Kevin,

You don't say what zone and location you're in. It helps others diagnose your problem when you include that info. Scott Smith may chime in. He is a wizard at grafting peaches, they're hard. I will mention if it got too hot in July, it can cook the grafts.

It may have been discussed in a previous thread, but what makes you think your seedlings will produce small peaches? Did you come to that conclusion because your F-n-law's peach tree produces small peaches? If so does he manage it properly? i.e. adequate fertility, and fruit thinning? If his tree is a regular fresh market peach, then it's likely the offspring will produce fair sized peaches if managed properly.

I have not done much peach budding, I usually do spring grafts. I agree that less than pencil is small -- the problem is the matchup between scion and stock will be off. If you had teeny scion along with it then you would increase your odds. Peaches prefer 70-80F so if it is too hot that can limit takes. Wrap them in alu foil shiny side out to reduce the temp; also put the graft on the north side out of the direct sun. Also seal the grafts well so they don't dry out; I use parafilm.

I am going to do some peach budding next week so will get some more experience with budding then. I have some dud varieties I am going to turn into better ones.

Scott

Hmm- I found myself wondering if the OP was trying to do something other than a bud- could he be trying to cleft or whip and tongue graft and have scions that aren't dormant?

I also remember my first attempts at budding. I didn't realize at the time that the bud would not sprout until later, so I thought they had failed whether they had or not.

Just thoughts ...

:-)M