Today I have mostly been .... grafting.

[Lardman]

Is it me or are the rootstocks really thick this year - I am honestly wondering if my M26 are actually M27's, I guess only time will tell. I wanted to interstem some M111 but I think the M26's off cuts will be too thick to use as scion.

I was hoping to do nice clean saddle or whip & tongue to do cordons but with fat roostocks and thin scions I've had to cleft graft all but 1 of them so I expect some failures. For the record (so I'll know when the labels fall off ) I've done ...

Arkansas Black
Sweet 16
Ashmead's Kernel
Limelight
Russet Superb
Reinette grise du Canada
Claygate Pearmain
St Edmunds Russet

Anyone else grafting yet ? These are bench grafts really and they'll live in a shady spot in greenhouse for a few weeks first.

[nickdub]

planning to do few myself tomorrow - I find cleft grafting the easiest, so then what I'll go for. Late this year early due to the cold weather, but the apple trees are moving now, so it won't be long before the blossom is out.

I have done a bit of whip & tongue earlier with plums, trying out a version of binding up with electrical tape I saw on U-tube. No idea if it will work at all, but it didn't take much a apart from time, to give it a try.

[Lardman]

I've switched over to electrical tape for everything but chip buds. It's very good, tightens well and you can give it a good stretch when you need to as the sticky will hold it so you don't need 3 hands. The only thing to watch is the top of the cleft, make sure you don't have any gaps to let the rain in. I moved after buying some utterly rubbish "grafting" tape that snapped the second you looked at it wrongly.

Don't mention grafting plums to me ! I usually get 80-90% success with apples and pears but for plums I'm 0% after 18 attempts over 3 years. I did some blue tit onto pixy a few weeks ago for a cordon project using a grafting tool - I'm just waiting for it to fall off

[nickdub]

After I put the electrical tape on I wrapped a bit of clingfilm over the lot on some I tried, to see if that would help stop them drying out. I'm not expecting much, as this was a new process for me. If I get round to it I'll probably bud some of the plums later in the year if the grafts fail.

[nickdub]

Well as planned just started a bit of grafting, beginning with a pear and an apple. Blimey that quince root-stock is a tough wood to split.

Come inside for a bit of a warm up - this misty-moisty weather is more like Autumn than Spring, still we've not had any frost or biting wind here for a while. The damp keeps the raffia moist I suppose, which is rather a doubtful benefit.

[nickdub]

Just to an up date to say that I finished the bit of grafting I was planning to do today, including using hot beeswax to seal it all. My new acquisition of a cast iron glue pot, which I used for the first time did the trick of keeping the wax liquid just long enough (mentioned this pot in another thread).

I shall have to wait to see what success if any I get - was getting a bit fumble fingered by the end, as cold wet fingers and manipulation of small delicate things accurately, are not the best of combinations.

[Lardman]

It all sounds very scientific over there a far cry from what happens here

I'm curious, are you grafting onto single rootstocks or doing family trees ? I'm fast running out of space but I'm torn between rows of trees like Nigel Deacon which is really utilitarian or a Franken-tree or two.

[nickdub]

Not at all scientific, a real hodge-podge. I have a couple of quince root-stocks which have grown as off shoots from the roots of existing pear trees - probably due to cultivation damage.

I've got a couple of seedling apples of questionable vigor, almost certainly self-seeded from bird droppings which I have grafted on to today. Also I bought too many trees of one variety of apple when I was younger and had even less idea of what I was up to than now, thus I have several oldish apple trees which I'm gradually trying to work over to different varieties - calling them family trees would be to dignify the haphazard nature if what I'm up to way beyond reason.

For some reason I have also lost a number of previously healthy plum trees over a few years for no discernible reason. So I'm also randomly trying to propagate bits of plums from those varieties of which I only have one tree at the moment, as a sort of insurance policy against further unaccountable losses. Unless my whip and tongue grafting unexpectedly succeeds that will entail some budding later in the year.

To add to the confusion I've got several cherry trees, most of which are poorly sited and if I get enthusiastic I might try to do something to at least get a cutting or two from some of these on to a better positioned one - odds are against this, as I have a number of other projects in mind which really ought to come first.

[nickdub]

Finishing up my bit of cleft grafting with a couple of plums today. I may do some budding and possibly some approach grafting later in the year, if I don't feel too lazy by then.

[nickdub]

Quick check on the cleft grafts today - I reckon about 50+% of them have taken, which is fine for me, though it would be dreadful if I was doing it commercially :-)

[Lardman]

Mine don't look too good, think the hot spell after I grafted didn't do them any favours, I'll try and get a proper look later today.

I did notice the abysmal cleft graft I did on "frost bite" last year has woken up, that was a real shock as I'd even cut back the one side of the cleft which didn't have a scion. There's also some life from either a plum or it could be a damson, (who needs labels, I'll remember what they are) despite one side of the saddle graft flapping in the breeze.

[nickdub]

I went round mine mainly because I had wrapped the ends in some old cling film to keep them damp - obviously I took it off, as I didn't want them getting steamed in this hot weather :-)

[Lardman]

Pretty bad results this year just 50%.

Ashmeads Kermel / Whip and tounge - Failed
Ashmeads Kermel / Cleft - Taken
Limelight / Cleft - Failed
Reinette du Canada / Cleft - Failed
Sweet 16 / Cleft - Taken
Arkansas Black / Cleft - Failed
Claygate Pearmain / Cleaft - Taken
St Edmunds Russet / Whip and tounge - Taken
Russet Superb / Cleft - Fail
Late flowering Hedgerow / Cleft - Taken

Other than just my fat fingers, Im putting it down to some very thin scions , so stupidly thick rootstocks and the very hot spell just after grafting.

Anything still healthy and not completely dry I may try some chip budding with in a week or two.

[nickdub]

I didn't do as much as you, but I reckon my results are worse if anything - the v hot weather just after the grafting was the main issue I think. Snap on the budding ...

[Lardman]

I've opened up most of the failed grafts to find out what was going on. A good number of the clefts had healed nicely but the scion cut had dried out before the surfaces had formed a union.

Limelight / New Cleft - Taken
Reinette du Canada / Cut into scar tissue to expose green on both and retied. - Taken but stalled.
Russet Superb / Cut into scar tissue to expose green on both and retied. - Taken
Arkansas Black / Cleft - Failed (rotten scion)
Gold Rush / New Cleft - Taken but stalled.

I've also noticed removing the electrical tape this year took some of the bark with it not sure if that's just the brand this year or the lack of weathering as normally it just falls off.

Makes me feel a bit better about this years efforts.