Bruce,
In my experience with apples, pawpaws, and nuts, it doesn't matter how high your graft is. Yes, I would place it were the diameters match. Perhaps others with more experience can relate why traditionally the grafts from commercial suppliers seem to be near the ground. It seems like they are getting away from this style. I always wondered what the risk of the scion rooting was with a graft so low.

Good luck,
Marc

I always thought people put grafts low just because it looks neater. I have many Cummins trees budded high and the stem looked crooked for many years because the bud would come out one side and I then angled the original rootstock stem a bit to compensate when planting it. If the graft is near ground you wouldn't notice the angle. Now that my Cummins trees are ten years old the angle is not noticeable, and I don't really care myself.

One supposed advantage of budding high is on a dwarfing root you get more dwarfing when budded high. That information I believe I got from Jim Cummins.

Scott

Did I read here once that the longer the interstem the greater its influence?

Aren't you supposed to rub off any new growth below the graft for the first year? If so if you graft high then wouldn't you be removing a lot of new growth?

Graft high and the bury the rootstock deep, the graft union about 2-3" above the ground.

Last spring i grafted my asian persimmon high about 4 feet for two reasons, one because i needed a rootstock that come-out dormancy as late as possible, because i am in zone 6b and most asians are coming-out too soon. Right now my asians on natives are not showing any growth while my two remaining tree's on tree's bought from Edible landscaping have a halve inch growth already. We have a lot of late frost here and i need a little more assurance. My new giombo(zone 7)grafted on native do not have any growth nada.second i have a lot of deer and i do not want them to yank on the lower branches. I see them grazing almost every day under the tree's and not look-up at all.