I am about to do some grafting of fruit trees.  I see a lot of mentioning "grafting rubbers"  are these the same as rubber bands?  And if so what width is recommended?  If not what is a good source?  Thanks

Hi Ed,

1/4-1/2 inch rubber bands from your local office supply is all you need.

Cheers,

Paul

I have been using rubber bands of the size Paul suggested because I was stuck for some & could not locate the grafting rubbers locally.  Rubber bands will work but the grafting rubbers work better.  The rubber bands I bought are thicker than the grafting rubbers (so a little harder to stretch) and seem to have a rougher surface texture so it is harder to pull them tight.  Fortunately, figs seem pretty easy to work with so they are not finicky about the rubber bands being less than optimum for the task.

I do need to find a source for the grafting rubbers as I have other things to graft that are not as forgiving but haven't gotten around to it yet.

John

Your posting prompted me to start looking for grafting rubbers.  I haven't bought them in many years & the prices I am seeing so far are obscene -- this is going to take some research...

It may be funny but I tried grafting only one year for fun and did three T-bud grafting on a cherry tree using those long balloons. It was just a try for fun and one of the three grafts succeeded. I still feel good about it.

Found and got some of these products (rubber bands) and budding ties from Germany. They may have agents in the US ....

Fleischhauer KG
Kornkamp 30
D - 22926 Ahrensburg

they are very practical.  (office type rubber bands, for me, lack the correct elasticity)...some guys also cut bands from used tyre tubes.

btw, saw first reference to these products on a very interesting small book dealing with grafting and budding written by Peter Klock.
Believe this book to be an ideal reference for beginners in the art of grafting/budding

The time to start budding figs in the Mediterranean starts by now...


Francisco
Portugal

I find for my small grafts that i slide three dental rubber bands on parent tree after its cut then do graft then slide rubber bands into place as needed