barerootssome in air pots this summer to plant up north in the fall. What gallon(s) size would you recommend? I see there's numerous knockoff ones, anybody try them?

I've got lots of tools for grafting. If you are skilled, a sharp knife is really all you need. I like freezer tape for cambium alignment type grafts. For bark grafting, where pressure is more important than alignment, I like electrical tape because of the stretch.

I'm not sure I'd recommend putting clonal rootstock in a root pruning container for one season unless you have a specific reason, like you can't plant them. Keep in mind that root pruning requires a system of containers. I've success putting clonal root stock in RB2 containers, but it takes about 2 growing season in 7B for them to be ready to field plant. If the clonal root stock is small, I start them in 1 gal containers. Otherwise, I start them in 3 gal Rootbuilder 2 containers.

 

[bigboreblr]

I've got lots of tools for grafting. If you are skilled, a sharp knife is really all you need. I like freezer tape for cambium alignment type grafts. For bark grafting, where pressure is more important than alignment, I like electrical tape because of the stretch.

I'm not sure I'd recommend putting clonal rootstock in a root pruning container for one season unless you have a specific reason, like you can't plant them. Keep in mind that root pruning requires a system of containers. I've success putting clonal root stock in RB2 containers, but it takes about 2 growing season in 7B for them to be ready to field plant. If the clonal root stock is small, I start them in 1 gal containers. Otherwise, I start them in 3 gal Rootbuilder 2 containers.

Atleast this year, I have alot of tree planting at home to do, so the trees up north may not get in the ground for awhile. I am planning a new area and a whole new technique. Instead of food plots, going with young browse, and will add a few fruit trees. I'd like to get a good feel for the area before putting them in.

 

[yoderjac]

Atleast this year, I have alot of tree planting at home to do, so the trees up north may not get in the ground for awhile. I am planning a new area and a whole new technique. Instead of food plots, going with young browse, and will add a few fruit trees. I'd like to get a good feel for the area before putting them in.

If you are prepared to keep them for 2 growing seasons and overwinter them, 3 gal RB 2 containers would work well. They unwrap making planting easy. If you want to go the cheap route, I'd look at canvas type bags. Keep in mind you need to find a way to hang them so you get air under the bag. The RB2s can sit on the ground.

 

[Diesel5610]

not to hijack the thread but I too have some questions... so you use electric tape or duct tape? not special grafting tape? Also, do I use this coming years water shoots as the "scion" or is there another piece I am supposed to use? Also, any recommended videos to watch on how to graft? Basically I just want to take from my asian pear tree and add to my keifer and transfer some of my apples from my home to my property a hour away/ ty

I use grafting tape and the water shoots are fine to use. A lot of good videos on grafting. This a a good one and he has a lot of different videos.

 

[PoorSand]

For pots, I primarily use "three gallon" (2.3 gallon in reality), air-pruning Root Pouch Greys that I got in bulk for $1 each. This will be at least my fourth year using and reusing those.

For apple trees with larger roots, I have been using blue Walmart bags for years now. Those are also air-pruning. I've been paying half a dollar each for those. It takes seven gallons of potting mix to fill them up, but filling them just halfway has been enough for me.

I pick up one cubic yard of bulk growers mix per 70 trees from a large nursery operation. That runs me a little under $2 per pot.

For the summer, I set the air pruning pots on a patio made with bricks that have patterned surfaces that allow air under the bottoms of the pots.