Thanks, Pino
I have several cuttings in the fridge, waiting for warmer weather so i can start grafting, as Francisco is saying. Probably late February, early March in my zone.
The cuttings were disinfected and individually wrapped in plastic film. They can be maintained this way in the bottom drawer of the fridge, in very good condition for several months, until it's time to graft.
Regarding luck with fig grafts... I already had success with grafting other fruit types and my first attempts at fig grafting were a complete failure. I found out that they need to be much more well protected against loss of moisture than other fruits, so they all failed because of lack of protection.
I wrap every graft in parafilm (to keep the moisture in) and, afterwards, i cover them with aluminium foil or, in some cases, a paper bag (or an old envelope, or a bread microperforated paper bag) to protect against direct sun.
Then, usually after 3-4 weeks, i gradually remove the sun protection. It's not necessary to remove the parafilm, as the new buds punch through it (as long as we remember to stretch it a bit when covering the buds).
Later in the season, it's also very important to make several shallow cuts below the graft to allow the excess sap to escape (most grafts can fail because of the excess sap during this period that can "drown" the graft).
Also, with chip budding we must never remove the leaves above the graft completely during the first few weeks (i do it gradually over several weeks or months), so the sap keeps flowing.
If the upper portion of the branch is cut too soon, the fig tree may remove all the sap from that branch and the chip will dry out and fail.
The exception to this "rule" is the whip and tongue technique were the apical dominance of the terminal bud of the graft concentrates all the sap, so it doesn't dry out (provided we don't leave lower branches that "steal" the flow. But it only does that after it takes and the sap starts flowing, so it must be much more well protected than a chip.
In the end, we have to make our own experiences. I remember reading about grafting an adult tree from very reputed forum members, like Axier. In his step by step guide he talked at length about chip-budding and said that it was the best method to graft figs and could be used as late as August. I found out i can use it until October/November depending on the weather and the zone (i'm in zone 9a/9b).
If the graft takes (it only needs 2-3 weeks to fuse) it will be dormant until next spring (if too green, it should be protected to better resist the cold weather)
(we must never lose hope in a chip that took and looks dried. Sometimes a chip grafted in March may stay dormant for a full year and break bud after 12 months!)
Also, he advised that the sun cover should be removed in a week or less. When i did it, i lost some grafts. Now i keep it until i see young leaves, sometimes 2 weeks or more after the graft, and i open it gradually to provide some sun, but also shade.
It really depends on your location and weather.
Also, i remember reading in a message, in the old GardenWeb forum, that he didn't recommend cleft/whip and tongue and other similar methods: "I know expert grafters who have tried the whip and crown grafting methods in figs, they are absolutely discouraging with very poor results. In the case of whip grafting 0% success."
If the cuttings are in good shape i have almost 90% success using whip and tongue. It's my prefered method if i have a cutting with a terminal bud. So, experimentation is the key.
We should accept the recommendations of others with more experience, but there is not an universal truth in these matters.
Francisco,
You are entirely right. It's very important the use of a good and sharp grafting knife (clean cuts are a must to achieve success). It doesn't have to be very expensive. The one i use cost $5 USD.
I sharpen it using Japanese stones of different grains and these were 10 times the cost of the grafting knife.
The other key factor in grafting, as you pointed out in another thread, is crossing cambium layers between the chip and the stock. And, with the odd shape we obtain when removing chips from fig cuttings, it's almost impossible to perfectly align a chip without making it cross the cambium of the branch we are grafting to.