My annual case of Maple Flu has hit! I just brought in my first batch of understock to start warming them up for winter grafting. :)
Wow K4 you got the fever a few weeks ago..... I am bringing in my root-stock today to wake up. I have about 200 to graft on this winter. How many do you plan on doing? Stephen
Hi Mr. Kaitain4, I happened to find your post here even those back few yrs ago and I found much appreciated for the vast info on grafting incl. photos. I am a novice JM lover and try to do some grafting the last two yrs but not successful. After reading your posts, I found that i missed/ignored a lot of critical steps i.e. bring the rootstocks inside to trigger the growth, continue to water them, didn't use the sharp knife ( I like you didn't find Tina knife sharp enough fr a cclean cut thus I will switch over to box cutting this yr), didn't sterilize the tools often enough... and the list goes on :((. I even saw the 4-points graft from Dr. Shell demo but not quite understand until seeing your photos and explanations. Thanks. I live in Northern VA (zone 6?) and wonder to start the grafting in mid to late Feb, is it OK?. and when is it supposed to be end for winter grafting?. I plan to bring some of the rootstock in this weekend and plan to graft them in a few weeks if I see the white tips from the root per your instruction. Do the rootstock need brightlight and is 50-60F is good enough to start?. After grafted, do the graft also need bri-light and what is the proper temp?. Sorry , I am asking too many questions.I am just get excited. Thank you so very much for your contribution, Steve
You can graft from now until the buds break in the spring. After the buds break you can't cut scions any more. But you can store scions up to a month in the fridge. So the grafting season can be extended if you need it to be. Rootstock need warm temps as opposed to light to bring them out of dormancy. After grafting, they need light. I keep mine in my house, so the temps are 70-71.
Hello Kaitain4, Great input, I think I got the ideas. It is time for grafting and learn. Thanks, Steven
OK, so I'm grafting about 300 trees right now, and so far so good. I've had some of my grafts take in record time - less than 3 weeks. Perhaps this is due to the rather warm winter we've had where I am. So this is what I'm starting to see:
