Scion wood should to be of one year's growth, yours sounds like older.
I would wait another year or bud graft later when you see the tree has
recovered from the deer damage and you see good growth.

If it's one year wood and doesn't look dehydrated you might as well try it- it should work. Rubbing usually interupts the flow of carbos to roots but not water from roots.

I have my best results when I use wood that has just been removed from a tree without storage that I graft at very first signs of growth.

Since this tree was completely girdled, it won't be recovering. I guess I'll try bark grafting with what I have from its own wood, and maybe do a second graft with some better wood from another variety I'd like to have another tree of. I have an old tree that might be Grimes Golden which is in decline, but I think I can fined decent wood on it. Then, if the Wickson graft takes I'll keep it and remove the other. On that topic...if I do two bark grafts to this stump, which will be about 1" in diameter, what would happen if I let both grow, assuming incredible luck on my part? It seems like I might get a tree with a really poor crotch angle.

I already ordered both a Wickson crab and a Grimes Golden, so I'm covered for those varieties. I'm just trying not to lose the solid root structure of this tree. I have another stump I will also graft with the old tree's wood, the one I suspect is Grimes Golden. That one is/was a Jonafree, also completely girdled, and wasn't doing all that well anyway, though the roots should be good.

Chuck

Chuck how long are the short stubs? are the 1-2" things spurs (crooked-growing things) or short straight shoots? All you need is a couple 1-year shoots (not spurs) of any thickness and you will be good. The tree had to grow somewhere in the last year so there has to be a few of them. The pencil thin aspect is not particularly important, its the viability of the wood that matters. I think pencil is picked because its an easy size to work with and if you are doing whip and tongue grafts it works well since it often matches the rootstock size.

Scott

Scott,

They are short, straight stubs, less than 1". I'll look again for any obvious growth from last year, but what I noticed was really small diameter shoots which came off from my pruning cuts of last winter. I had really bad CAR last year, and the Wickson was hit with that, so that may have limited new growth. I wonder if I got more spur-like growth because of the CAR. Is that possible?

Note to self: Go buy new bottle of Immunox and quit being so cheap about getting a decent sprayer.

Chuck

Chuck, those small diameter shoots off the pruning cuts will work fine. I have grafted many such pieces and if anything they work better than the thicker wood.

Scott

Scott,

When you go to the really small diameter stuff, do you still try to cut a wedge, or do you just scrape the outer bark off and expose the cambrium all around the part you insert under the bark of the host? These twigs are....twigs.

Chuck

Chuck, I cut a teeny wedge in it and stuff it in. Make sure to use the terminal bud since its relatively bigger.

Scott