Got a couple of harder to find variant cuttings from Ottawan and I am not sure whether I 
should root them or graft them to existing trees. I am leaning towards grafting as it is less
work and I can end up with more wood as grafting needs less wood. What would be the forum
expert advise ?

Paul

Definitely grafting to a robust stock
A good guide may be found on YouTube : -grafting fukuberry-
the demos are with blueberries but,  with fig stock and scion is exactly the same.
good luck

Francisco

Its probably a toss of the coin.
For a graft to work you need to do a proper graft (type depends on whether bark is slipping, size of scion/rootstock)

But in IMO it depends even more on the health of the scion. 
When selecting scion I look for a healthy primary bud and visible secondary bud so I get 2 chances for it to take.

    I use both methods of reproduction. 1. Do grafting. 2. The cuttings are rooted in the open field.

I have never had a graft that worked while propagation via cuttings works about 75% of the time or maybe more if they are really healthy.  So for me the answer to this question would be easy.  I would also worry a bit about mixing different mosaic viruses that the scion and rootstock have.  For this reason, you might want to have an ungrafted plant and then take a scion from it later to try your hand at grafting.

take a node or 2 to graft and the rest to root, best of both worlds! I did that with my P.T. and few other varieties.

Grafting is a good,way to go. It took me less then two weeks to really get good at grafting. Well one type of grafting that easy for me lol. Root the rest

Hey Paul.

You may have already made a decision on this but I'm just now seeing this thread.

As long as you feel confident in your grafting abilities, my opinion/recommendation would be to graft. As long as you have the rootstock to work with that is. As Francisco mentioned, grafting onto a robust rootstock will give you your best chances. Especially if you have just a single piece of a rare cutting.

As Pino mentioned, timing is important too. I recommend grafting early in the growing season. It seems to be a little different with figs though. I'd venture to say that grafting can be done on figs just about any time during a growth flush. Still, I've done most of my grafting in early spring just when my fig trees are beginning to take off. I've have very good success during this time.

I recently paid a fair amount for a single rare cutting. I wouldn't dare take a chance just rooting it. If it dies on me without rooting, that's it, I'd have to buy another cutting. On the other hand, if I can get 5 grafts out of that one piece, I've just greatly increased my odds of establishing that variety in my collection. So, for me, It's an easy choice when I have a limited amount of a rare variety.

As for the practice of grafting on to a cutting and then trying to root that cutting? This is a practice that makes no sense to me if you have rootstock available to graft on to. Following this method might only marginally increase your odds by grafting on to a large cutting that may or may not have extra energy reserves. Still, not worth the risk to me as long as I have a root base to graft to.

By the way. My preferred methods of grafting have been the cleft graft and the saddle graft. Both have worked quite well for me. I personally, have had no success with chip or T budding. I know those have worked for others though.

Hope this helps. 

  Прививка Panachee на мужских инжира. Корневище и отпрыск свободной от вируса мозаики.

I'm going to jump on this thread because I have a very similar question. I have a tree in the ground that is a vigorous grower with an extra shoot coming out of the root ball. The shoot is about 3/4" diameter and 3' tall. I also have a Black Madeira in a pot that is about 1/2" diameter and 18" tall. Both trees have completely leafed out over the past week or two. Both the shoot on the in-ground tree and the shoot on the potted B.M. grew last fall and have hardened off over the winter. Would it be possible at this time of year to just snip off a cutting from the top of the BM and whip & tongue graft it onto the in-ground tree? 

[QUOTE=cyberfarmer] Would it be possible at this time of year to just snip off a cutting from the top of the BM and whip & tongue graft it onto the in-ground tree? [/QUOTE]

   Yes Paul...  perfect time of year.  This is a B/M whip and tongue grafted onto a Calif/Improved Brn Tky:


      

Doesn't the scion wood have to be dormant, in order for the graft to take?
I've never had a successful graft, using scion wood that has broken dormancy.

[QUOTE=rayrose]Doesn't the scion wood have to be dormant, in order for the graft to take?
I've never had a successful graft, using scion wood that has broken dormancy.[/QUOTE]

That's what I should have asked more specifically. The Black Madeira I want to take scion from is fully leafed out. There is already an inch of new growing tip that I will probably have to discard along with most of the abundant leaves on the tip. I was thinking I will need to first clip off the new green growth, then take a cutting that includes just two nodes above the "tongue". I guess I would only leave a couple leaves on the scion, if any, and would cut them in half.

Or is this really better done with dormant scion wood?

  Yes and yes...

      ...dormant scions are indeed preferred,  but I wouldn't hesitate to use what I had on-hand.   You can put the small B/M back into dormancy, in a cooler;  or do a green-wood graft.  

   http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/propagation/greenwood/index.html

If your BM isn't dormant anymore, I would rather try an airlayer. 

Hi cyberfarmerr,
I would try an approach graft . You wound both branches so that they match. You put both trees close together and tie them wounded branches together.
I have never tried it, but it seems to add odds to the success of your graft since both the scion and the tree are still connected to their own roots.
Once the branches heal, you just cut the scion to leave it glued to the rootstock .

I may try it with plums or peartrees ... since that's what I have at hand (both rootstock and scion on roots ).
Good luck !

Definately grafting IMO . Wish I had know this before. Brown turkey, Nero 600 all good rootstocks . 

Check my pictures in my thread "Cuttings Update". 

Thanks for the feedbacks. Grafting it will be. I have plenty of wood to practise as I had trimmed
11 trees aggressively.

Cyber, it's better done with dormant scion wood. You should have taken the scion wood
way before it broke dormancy and refrigerated it, until you're ready to graft. You can try
to graft it, but I doubt you'll be successful. You'll have better success in rooting it. 

[QUOTE=rayrose]Cyber, it's better done with dormant scion wood. You should have taken the scion wood
way before it broke dormancy and refrigerated it, until you're ready to graft. You can try
to graft it, but I doubt you'll be successful. You'll have better success in rooting it. [/QUOTE]

OK, that was what I thought, but figs seem to be so forgiving, I thought I'd ask anyway. It might be better to do approach grafts or air layers in my case, but I don't want to get off topic. I just wanted to know if I could do what original poster was asking, but just with fresh cuttings. I actually do have some dormant cuttings in cold storage, so I'll use those for grafting.