I just saw this on You Tube.  I can't remember seeing this technique before.  It's called a double tongue side graft.  They say it can be "...used early in the season when the bark is not slipping and a bark graft is not possible."  They're using it for peaches and stone fruit, but it looks like it can be used with figs.  It starts at about the 1 minute 25 mark.

Very interesting graft... Thank you for sharing!

Thank You for posting.

Thanks for the link.

This is very similar to the side-whip graft that is used in walnuts for instance (some nice tips on that graft technique and cambium layer alignment in the following video)

Basically it is a hybrid of chip-budding and the whip and tongue graft. It gives more strength to the graft union that a chip but alone. A straight which an tongue will not work because of the mismatch in the size of the scion and root stock. The creativity here gives better "mechanical" strength to the graft and can be done when the bark is not slipping (loose) which would be needed to bud grafting or bark grafting. It takes the place of bark or wedge grafting which are the usual means for top-working a tree from one variety to another.

The long and short is there is a graft technique for any situation. Cambium to cambium contact is the key ingredient.

See Chip budding  for some samples that I did.

The guy from UCANR gives some good instruction but, my goodness, does he abuse that poor tree.  I wonder if fig trees would survive after drill holes and cuts into the bark. 

Chip bud grafting is something that I'm interested in.  I tried it a couple of times, but they didn't take.  I'm not clear on the timing for it.  It is fun learning about techniques.

Cheryl,

With fig trees you just have to do a few shallow cuts with the grafting knife below the graft to make sure that the excess sap doesn't "drown" the graft. But i did use a saw in my walnuts (the pressure from the sap in that species is very high and they even nail the graft because of it) and i had success in grafting walnuts in the field (they are difficult to graft by comparison).

You can try chip bud grafting in the beginning of the spring, with dormant buds and you can do it along the season until late fall, with green buds. To obtain success, you have to protect very well the bud (from moisture loss) until it takes (i recommend using parafilm) and keep protecting it for a few weeks, after bud break, against the sun (providing shade by using aluminium foil for instance) so it doesn't dry out. Reduce the length of the grafted branch and remove the leaves above the graft gradually. If you do it too soon, the fig tree will remove sap from the grafted branch and the graft will dry out.





A few more examples in this photo album . Not all photos are chip bud grafting, some are whip and tongue and others are patch grafting, which is the best, in my book, when there is a big difference in size between scion and rootstock, but it has to be used in a narrower time frame (over here around late spring/beginning of summer)

Great topic thanks Cheryl!

Jon and Jamie you are both masters of fig grafting!  

In the past my fig grafts have failed to callous  & so failed after starting to grow.
Forgive me for a few simple questions but in grafting its the details that can kill your graft;

1. when using dormant scion does it help to soak in water the scion over night to rehydrate them?
2. how far below the graft should the bleeding cuts be made and how far in advance?
3. what temperature is best for the fig graft to callous?
4. what's the verdict on the omega tools for fig grafting?  My attempts with one didn't work too well.

thanks

Thanks, Guys, for the tips.  Chip budding is definitely on my to do list. 

Jaime:  "You can try chip bud grafting in the beginning of the spring, with dormant buds and you can do it along the season until late fall, with green buds."
So, with both dormant and green buds is your root stock actively growing?
Patch grafting, something I hadn't heard of before, thank you for pointing it out, looks easier than bud/chip grafting from what I just quickly read. 

Pino:  I can only comment on the Omega tool.  When it works, it works really well.  I had more failures than successes with it, but on one plant you can just see the outline of where the two parts joined.  It healed perfectly.  I guess it takes some practice on where you make the cut because even if you have the same size wood, if you make the cut a little to far to the left on the top and a little to far to the right on the bottom they won't line up perfectly.  If you're into gadgets it's fun to have but not necessary.

Pino,

I'm very far from a master in grafting figs. Just started 3 years ago with figs and my first attempts all failed (wrong grafting methods that were not the best for figs, like bark graft, or not enough protection against moisture loss).
I began again and this time i tried chip grafting and, ignoring some recommendations, whip and tongue and the results were way better.

In the last couple of years i have done 34 whip and tongue grafts, 29 of those were successful. In 3 of the one's that weren't the scion was in bad shape (they were last attempts in trying to save the upper part of a rotted scion that had failed rooting), the other 2 were thin curved cuttings and i did a poor job of aligning the cambium layers, so i consider this method the most successful i use). The problem with this method is finding the same size rootstock to graft.

In the same period i have done almost twice as much chip-buds (roughly 56) and the success rate is lower (some 34 took, although a few more could still break bud when spring comes - i had some chips that stay dormant for a full year).
I have to say that most of those who failed were experiments, when i was trying to see the limits of the method.

This October, i have done a few more late fall chip-buds (around 16 chips from 4 cuttings), that looked good 2-3 weeks after grafting. I am not counting those as i will have to wait they leave dormancy to see if they succeeded, but i am confident. 

To answer your questions:
1. I don't try to rehydrate the cuttings. In rooting that can probably help, but in grafting i believe it's the sap from the rootstock that is going to do much of the work (in providing the energy for both cambium tissues to join and callus, as long as both tissues are alive and in good condition), so i take the dormant scions out of the fridge and graft them immediately. 

2. I try to graft in one year wood, when it's possible, and the scion is actively growing. When i make the grafting cut in the rootstock i try to determine if the flow of sap is strong, medium or weak (it depends on time of year and vigor of the rootstock) and accordingly i make more or less incisions (shallower or deeper as needed), usually near the base of the branch being grafted. I don't do the incisions hours or days before the graft. Nevertheless, if i see an unusually strong flow, i may postpone the graft - will do others first, to let the sap flow freely for a bit, on that particular branch.

3. I've seen good callus develop during most of the grafting season (from spring to fall), but the rapid growth of callus tissue in spring helps a lot, so it can help to cover some mistakes that may cause the graft to fail, in not so benign seasons. In the fall you can have similar situations (during those warmers days that resemble spring) but the problem is the possibility of cold spells that make everything stop and that may jeopardise the survival rate of undeveloped grafts in winter.

4. To me, the problem with these tools is that they are not very flexible. if the scion is not 100% straight, or you place it not exactly the same way as the rootstock, as Cheryl is saying, there is a higher probability of misaligning the cambium layers. When doing the grafting cuts and the alignment "manually" we can compensate better for different diameters or curved scions and make the cambiums cross at some point what virtually guarantees success, if everything else is correct.


Cheryl
I prefer that my rootstock is actively growing when grafting. If both are dormant, there is a chance that the scion "wakes up" first and, without an established connection to the rootstock, it will dry up and die. 

Patch bud grafting has some pros and cons. I think that, when done correctly, it's one of the best methods to graft to older wood and very different diameters are not a problem. It provides for strong unions and rapid growth. But it only works if the bark is slipping and it's not very easy to do. With fig scions particularly, removing a patch with a bud can be quite difficult, particularly in some varieties that have a tendency to have very short internodes, and, usually, the fig buds have 3 "anchors" points (probably clusters of meristematic cells that should go with the patch but stubbornly want to stay in the scion), and these can cause the patch to break, if you are not very careful removing it.



Also, for the "window" on the rootstock and the patch to align perfectly it's better to use a double grafting knife that does the 2 cuts exactly the same size (and they are not very common tools). Nevertheless, i don't have enough experience with this method with fig trees to give advices (i've only done 5 and 2 failed). I might try it more in the future but didn't feel the need to during last year.

So, in short, i think that chip budding is much simpler to do and it provides good enough results.


 

A couple important things often overlooked.

The graft will be much more successful if the rootstock is actively growing. If the rootstock is dormant, the plant is not actively growing new cells to heal the cambium layers together. The rootstock is the active component. The scion is entirely passive, awaiting an overture from the rootstock, as it were.

The surfaces of the scion need to be air tight to prevent drying out during the period when the scion and rootstock are healing together. This is why people use grafting sealer or parafilm. Often it is a good idea to shade the graft so that it isn't overheated and "cooked". A piece of white paper covering the scion will work well. Also, when doing a graft such as a chip bud, the "chip" should be carefully shaped to match the notch in the rootstock.

Some things are harder to graft than others. Apples and pears and cherimoyas are relatively easy, and provide good practice subjects. Some things are extremely finicky, and require more complicated grafts sch as an approach graft, which you do not remove the scion from the host plant, but essentially graft the two plants together, and only cut the scion from the source plant after the graft union has healed. Some things, such as mangos need to be done with green wood (no dormancy) and the graft is often bagged, with a moisture source inside the bag to keep the scion from drying out.

The graft union when it first forms is one cell thick. There is no mechanical or physical strength beyond the one cell bond. As the plant grows, it adds more mass and diameter (which we see in the "rings" when we cut a branch or trunk off). It will take a season or two for there to be enough physical strength for the graft to support weight (such as fruit). This weakness is somewhat offset by mechanical or physical types of grafting such as wedge or saddle, whip and tongue, etc.  Chip budding does not provide this physical help to strenghten the graft. Do not tug on the graft to see if it has "taken". It is very easy to break a successful union in this way. That is also why it is a good idea to not remove the parafilm and/or nursery tape from a graft too soon. They can usually stay on for a year or so without affecting the plant.

Finally, grafting will improve with practice. There is no substitute. If you find something suitable, such as apple or pear, just take a branch and practice making the cuts and shapes and fitting them together. ALWAYS think about where the knife will go when it slips. You fingers are much easier to cut than the wood you are working with.

Hi Guys,
ok so rootstock actively growing,  and check on sap flow.

but should the scion be   dormant    or  growing ?

AAA, that was the exact post I was going to make ;-)

Really appreciating the info.

You want scion that is dormant. This means that you usually take your scion when dormant, and store it until rootstock is actively growing. You want scion with dormant vegetative buds that will begin developing into new vegetative growth after the graft union heals and the rootstock can supply sap/nutrients to the scion.

You can take non-dormant scion and strip the leaves, which makes the scion functionally dormant, as long as the vegetative buds are dormant. Scion that is actively growing when cut will expend resources on continued growth, before it has an opportunity to heal into the rootstock, which usually leads to dead scion.

Think about a kidney transplant. You harvest the donor kidney (scion), put it on ice to keep it fresh, and then hook it up to the recipient (rootstock) and is it receives new blood flow, it begins functioning again. Scion stores longer than kidneys, but the concept is the same. If you hook up the donor kidney to a cadaver (dormant rootstock) you don't have a successful transplant (graft).


Without getting too far into the weeds, there are grafting situations where you graft unto dormant rootstock (during the winter season, and then refrigerate until it is time to wake up the rootstock in the spring) with the expectation of the rootstock "waking up" soon. For us home gardeners, having active rootstock is the way to go.  From Raintree Nursery website:

"Bench grafting is done during the dormant season. Dormant scion wood is grafted to a bare root rootstock that is either dormant or starting to grow, and held at 60-70 °F for 10-14 days to give the wounds time to start healing. The new plants are then held at cooler temperatures (35-45 °F) until the risk of hard freeze (which can damage the new cells in the graft union) is past and it is safe to plant them outside."

Thanks, Jon.  That 'plains it (in my Ricky Ricardo accent).  Analogies are good teaching tools.

thanks Jon.