It should be good well into April, if it was dormant when collected and if it has been keep cold and slightly moist since.

You're probably keeping it quite cold (just above freezing, maybe 34 F or so?) and wrapped with damp paper towel in a ziplock bag. That works for me. I aim for the end of April and the first week in May to wrap up any grafting I try.

Sometimes things break dormancy even in the fridge. That's a bad deal, so don't wait too long.

Good luck,

M

I find that pear starts sprouting in the fridge after a few months, and all others last a lot longer. Yesterday I grafted some cherry with wood that had been collected last year, and I have had pawpaw wood still be nice and green after a full year in the fridge.

I usually end up doing some re-grafting of failures in June, or waiting on pawpaw rootstock to size up during the summer, and the quality of the scion at that time is not a problem.

I am waiting on Raintree also.

Benny

Benny- do you save budsticks over the winter or do you do chip budding or other for your re-grafting? I would like to be able to do something like that.

Thanks,

M

I also usually find wood good in June or later. Like Benny states, sometimes things will swell buds significantly in the fridge. My observation on when that happens is when the wood was harvested - it seems like if the wood was in deep dormancy it will last longer. I have had all kinds of scions swell buds very large in the fridge. Its cuts down on the odds of success if the buds are swelling a lot; a little swelling doesn't make much difference.

Scott

That's my experience with the swelling; the less they swell the better, and pears seem to be bad offenders. (I grew to think that Botner's offerings weren't always taken as early as they might have been, but don't know whether it's safe to say that.)

But what about budding or chipping in August with scions that are trying to swell? Aren't those attempts pretty well doomed? Or is there a way to do it?

Thanks,

M

The latest I grafted and had it take was August, with apple scionwood which still looked good when I finally decided to clean out the fridge. I seriously doubt you could get peach to last that long, but if you have the room for grafting, give your old scionwood a try--it might take!!

Carla in Sac

Hi Carla! What kind of graft did you do with that geriatric scion? And, how did it manage later?

Thanks,

M

M
My favorite methods are whip and tongue when the size matches, and bark graft when the rootstock is of a larger size. If a whip and tongue fails, and the size can be matched again, I do another whip and tongue with dormant wood from the winter.
The same with bark graft,if it fails I just cut an inch or so off the rootstock and try again,also with dormant wood.
I believe that budding is a very successful method of propagation, I am just more comfortable with the methods listed above.
Last fall some cherry scions full of leaves were sent to me, I don't like to bud then and wait all winter for the results next Spring, don't have the patience. So I cut off the leaves and put them in the fridge. When I checked this week they were still green, so I grafted some as described in my post above. This is going against commonly accepted grafting practices, but I thought I would try anyway.
When I lived in Louisiana, with a longer growing season, I have T-budded a persimmon in Sept. with current years growth, then forced it out after 3 weeks and would get a few inches of growth before the winter. T-budding would work there in the Spring and Fall, but in the Summer the increased sap flow would flood out the bud and it wouldn't take.
I think there are many ways to graft and bud, and each person you ask will give you a different answer, based on what works for them and what they are comfortable with.

Benny

Mark:

I have only been successful with cleft grafts onto available branches, budding never works for me. But my apple cleft grafts last year were 100% takes, so I must be doing something right! Citrus, on the other hand is at zero % :(

Carla in Sac

Thanks! I'd like to feel confident with budding in the summer, primarily to replace failures; right now I usually do W&T or cleft and try to fit a chip for backup. Last year I had fewer takes than usual, and I've been exploring causes and alternatives.

Carla, good luck with those citruses.

Mark

I freeze apple scionwood solid in blocks of ice. Pack it in a freezer baggie with sawdust and fill it with water, squeezing the excess water out. Label and stick in a dormatory refrigerator turned down low so its about 24-28 degrees.

This works best with fully dormant, hard scionwood. If its a bit green or still has leaves when you cut it the buds get damaged. It will keep six months easy.

Wow, you must have some interesting cocktail parties.
Or is that how you make an Apple Martini?
:)

Carla in Sac

Carla;

I kept having Dorsett Golden sprout in the refrigerator no matter what I tried; the greenhouse manager at the USDA ARS apple collection told me that's how they do it (they also freeze in liquid nitrogen, but that's a bit beyond my skill level).

applenut which USDA ARS site do you use for apples?
Dan

iammarcus;

It's at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: ARS Geneva

Thanks applenut, it was indeed helpful. I knew of UC Davis but not Geneva. Marked their site as one of my favorites.
Dan

Applenut,

Wow, that's amazing you freeze your scion....never heard of that! Wouldn't have to worry about ethylene gas or bud swelling with that method. I wonder if you could place it in your regular deep freezer with the meat at zero or colder?

Marc

Marc;

Well, we could speculate and act like we're experts, or we could just try it and see what happens. I think more of that needs to be done, as "experts" have told us for years that apples need 800-1000 chilling hours to fruit, which is incredibly wrong. Many fruit just fine with zero chilling hours.

Applenut

I expect it would work fine in a colder freezer as well. What would probably not work fine is putting a scion not hardy to 0F in a freezer set at 0F. In fact since those hardiness limits are for short periods only you probably want to stay 10-20F away from them for safety.

Scott

Oddly enough Richard Fahey grows Anna in Oxford, NY and says its certainly hardy; he says it stays dormant until April like all the other apple trees. Here it blooms in January. Apparently in a colder climate the flavor is bland, where here it's excellent.

Our first attempt at grafting was a test of faith! We made a big mistake, and grafted our purchased apple scionwood onto purchased rootstocks only a week ago. They were stored and packed in a cooler outside, yet, life got too busy and when I checked on them, the scionwood had all swelling green buds with some already getting little leaves. Some of the 21 larger rootstock also had broke dormancy, but my husband and I grafted anyway. At lleast we got some practice at bench grafting, cleft grafting and W and T,
The trees were potted up, and put on the shady side of the porch as if they are in the ICU of a plant hospital. All of the rootstocks are sprouting and showing life, but the scionwood buds that were once green, are now a little shriveled. Any hope?? Should we wait longer?

Time will tell,..about another two weeks.
I had grafted ones scion wood with leaves out,..only because I traveled 5 hours to get them and to find that the area was way ahead of mine. I wrapped them loosely with parafilm tape and shaded the graft, out in the garden on growing root stock,..they took.

Your just purchased root stock will not have the vigor as mine in the ground,..best to graft on good growing stock.