An update ....

The supports I added for the grafted plants were not quite adequate. The winds last week snapped one of my grafts. This particular graft was somewhat weak. I don't know if it was the technique or the variety involved. It was growing really well but the graft union was weak. This was a Mission fig. The others have good graft unions.

To fix the problem I placed taller bamboo supports on all my grafted plants. The one that snapped is still doing fine. It is connected to the rootstock by a very thin section. I went ahead and air-layered it.

The pictures are of the one that snapped, the snapped graft union and one of the others that had a nice graft union.

Too bad it snapped, but the air layer was a nice way to salvage the situation.

An update ....

The grafts are still doing well. Growth compared to the rooted cuttings is quite good. All four grafts have put out multiple fruits. I have air layered two of them one of which is ready for removal.

Had to up-pot all of them due to growth. The smaller pots in front are the rooted cuttings.

Nana,
This is a very nice discourse.

Great topic! Very interesting,Nana. Thanks

Great looking plants! Thanks for the update.

very interesting. thank you so much for the updates

Thanks for the updates. Nice work and well-presented.

I see some grafting in my future. I've had success with grafts on peaches and nectarines, but havent tried anything else yet.

This is my first year rooting figs and now I know what I'm going to do with some of the less desireable or unknown varieties I've rooted, are doing well, but didn't have much of a future (I didn't want to take the time, space, and supplies to grow them up). They are now going to be rootstock for next years cuttings. :)  And then perhaps some air-layering since it can be extremely windy here.

I had the first ripe fruit from a grafted tree yesterday. While all 4 fruited the Marseilles Black VS was the first to ripen. I think I could have picked it a day sooner, but it was very good. Beats the best Celeste I have had. It was jammy and flavorful, sweet but not overly so. I can't wait for this one to get better with age. Also, MBVS seems to take the heat really well. We have had a few consecutive days where the temps were around 105F and MBVS did not show the slightest distress.

It took less than 5 months from cutting to ripe fruit on this graft! I am looking forward to trying the rest of the fruits on this plant!

That's impressive--congratulations! Only one of my grafts (LSU Improved
Celeste) is growing fruit; most of the others are showing little progress. There's usually a big growth spurt once the monsoon rains get under way, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the grafts will take off then, too.

Such a nice looking dark type and thanks for sharing that picture.

Really amazing work, thank you so much for showing us. My hands are full now, but will follow your steps at the proper time when I attempt this. Nana, please keep us updated on your work.


luke

Ken, I think the key was starting early. I grafted them around the first week of Feb. Then by mid to late March they were outside and had a good 2+ months to grow well in warm but not hot temperatures. I did give them a daily dose of dilute MG and pinched them to make branches. Now it is very hot and nothing is really putting much leaf growth, but they are pushing little fruits. Hopefully your monsoon season will kick them into high gear. Rain water does wonders for plants. In fact I watered them exclusively with collected rainwater in the spring.

Martin and Luke, you are welcome. These are some of my first black figs and I am really liking the look and taste. In the fall I will try to sum up my learnings.

Ruvan,

Can you give any advice as to the timing of grafts that worked best? I'm wondering whether to do it when the plant is fully dormant (no sap flowing), or when the sap begins to flow prior to budbreak. These are fantastic results and I'd like to try this next winter indoors with some cuttings. I've never tried grafting before but am encouraged after your experiences.

Tim

Tim,

I just started grafting figs early this year. The first week of February to be exact.

I had the root stock plants in a dormant state in the unheated garage.
As I ordered the cuttings I brought them inside the house and left them near a sunny window to 'wake' them up. Upon receiving the cuttings I grafted them. I didn't think grafting in a dormant state would work. I had grafted pear and jujube in prior years as they broke dormancy and that worked really well.

You should definitely try grafting. It is quite rewarding and your chances of raising a good sized plant by fall is greatly increased. Frankly I don't think I will root fig cuttings anymore. It is too much work in my opinion. Of course to graft you have to be ready with root stock plants. There is some upfront preparation but then it is pretty easy.

Please Please Please do ,not graft UCD Scion on established older cultivars that are healthy,because they will decay,and become ill to never again produce a large harvest,because the scion infects the healthy tree forever.
Grafting is the worse thing you can do to a healthy tree.

Herman, you are right  - grafting onto tree growing in ground or one that you intend to keep healthy is a gamble - UCD or not. It is like taking a blood transfusion without proper screening. Thank you for pointing that out.

What I propose is to use cutting grown plants to use as root stock solely for the purpose of propagation. In my case I used Celeste as the root stock. In the end I do plan to have everything growing on their own roots by air layering.

That is also my plan for Black Ishcia, I have a fairly healthy tree that is hardy here, very vigorous but the fruit has an open eye which will mold too easily when it ripens here so I am planning to take a couple air layers or just buy a couple plants of the same variety and graft the black ischia onto it next year (assuming I get the cuttings) and see if it will improve the vigour of the black ishcia enough to grow where I can take an air layer from and maybe keep one grafted to see if it helps, assuming the grafts would take. 
On the other hand I am feeling kind of lazy and would rather get healthy black ischia cuttings, I have lots of virus as it is and some how I think that even if the graft takes on the Black Ischia, that it may fail soon after based on numerous peoples attempts.

Grafting gives you more growth and bigger tree faster, essentially because you did the hard work the previous year. You already grew the roots, and now it is time to use them. Cuttings need to go through the rooting process in the current season.

I am contemplating chopping off some tall skinny plants, and letting them reflush with growth this season, with the hope that I would have 2-4 good branches for grafting onto next spring, to make 2- 3- and 4-in one trees.

One note, gfrafting will be most successful if the rootstock has already begun to break dormancy. With the sap already rising in the tree, it increases the quickness and successfulness with which the graft point heals together. If the roots are dormant, the graft will need to wait heal  until the sap does flow.

Ruvan, the monsoon has spurred growth in all of my "stagnant" grafts except Black Madeira, so I expect a decent size increase by the end of the season. However, I probably won't have time to air layer them this year as I had planned, so I'll have to protect the grafts this winter.

Jon, I think you described the condition very well. Also, the fact that you can fertilize the grafted ones a little more aggressively than rooted cuttings helps increase size by end of season,

Ken, sorry to hear BM is slow going. I was hoping it would take off too. If I am not mistaken BM is a slow grower and somewhat dwarfed. I think Dennis posted a picture of the UCD tree which was small. I was thinking perhaps a vigorous rootstock will help a slow growing scion(Using the same logic as a dwarfing rootstock slowing growth on the scion of a otherwise faster growing plant).  Perhaps the reverse is not true. Anyone else have any experience in this area?

The next grafted plant to ripen fruit was Mega Celeste. I posted some pictures of the fruit here;

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/Mega-Celeste-a-winner-2910067

This one fruited in under 6 months after grafting. About 4 fruit on this plant dropped several weeks ago. I decided to remove all of the rest but two to give them a chance to ripen. Sure enough one started swelling and ripening.

Yet to fruit .....Hunt and Mission NL. I removed some fruit from Hunt as some of its fruit dropped too.

In the attached picture the plant to the left is the rooted cutting while the one to the right is the grafted one.