Originally Posted by venturabananas
Great videos Harvey!  Thanks for making and posting them.  Actually seeing it done is so much more helpful than just having it described.

I have to thank Harvey for encouraging me in my fig grafting.  After my first year of trying it, a few years ago, I was ready to give up after a complete failure in attempting to top-work a fig tree.  But Harvey related that he was quite successful at grafting figs, which convinced me it could be done.

If I recall correctly, at the time, Harvey related that his preferred method for grafting figs was a whip or whip-and-tongue graft.  Ironically, that wasn't one of the approaches he made videos of at -- at least so far.  The whip-and-tongue graft is now my preferred graft for any plant.  It requires similar size scion and rootstock, so it can't be your only grafting method, but it maximizes cambium contact, and makes a very well supported graft union.

For new grafters, the one thing the videos fail to mention (at least I don't recall hearing Harvey mention it), which I think is more important than everything else, is timing.  Graft when your rootstock is pushing new growth.

Grafting figs when the rootstock is dormant, as you would for stone fruits or apples, has resulted in complete failure for me.  On the other hand, grafting (with whip, whip-and-tongue, or bark grafts) when the rootstock is pushing has given me 90+ % success.  I should note those have all been in top-working established trees.

Now go graft something!  It's so satisfying when it works.

Originally Posted by HarveyC
The videos were long enough as it was and the timing issue will be addressed in another video that addressed issues common to all types of grafting.  So it's not something I "failed" to cover, it was a conscious choice.

Whip and tongue grafts are also a type of graft I like to use when appropriate.  I received four cuttings of a new unknown variety the other day and two of the cuttings were smaller than I like for rooting and those two became cast members for my two first videos.  I could have used one of the remaining two cuttings for a whip and tongue graft but had already devoted two rootstock trees for this one variety so that would not have been a wise choice.  Stay tuned (subscribe). :)