I have read with great interest all of the horticultural gymnastics involved in getting cuttings to root.  We've got bags, perlite, sand, misters, foggers etc.  Would it be easier to just use "easy" rooters like brown turkey or celeste and graft all of the "picky" rooters and rare varieties onto them?  I have +/- 20 celeste ready to pot.  I was thinking maybe just keeping an "inventory" of these and graft any new cuttings i get on the ready made rootstock and avoid all the witchcraft and alchemy of rooting the "tough" ones.
In addition to being easily rooted, BT and Celeste, in my area, are very well acclimated to the climate here. Any thoughts or suggestions?

I agree i have about 20 st Gabriel black and 20 lsu gold. Instead of selling them use them as root stock since the both grow really good in the south plus i already have them. I just never grafted before. Well i grafted to my large green ischia last week. Dont know the outcome. But this is a good topic. Richie

When it is a best time to start grafting?

I started last week i figured right before spring. But i was just guessing. I didnt want the,cold to freeze them or summer to dry them out. I am in Louisiana zone 8. I am not,a expert but like to try things out. I could find any info at all about when to do it. Just how to do it.

According to Bass in an old post:     "You can do grafting now when the scion is dormant and the fig tree is just about to wake up. 
In summer you can do bud grafting using a bud from the current season. (4/14/13)"

Thanks for info. Will find post

Cool post, thanks for update

If you grow figs in a cold area, and your inground trees die down to the ground and then sprout back up in the spring, the regrowth might be from the root stock and not the desired variety you grafted on to it.

I hesitate to post a reply 11 years after the last post in this thread.  I hope it is found.

If I am a bit terse, forgive me. My 'dominant right wing" is in a sling for 6 weeks, bound there as my rotator cuff mends, slowly under the influence of 75 years.

My experience is counter to dogma.

I am a CRFG member located halfway between San Francisco and San Jose, in Palo Alto, a comfortable place most summer days, but too cool for a decent crop of a late fig like Panache. Our current favorite for crop, color, and flavor is Lampeira, with Jurupa, Panache, and Osborne's Prolific to choose among, all ~ 10 years old, itinerant plants until 2009 when they were planted on 5' centers between two driveways 12' apart. Every year they are pruned back to 1 node and we harvest the main crop figs on the new  growth.

In 2014 I began grafting whatever came to hand. I also began tip pruning at ~8 nodes on new growth. I started wih these 2 links (thanks to TucsonKen and Joe Real):

http://figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=5830743

http://citrus.forumup.org/about1762-citrus.html

I do not use rubbing alcohol. It is phytotoxic. I also make these modifications:

1) I flatten the accepting face of the graft to get a better fit between the parent and scion.
2) Before wrapping the graft I spray with a dilute solution of Actinovate (or Serenade) and rooting hormone. This is to promote callus formation and to avoid the mold that infested some of the first grafts I made last summer.
3) I rig shade cloth over the grafts until they have clearly taken and are budding out.
4) Based on 2014 observations, in 2015 all my grafts were made opposite to a bud, i.e., I cut the accepting branch ~1/4" above the bud. This should keep the bark 'fresh' all around the cut end of the accepting branch. Last year I saw dead bark opposite the scion.
5) To be clear, both the accepting branch and the scion are preferably 'new growth. Perhaps older wood would work. Axier had better luck with new wood.
6) Given a choice I will use the first ~3 buds (terminal + enough for a scion) freshly cut from the scion source. I grafted all within 24 hours of cutting them. Clearly none were dormant. This is a 'green wood bark graft' to use Joe Real's terminology.

On 8-9 June 2014 I began grafting over the Osborne and Panache with Lampeira for lack of flavor and crop respectively. This year the first grafted Lampeira scions (Osborne) bear figs that look as though they will be ready a month ahead of the parent tree. I do  not know if this is to be attributed to the vigor with which Osborne grows or some other factor. All the new growth on all 4 trees was cut back to 1 node in very early April. I made my last grafts on 8/29/14. The 'yield' was 62 of 65 grafts growing in 2015. I grafted as long as the bark slipped and I could find interesting scions.

For 'fun' I grafted scions from some 1-year-old seedling figs. The grafts show signs of main crop figs. There are no figs on the seedlings. This technique works for figs just as it has for apples for centuries.

I thought I should share what I've learned thus far. Let me know what you think.

baumgrenze

baumgrenze, thanks for the information on grafting.  Actually the thread was started in March 2, 2015.

Regarding the original question of the thread, I have tried about 8 different fig grafts and all have failed.  On the other hand about 2/3-3/4 of the cuttings I attempt to root have been successful.  So for me it would not make sense to graft simply for propagation.  But it could make sense to graft for transferring traits from the rootstock onto the scion i.e. ripening time, vigor, cold hardiness.  Not all of the these traits may transfer - if anyone knows of controlled experiments looking at ripening time and cold hardiness on grafted vs. non-grafted please let us know.

Steve,

Contrary to what I heard before I tried, fig grafting is easier than any for any other species I've tried. I wish I had tried 10 years ago.

Figs can be grafted any time the tree is growing fairly rapidly. The bark needs to be 'slipping' or easy to lift. You need some remaining growing season for a callus to form and for the wound to start healing.

My pruning protocol (remove all of last year's growth each February) is dictated by the space I have, `12' X 14'. The fence is 6' tall. Here is our 'fig forest' just greening up on 3/28/15.

 

By June the new growth had reached 8-10 nodes and I was going to prune the tips of the Lampeira to maximize the ripening of the figs that had set. I just made sure I had at least 2 buds leafing out below an unfurling terminal bud. This became my scion material for my first Lampeira to Osborne grafts. I kept the scions short. I didn't want a lot of first year growth whose weight might break the union in the wind. I didn't mention it, but I trimmed any leaves back to the node. As I began gathering scion from friends and neighbors, sometimes what I got was a single new branch with perhaps 6 nodes. I cut away all the leaves, cut 2 node scions, capped the upper cut with Parafilm, and grafted them all.

Here's what the nicest Lampeira to Osborne grafts look like now. Below them are what the new Lampeira figs on the parent look like

          

You can see the maturity difference in the figs.

baumgrenze