refrigerate your scions in ziplocks or bags tied in a knot with a piece of paper towel you squeezed every last bit of water possible from the size of a marble.

You have about 6 weeks before the scionwood begins to lose its freshness. Grafting as quickly as possible is the best route.

Your seedlings you're grafting onto should be warmed up for a few days if they are outdoors prior to grafting on them.

After the seedlings have been inside for a few days, remove the scions from the fridge and allow them to warm up for about 45 minutes to an hour and then do your grafting work.

Then the grafted plants will need to be covered completely with a lightweight piece of poly draping over them and facing as much sunlight as you're able to give them, or, you can purchase lightweight baggies and individually bag each graft. If you individually bag each graft, all you have to do is bag the scion and not the entire seedling. A twist tie above and below the scion to hold the bag over the scion is how to do this. If large water droplets occur inside the bags (or) on poly draped over grafted seedlings, open the bags to dry the water droplets or in the case of the piece of poly, wipe all the large water droplets off and then cover the grafts back up.

You cannot! allow the grafts to freeze. So, as long as your temperatures are above freezing, you'll be safe. If however your temperatures go below freezing (on any graft that has not knitted) you will kill the scion.

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I graft in a greenhouse using these methods. I keep my temperature above 35 at all times. As the sunlight shows up during the morning and thru the afternoon, my greenhouse warms up to the 50's and 60's and sometimes warmer - even during the coldest days of winter. It's just that I never allow the grafts to freeze, especially overnight.

Your other questions....... caliper - all that - I'll link you to one of my grafting videos below just so you can learn how scions can be matched up of varying size, etc.

Dax

Here is a link that might be useful: Grafting Conifers

i am glad you have the cuttings ...

do you have the understock???

most peeps with this plan ... got their understock in early spring.. and potted them all up ... to be ready for grafting in january or so ..

if you google something like GRAFTING OF CONIFERS .... you will learn much ...

you will need understock specific to each type of plant you want to graft ... and the trick with pines is how many needles in a bundle ...

getting the scion ... the cuttings... is perhaps ... that last 10% of the process .... i am wondering how you are going to accomplish all the rest ... before your scion goes bad ... in your zone???

ken

Thanks for your responses and the great informative video Dax.

My timing on the cuttings was simply because I was working at a home and admired these nice trees growing in their landscape yesterday.

An article I read said November was the best time to take cuttings for scions in MN... It's about fruit trees though.

http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/fruit/grafting-and-budding-fruit-trees/

Is this correct?
or would late march / early April be better, just before dormancy breaks to cut scions?

(there are a few other trees on my property I would like to graft, so I could cut those at any time.)

I have Eastern white pine understock , for the blue white pine.
But would need to purchase spruce understock.

I do not have a green house so if I do graft these within six weeks, it will be indoors in a recessed window with a florescent light for a few extra hours in evening.

Would it be wasting $ (low success rate)
to purchase understock for my current scion cuttings?

You'll need potted rootstock of course.

Graft when you're ready. I'd run that fluorescent for an additional 8 or more hours starting prior to the sun going down on a timer.

Send an email thru GW to me.

Dax