This is the only grafting that has worked well for me. I do not have enough twigs on my citrus to get a matching pair as of yet.

Dave, In all my grafting I left the terminal bud and 1 e or 2 others and only the terminal bud sprouted. I have never grafted a scion with out the terminal bud. That way if something hapens a month down the road one of the side bud will freely grow now that the graft is strong enough.

The problem with citrus is that they don't form useable terminal bud and they ussualy sprout out the lateral buds. This has been a dilemma for me..

I would not be using terminal branches.

I would be using scion material that is at least 1/4" in diameter, perhaps with angular growth to circular growth, but before gray streaks appear.

I reproduced my meteor cherry tree by digging up a root about 1/8 inch diameter and taking a scion twig with its terminal bud 1/8 inch diameter and cut them as shown above and spliced them with plumber's teflon tape. I kept one and gave the other 2 away. One of the four did't survive long. I would not graft with any thing but the terminal bud except citrus and bladdernuts trees.

Steve

I'm in Phoenix Arizona and I saw this same video on youtube before trying my first graft ever. I've done many successful and unsuccessful grafts since, using different methods. It's much harder to graft successfully here in the scorching desert, so only the best techniques work well here.

My experience with this type of bark graft is that it's easier and superior to budding and other grafting methods for citrus (or other trees with easy to separate bark).

It's easier because you don't have to match scion diameter or shape to rootstock. Citrus tend to have angular instead of round scions rendering some grafting methods useless. The rootstock does need to be at least is twice a thick as the scion to use this method.

It's superior because it creates more cambium to cambium contact than other methods, which allows for faster healing and results in a much higher success rate. Also, using a twig instead of a bud means you have more time to make adjustments when grafting to get a good fit before the scion dries out. Lastly, a grafted twig tends to sprout new growth easier than a bud does.

I do however recommend one adjustment to this bark graft. Instead of making a straight horizontal cut at the top, make a cut with the knife at a 20 degree angle down into the bark, which results in an arched top cut. This angled arch allow the scion to fit more snugly into the rootstock and make better contact with the cambium.

Seal it up tightly with parafilm and wrap a thick rubber band around it a few times tightly and you're likely to have a successful graft.