I have room for 7 more varieties, with three spoken for. Ihave rooted cuttings of Black Bethlehem and Excel that need to grow large enough to approach graft, and I lost my Champagne grafts over the winter. i didnt get them while at LSU thinking I already had it. Ill get some soon. i hope toget native black, and I have a few more coming in the mail. j ust about full, though that may be counting chickens.

Whew.  Ok, all full, or at least spoken for.

37 new varieties grafted in 82 grafts (give or take)this spring, plus 7 that made it from last year, with two spots left for Excel and Bethlehem Black when last year's rooted cuttings of them are large enough for approach grafting.

That's 44 (soon 46) varieties on one tree! Plus the root stock.

Many many thanks to those of you here who helped make this happen. 

If history is any guide, some grafts won't take despite looking great for now.  I hope to have rooted cuttings of some of these to try again with approach grafts

An overwhelming proportion of my grafts appear to be taking.  Here are a few pics



malformed breba

 


 



a chip graft

 



Two sides of a graft from last year.  I keep them wrapped in parafilm for as long as possible, and the humidity seems to induce callous formation on the outer surface of the bark.  (One of the chip grafts from this year put out a root!)

 



 



with or without rubber bands, which degrade pretty rapidly, the paraffin tape frequently will split along its length, and thickness.  I have been just rewrapping new tape over the old tape.  Here a few pics of the young Galban graft that had two brebas on it, with the tape pulled back before rewrapping (which shook both brebas off)


 





Ischia Green chip graft before rewrapping.  This is just down-branch from the "lazy graft", which looks great.  The approach graft even further up-branch, however, I think I separated a bit too early fromt he donor rootstock, and is drying up. 


 

The lazy graft

 


Panache

 



The arrows may not show, but here are a series of typical branch-ends, with two grafts taking on each.

yellow arrows: bark or whip grafts
red arrows:  chip grafts

 

 


 




The LSU orchard 4/9/14

 

Please do your best to ripen the breba, I am so interested to see what it will become of it.

Hi Brackishfigger,
Thanks for the update.

The orchard looks funny to me as fig trees hate lawn . Lawn will keep them feet wet and thus not promoting deep roots which is what we should go for.

What an amazing creation you have there!

One great far out idea leads to another. 
You have made grafting look easier than rooting cuttings?  I am running about 60% success rooting.  Most have been my mistakes but also many times weak and damaged cuttings make it impossible.

So if you are lucky enough to have a mother tree and can manage the timelines why not graft some of the precious new cuttings? 
3 cuttings could provide you 2 cuttings to attempt rooting and up to 3 buds for grafting.
The successful grafts can then be layered or provide cuttings in the future:)

I'm jealous! I tried grafting several varieties and all have failed with the exception of a couple T grafts. After seeing your pics though I believe I can remedy my mistakes. Thanks for posting, very inspirational!

I love your project. keep us updated.   my tree lost the grafts I put in it, I guess the new grafts were too cold for the long soggy winter. I wish you have better luck than me.

Wow!  Really cool, man.  I love it!

[QUOTE=pino]One great far out idea leads to another. 
You have made grafting look easier than rooting cuttings?  I am running about 60% success rooting.  Most have been my mistakes but also many times weak and damaged cuttings make it impossible.

So if you are lucky enough to have a mother tree and can manage the timelines why not graft some of the precious new cuttings? 
3 cuttings could provide you 2 cuttings to attempt rooting and up to 3 buds for grafting.
The successful grafts can then be layered or provide cuttings in the future:)


[/QUOTE]

I agree, though I do think that as the weather gets hotter I'll find that some/many of the grafts are not taking well, just being kept moist enough under the parafilm to look healthy.  Kind of like cuttings that leaf out in the humidiy bins , with no roots.

THose of you with several in ground trees who do the cutting dance every year should consider putting a few grafts on a tree.  Especially with the chip grafts, you get more attempts from each cutting than with rooting, and all it takes is one taker (rooting or grafting) to assure future access to the variety.  Spread the risk around.

As it heats up here this spring, I am again reminded how late I started last year, mid May, and I believe using refrigerated scion wood on a tree verging on explosive spring growth has been key to success (assuming they don't all fall off in the hot weather. . .).

Do you wrap over the bud with parafilm on your chip bud or do you leave the tip of it exposed so it doesnt have t force its way out throught the film? Also after rapping and waxing it do you cover it with foil or leave it exposed to the sun? If you wrap it with foil, do you remove the foil when the bud starts to swell or before that point?

Fascinating project! I can't wait to see how it ends up producing for you!

[QUOTE=blueboy1977]Do you wrap over the bud with parafilm on your chip bud or do you leave the tip of it exposed so it doesnt have t force its way out throught the film? Also after rapping and waxing it do you cover it with foil or leave it exposed to the sun? If you wrap it with foil, do you remove the foil when the bud starts to swell or before that point?[/QUOTE]

THe entire length of the chip grafts get covered with parafilm, tightly.  Consistently, the buds push right through it.

This year I have used parafilm and rubberbands only, and I ran out of rubberbands well before finishing.  I think they are most important for whip and bark grafts.  The wax was a pain in the rear last year, but I will probably wax all of the grafts once they establish and I get tired of rewrapping.

No foil this year, I started early enough that cool temps were the norm (and lots of chilly overcast days, which may have helped).  If I start any grafts from this point on, Ill probably shade them. 

I don't wrap foil around the branch except up-branch of the graft in a narrow ring (scotch tape), then "tent" the foil over the graft, taping on the other side for chip grafts, and to the graft itself for end-grafts.  I will keep them shaded until I am confident the graft has taken, likely long after the buds have become branches

Do you sterilize your tools before you cut the plants?

Great grafting techniques, thanks for the inspiration!

[QUOTE=LizzieB]Do you sterilize your tools before you cut the plants?[/QUOTE]

I use a cheap 10-13$ swiss army grafting knife.  I find it dulls quickly, and gets covered in latex/sap, so I have to use an alchohol rag to clean off the sap, so that it doesn't clog up the diamond impregnated rod-sharpener I stroke it over to sharpen it up. 

I figure the alcohol sterilizes the blade pretty well, but since all of the scion wood goes onto the same tree, I'm not sure it makes much of a difference.

I am in the watch and wait phase of the grafting season.  Lots of watching.  Two or three varieties have tenuous footholds, with only Armenian showing absolutely no signs of life.  The rest look pretty solid in at least one graft.

My persimmon grafts seem to have all taken too!  Two grafts each of three new varieties onto six main branches of a Saijo . 

My blueberries are loaded, tomatoes growing faster than I can pinch suckers, new asparagus bed looking strong (Purple Passion and Jersey Knight), and citrus setting fruit.

Here are a few progressive close ups of a chip graft, Bealle, I think


 


 


 


 


Same graft, other end


 



A bark graft. 


 



A few closeups of the Malformed Breba (a great name for a rock band, BTW)

 


 

 

I think you just lost to this guy with his 70 varieties of grapes grafted onto one single plant, in which 22 are already producing fruit. their goal is to have 190 new varieties... unreal for them and you also.. if only your brebas behave...

http://todovinho.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

A few updates.  The malformed breba didn't like the rain, and quickly browned and rotted

 


THe "lazy graft" appears to have taken, but the approach graft using the still-rooted scion is no more.  I cut the graft off of the potted donor/scion plant too soon and the graft browned over time and the leaves dried up and fell off.  Even worse, when I pulled the graft out, it appeared to have taken after all.  dang it.  Ill try again and be more patient.  The rootstock is healing well

  


Here is nice looking chip graft

 


Here are several pics of the same whip/tongue graft, with the extra flap of bark/cambium from the rootstock as I described above.  If only they all took this well. . .

 

 

THis one shows the extra flap.  It looks like some of it (most?) has fused/joined/grafted pretty well

 


I have now had every single cultivar show some growth in at least one graft, with two very late bloomers. 

My UCR135-15  end graft (whip or cleft?, Blue arrows) finally greened after 6-7 weeks, and the chip graft up-branch (pink arrow) is just greening today a full 8 weeks later.  The red arrow is from the rootstock I let leaf out for some shade.  I did that in a lot of places.

 


 



Armenian was my other late bloomer, showing green for the first time today after 8 weeks of looking like a dead stick.   


 



I have learned to just leave them alone.  If they dead, they gonna fall off without my help!

As the tree grows ever outward (and some varieties are going nuts with over 2ft of growth already), I am training multiple branches of each variety to the horizontal, to fill out the increasing circumference.  I am hoping to avoid exclusive use of the "stake and string" method for want of ever increasing numbers of stakes (I rip them from 2x4s, four per) and the kinda fugly appearance. 

I am instead using some fiberglass rods I salvaged after the little ones ruined yet another cheapo tent, about 2.5 feet long.  I tie the rod in two places up-branch to secure it, and will be pulling the branches down as they grow

Thanks for all the cool updates. Very interesting project. :)

Hi brackishfigger,
On an healthy stem, I remove every weird looking fig as soon as I spot them... be it brebas or maincrop .
Could you make 4 pics west, north, south, east of the tree, just to see the global volume and surface used ?

Inspiring and educative, and that is to say the least.  Thank you for your time and dedication and all the photos (for all of us in the St. Thomas category). 

I have just been pulling off the parafilm as it splits and leaving them bare, with no apparent effect.  Hasn't gotten really hot yet though.

The only variety I have definitely lost is Champagne from LSU, a late addition I grafted in April from a non-dormant scion.  I hope to get another.

Almost all grafts are growing robustly, with a few less so.

A few pics

Bark grafts:  I cut a flat face on the scion that is roughly half its thickness, and it rests flush against the face of the cut rootstock for stability.  To expose the cambium on the scion, I shave/scrape top of the outer edges of the point, the part that makes contact with the rootstock after being shoved under its bark.  Instead of the usual method of making only one cut along length of the rootstock with the knife straight up and down,  I remove a very acute triangle length of the rootstock bark, and I do it using two very angled cuts (knife almost laying down on the branch) so that there is an "overhang" of bark that can lay upon the scraped scion surface rather sit above it.  I don't know if this made a difference, but it's what I did.

You can see the roots that grew out of the bottom of the first graft.  I wonder if they will (would have? but for no parafilm as of today) fuse with the lower margin of the rootstock branch.

 

 

Chip grafts


 


The graft below was photo'd just after unwrapping the cracked parafilm.. The graft promptly dried up and died.  I really should learn not to pick and leave well enough alone.

 



Whip Grafts 


 

 


THis is what happens when I create a great whip graft joint in the scion, before realizing it is on the wrong end


 


New approach graft, Excel


 


 

Your multiply grafted tree looks really healthy.  It's fascinating to me that you can graft so many varieties (many of which are undoubtedly infected with various forms of fmv/fmd) onto the host tree and there are no obvious signs of fmv.  Do you ever see fmv localized to the scion?  Anyway, this would seem to support the idea that some varieties are fmv resistant.

That is an awesome creation!  I envy your grafting and espallier skills.

"skills" is a bit of and overstatement, though "experience" is starting to be somewhat accurate.



I do often see grafts that form stunted, mottled leaves that are consistent with what folks here have described as FMV.  Most are in the slowly-wither-and-die group, or died this past winter. 

Interestingly, of the 3 galban grafts from this spring, one is doing a spot on impression of a plant infected with FMV, while adjacent grafts from the same source are very healthy looking, so I'm not sure that the symptoms I see reflect FMV, bad graft, or some other malady.

Thanks everyone.  I hope you enjoy the pics and updates as much as I enjoy sharing and showing off!

I have enjoyed figs from so many varieties off of this tree this year, and anticipate much greater production within the next few seasons.  I had a request to post some pics, so here you go

 


  

 


 

 




      


Some figs.  I also started a thread where I intended to document the varieties, but I end up eating them before I can properly document.  Oh well. 

There is nothing like eating one fresh fig after another to appreciate the wide variety of flavors that exist.  Also, weather conditions and degree of ripeness can cause even a single variety to change flavors quite a bit


 

Our Welsh Terrier has also discovered the joy of figs.  She goes bonkers over them!

Wow! what a nice selection. Congratulations!

Amazing job! Just looked over the whole thread and am in wonder of your frankenfig! And very healthy looking.

Love it! Thanks for posting the pics!

Nice, you've inspired many including my self to try this next spring. I've got several duplicate varieties from cuttings I rooted this year that will go under the knife next spring. I have too many I believe to put in ground in my small yard so this is really the only way I can accommodate so many varieties. Strong work and please keep posting updates as this is very fascinating.

Great job!

Wow, what an amazing job. To say the grafting you did is impressive would be an understatement.

The rewards :)
Thanks for sharing your exciting project with all of us Andy.

Aaron, I have unripened figs on all three of the figs you sent me, and all grafts of them took well.  Thanks.  Can't wait to taste the figs!

thanks for the update, thanks;)

winter shot

  








I will be grafting the Champagne cuttings (I got today at LSU) and a small handful of others to complete the tree this spring. 

I will also be grafting some of the rootstock back onto the tops of the main branches where  the bark has died.  You can see that in my first year of grafting, I was sooooo clever.  I cut off every new branch of the rootstock as it grew, to promote growth of the newly grafted scions along the periphery.  Instead, it just left the branches unshaded near the center of the tree through an entire south LA summer, and burned it badly. 


My next big project is a pear espalier along our new SE facing wall.

Interesting to see it dormant.  If I was a kid, I'd make a fort under there!  Framework is in!

Good luck with your new grafts and with your pear tree.

Suzi

brackishfigger, I admire your dedication and patience. Amazing work.

First time seeing this post. I should be working on a project but am amazed at the work. Thank you so much for sharing. Can see your kids growing through the years too in the initial posts. What an awesome story.

I think I can safely call this tree a work of art.  From the grafting of the many varieties using so many different methods to the shaping of the tree it is one of a kind.  I appreciate your dedication to this project!  Nicely done.

Hi,
We're still waiting to see figs ripen on the tree :)
Should be fun to have yellow, dark,brown,green,big medium,small figs ripening on the same tree ...
Hope that this will happen !

I count 22 varieties in the upper level and 17 in the lower that took robustly and are breaking bud nicely.  Many varieties have more than one graft that took. 

Several have brebas including Bealle, Armenian, Galban, and Conadria.  But the Morrocan is loaded!! 

Added the Champagne and a local white this weekend, so if they take, 41 total varieties, and I could squeeze another few if I needed to. . .

Truly an amazing montage of photos showing the progression of this unique fig tree.  This whole thread, from start to present, has been a perfect way to show other growers just what can be done, by using some simple grafting techniques, to produce many varieties of figs in a small space.  It was a great idea to photograph this project, starting right from the very beginning.

Best of luck with this unique tree.  May it continue to bring you happiness and delicious figs.  I hope the small children shown in the opening photos, can one day bring their own grandchildren to harvest figs from your tree.


Frank

The morrocan  3/16/15.  Arrow is the graft, red circle is the "m" inked on it, and the yellow circles are brebas.



 



 



One year prior, 4/5/14.  Hard to conceive that that little green bud becomes that stout young branch next to the "m"!

The whole yard is waking up after one last gust of winter last week.  The lazy graft is looking good

 

Brilliant!!

A few shots of before and after of my attempt to speed the healing of the sunburned horizontal limbs from summer 2013.  I just brought over an adjacent smaller branch and, sometimes after scrapping the undersurface, nailed it to the injured limb.




Before

 





After

 




different area

 



same one

 





Another still.  I have the big vertical pulled down with wire and that blue twine.

 







As they grow, I will graft the leading branches of the donor wood into the viable bark that is down-branch from each wound. 

The first two that I showed won't need it, as I think that they will look pretty cool intact, but the third, in the last two pics, will eventually need to have the donor branch removed as it messes up the symmetry of the tree and was only kept for this use.  I made certain that there is cambium contact where the donor branch first makes contact with the injured limb.


Any consensus on merits of treating or coating the exposed wood? 

A couple of those pics showed the progress in healing that happened last summer, 2014.  THer is about a quarter to half inch of dark brown growth beginning to encase the wounds from the outside in, healing by secondary intent.  But it's got a loooong way to go, even if my grafts take and eventually fuse with the underlying branches as expected.

Add Unknown Bronx White to the list of breba producing grafts, with three baby figs.