And an elephant heart plum I did about 3 weeks ago

This post was edited by Steve357 on Tue, Jun 10, 14 at 1:22

Not a bud graft, this is a whip and tounge graft I did on a cherry last Jan. The only 1 out of 5 that survived, I think it looks neat,

This post was edited by Steve357 on Tue, Jun 10, 14 at 1:20

They look great.

It's always a great feeling when they take and grow good. I hope they grow big and strong for you.

I use budding rubbers on my T buds. I budded about 50 trees 2-3 weeks ago so am just forcing growth of the scion buds now. So far they look good. I hope they look as good as yours in a couple weeks.

I do most of my propagation via T budding. Others seem more into grafting. T budding is easier because you don't need to store scion wood. Both of course have their place.

I have mostly 80-100% success with T budding. If the bark is slipping well and scion wood mature and the right size it should be nearly 100%. Whereas with grafting I'm at mostly lower rates again depending on conditions.

Thanks for sharing your grafting photos. They look great! This is my first year of making such attempts, so at this point I've got more questions than comments....So, how will you eventually train the branching on your multi graft of Aprium and FS? For instance, could it/ would it be trained to an open center, with those two grafts being the only primary scaffolds? I am not able to envision what other alternatives might be.

Fruitnut, nice take percentage on your t budding. But I don't understand your comment about not storing scionwood. OK, I do this in late summer with green wood, but how are you doing it now?

Marc

I haven't decided how I'm going to train it yet. I grafted flavor delight and flavor supreme on the same stem because they both seem to have about the same vigor. I'll probably train it into a "v" shape or I may try an espalier, I've never done that before.

Thanks Steve. I hadn't thought of either of those options. I currently have a couple of multi-stemmed Myro 29-C suckers that I'm growing out to graft onto next year. I was planning on doing a whip & tongue graft of different varieties to each of the separate branches...similar to your t-budding idea. Not sure how successful it will be, but i guess i could follow-up on any failed grafts with a budding attempt later on????? I've got some practicing to do first, though :)

Why not T-bud your suckers now? it's really easy to do and if they fail you could still cut it back and do W&T grafts this winter
But yes if your w&t grafts fail you can T bud later on,
Take a close look at the first pic above, the pot in back on the right was a failed w&t graft. I cut the graft off and you can see the rootstock has grow three branches. In a month or so when they have grown more, I'm going to T-bud all three branches.

This post was edited by Steve357 on Wed, Jun 11, 14 at 1:20

Steve, did you answer the question about where you get your bud wood?

Are you using this year's growth for buds?

I got the bud wood from my own trees, and yes it's from this year's growth. I get my plum rootstocks from seedlings that grow under and old plum tree I have in the back corner of my yard. ,

So if i was to T-bud now, would i be cutting my buds from this year's growth, and would it matter where along the branch i got my bud from (ie. tip end, mid-section, or closest to the point of attachment? And secondly, I understand the concept with regards to budding onto a rootstock, but when you bud onto the branches (like you are going to do on your 3-branched tree), where do you target the placement of the bud (top-side, bottom, how far along the branch,????). I'll definitely give it a try if i can get a little more feedback.....and thanks for taking the time with these questions.....

Just to clarify the last part of my question....the branches on your tree are all growing fairly vertical, so i assume you would place the buds like you did with your original post. The branches on my rootstock are more horizontal at this point, as i was training them for a wide open center. So if they are more horizontal than vertical, where would you place the bud... or would you wait until it grew out more.....thx.

As far as bud wood, I use buds that are from the middle of the branch on current years growth.

When budding onto rootstock, I graft towards the bottom but leaving enough room that if the graft doesn't take I still have room to try again. Or like in the picture above, let the rootstock branch out and then graft onto the braches.

As far as grafting onto horizontal branches, It doesn't matter, top, bottom or side they all take the same in my experience.

Ok, i'll see what i can dig up as far as different varieties i'd like to have. I'll give it a try over the next few weeks or so and I'll let you know how i fare! I assume i have most of the summer to try this...I have never paid attention to how the long the window is for the bark to be slipping?? Thanks for your feedback....

I've done t budding as late as the end of august, but I've found if I graft that late they won't push until the following spring.