I really like this one, especially the use of mud.

I did about a half dozen wedge grafts last weekend, KB, Cuenca Giant Black Unk, Zucchini and Genovese Nero on rootstock that included potted Beall, Petit Negri, Celeste, LSU Purple, Sicilian Red cultivars. 

I think they turned out well but only time will tell. I just love this stuff!

Great vid.  Amazing how it all comes together.

Here is something some nubes like myself don't realize when grafting small caliber scionwood to large caliber rootstock. We tend to try to make the scionwood fit flush against the side of the tree being grafted onto. Wrong!  

As a tree grows, the cambium is going to be a little deeper into the older tree being grafted onto than it is on the little twig of scionwood due to expansion of the xylem.

So,  inserting your scionwood at a slight angle, as is shown in the drawing, ensures that the cambial layers intersect somewhere!

When I first started grafting, about 20 years ago, I used cleft grafts and they failed and a friend suggested that I tilt the scion a little since I was probably getting the alignment of the cambium layer off by a little.  I did that and it worked.  I usually only do that now if I don't have a very good sense of where the cambium layer is (due to uneven bark or some species which have unusual bark), but I never would tilt my scion as much as shown above as it's going to leave too little of an area that is in contact.  Maybe they've exaggerated the example so it's easier to see but I think that's bad advice as you can clearly see that most of the cambium layer is far from being aligned.  My success rate in grafting is usually very close to 100% and I have done thousands of grafts so I humbly submit that I know what I'm talking about.

It is pretty addicting isn't it Frank!? 

You and Harvey both made some good points. I'm sure tilting the scion a bit in some cases might do the trick so this is a good point. But it may be a bit like a "shotgun" approach. So in the long run, getting to know your cambium layers, will be the most useful in getting more grafts to take. Learning about what the cambium layer is, where it is on both the root stock and on the scion, and how to align them properly. I think this is pretty much what Harvey is trying to emphasize.

I know this is where I messed up early on when I was trying to do some peach grafts. The rootstock was much bigger than the scion and I was doing cleft grafts. I got the bark aligned nicely on both the scion and root stock. This put the cambiums too far out of touch with each other. The result was failure on all but one piece that must have been in contact just by chance. We live and learn don't we :-) ?

Great video by the way. I also really like the way he was using natural mud to protect the graft union. I can also relate to how they were grafting onto trees in the wild. I've done a little of this already with grafting Kaki persimmon onto native persimmon. I plan to do a bunch more of this again this spring. Mario has also been trying this on his property.

I lost most of the ones that I tried though. I think there are about three reasons for this. One; I wasn't careful enough on cambium alignment. Two; At least one of the grafts was broken by deer (the one that was doing the nicest :-/ ). Three; I think the heat scorched some of them. This latter one is why I like the mud idea so much. I'm going to give that a try, especially on some of the larger root stocks.

By the way, if anyone is interested in trying the mud, you can make a nice clay mud out of most cheap cat litters. Find the cheapest, no name brand, cat litter you can at Wal-Mart and read the ingredients. Many of them will say 100% clay. This, mixed with the right amount of water will make a nice, mold-able, mud. Just an easy way to get good "clean" mud without going out and digging in your yard ;) .

I'm glad this conversation came up.  I had planned to start a new thread on grafting, but some of the questions have already come up.  How much cambium to cambium contact is needed?  If I have plans to train the tree as a 45 degree cordon, can I graft the scion wood to the rootstock at my desired angel?  Is more contact necessarily better than less?  When air-layering, some have recommended (and my normal M.O.) is a one inch girdle so the cambium does not bridge the gap.  I'm not sure if this is folk lore which has been passed on, or if there is merit to the idea.  If so, it would seem the same would hold true for grafting.  Also, on espaliered trees, is it advisable (does it add strength) to graft crossing limbs (lets say I was training it in a grid shape), or is it better to train the vertical on one side of the wire and the horizontal on the opposite side?

Thanks

I believe the more cambium layer contact, the better.  I would not try using grafting to create an angle in a cordon but create that by training the new growth.

One think I've heard of being done once in a cherry orchard to create lower branches is the grower snapped the branches by bending them down but that left a pretty ugly scene and I'm sure resulted in a lot of slow growing while branches healed.  I think the more typical method of pulling branches down and tied to anchors with twine is a better method.  For figs, I think tying them to a wire trellis like shown in some of the photos from Japan that Ken Love has online look pretty nice.

FMD

Thanks for posting this most excellent video.

@HarveyC

Have you done any ficus carica softwood grafting? Success rate? Specific techniques?

Steve, any luck with the cuttings?

Bill, thanks for the cat litter idea.

I've just done dormant hardwood cuttings using cleft grafts.  All the different forms of grafting softwood looks like budding and that scares me because I've sucked pretty bad at T-budding citrus for some reason.  I did do some chip budding of pomegranates once (helped with an experiment at USDA Davis where they were trying cyropreservation).  I thought I might try some chip budding of softwood figs later but, realistically, once spring comes I get too busy on the farm.

Edit: Here's an update of a cleft graft I did of Black Madeira onto Brown turkey 32 days ago.

Frank. I did a graft last spring with a dormant piece of fig cutting onto a softwood shoot that had taken off from the base of the rootstock. This was current season's growth wood that was not there before spring bud break (i.e. green soft wood). This graft took right off did extremely well. I had at least 18"+ of growth by season's end. This was a cleft graft BTW.

I wouldn't have tried this but I had extra material of the particular variety and thought it would be fun to experiment. Glad I did. Hope this is what you were looking for. If given the opportunity I would certainly do this again. 

I really like these kind of videos. They remind me of my grandma, she always kept a garden and grew trees.

FMD,
Thanks for posting. I plan on doing a few dozen grafts this spring on several fruit trees and all the discussions on grafting has come at a good time. Note attached video from a professional grafter on similar graft and on the "cambium contact point". He also has a video with scion cutting technique (the final grafting demo pt 2).

I would like to try grafting, when it's a good time to start for zone 7a?