Grafting season is done

Mrs ERJ is happy to have her refrigerator back.  I have one or two small bags squirreled away in there but I am calling an official end to the 2015 grafting season.

As noted earlier, I had no takes on my "Davidson" Black Walnut grafts.  So I followed up with scion wood that I think is a variety called "Sparrow".

Hope springs eternal

Hope springs eternal in the gardening game.  I left the "Davidson" grafts in place and I used "approach" grafts to place the "Sparrow" lower on the stem.  Everybody does things a little bit differently.  These pictures capture how I have been doing approach grafts.

Tree with "Davidson" graft on top.  Paper bag was to improve warmth.

Tree after bag and sprouts were stripped away.

Looking down on the cuts made in the rootstock

Not a very good shot.  Looking down on graft.  Tree is light gray.  Scion is chestnut brown.  The stem of the rootstock is a couple of years old as indicated by the light gray color of the bark.  The bark on the rootstock is thicker than the bark on the scion.  That is why the scion is slightly off-set inward relative to the rootstock.  The grafter attempts to match up the interface between the outer bark and the wood.  That is the only portion of the tree that will knit together.

Wrapped with a rubber band.  Righty-tighty.

Then a wrap of masking tape.  The tape is primarily for UV protection.  Sunlight shreds rubber bands within days when stretched tightly.

And then the exposed portions of the scion were covered with ParaFilm.

I had a pleasant surprise on one of the trees.

It looks like this "Davidson" scion might take off and grow

That is one reason to leave the original graft undisturbed and to add the approach graft.  I might still get lucky with the "Davidson".  If I can get one good graft to go then I will have a source of scion wood for grafting in future years.

My initial impression is that "Davidson" has exceptionally dark bark...almost the color of fudge.  I may have been mistaking that darker color for dead.

To be continued.

After care

 

A tree tube with a grafted persimmon (H-120) inside.

The persimmons are pushing now.  The red-white-and blue metal at the bottom of the photo is a beverage can that is an ID tag.  Beverage can material embosses when placed atop a stack of newspaper and written upon with a ball-point pen.

All of those little, green boogers have to be stripped off and then the tree tube installed.

Each of those green boogers produces auxins that inhibit the buds on the scion from pushing.  They also short-stop moisture and nutrients that could be growing that graft.  And, in time, the sprouts would out-run the graft and shade it.