What bad have you read about cleft grafts? I have done cleft grafts on 1" to 5" plum stems and all have done well. Nowdays I prefer bark grafts on such wide stems since there is no need to crack the wood, but both have worked very reliably for me. I usually topwork at about 3' so it won't get shaded by the neighboring trees.

Scott

I wouldn't cleft graft....as you mentioned, cut it down, perhaps only
the major branches back withing 3 foot or so to the trunk, and let the
tree give you new shoots [water sprouts], use these the following year
to bark graft, after one or two season the grafts are nicely healed over and strong. Cleft graft can look ugly for many years and has a very weak area where it can break easy.
It is important for plums to use the new figures branches for grafting.

Konrad

Here is a link that might be useful: Barkgrafting...

Konrad, have you had a cleft graft break? I never have. I also don't understand how a watersprout would be much stronger than just doing a bark graft on the stump- they look very similar a year later. I have some older cleft and bark grafts and in 3-4 years they start to fade from notice and after 5-6 years you couldn't even tell where they were.

Scott

>>Konrad, have you had a cleft graft break?I never done a cleft myself but I have seen it, also ugly graft's that I stayed away.

I can't see a graft on a stump look the same after one year unless you
have a finger size root stock.