Interesting! Doesnôt bagged branch heat up in a sun. Is there also need for shade ? How tightly must the bag be closed and when can it be removed? I have struggled with field grafting myself and had some poor results in the past but this might be the key to success. I have dreamed that grafting into bigger plants in field might give scion tremendous root power and faster developement in size and appearance.

This is my only field graft for this season that is still alive and showing some signs of new growth. Then again there is some brown tips that worry me.

Thanks for the field grafting photos Keith. I can imagine it's not much fun for your buddy to do winter grafting outdoors in your climate, but the results are fantastic (and fun)! You guys make grafting look so easy, while I'm lucky to get a 20% take.

Jarpe has some good questions. I too have wondered if grafting onto larger stock plants (but in pots) would give the scion an extra boost, or devigorate the existing root mass as the rootstock's foliage is cut back? Too many variables!

Barbara

Wow! The growth on South Park is incredible!

Please share more on this subject; it's something I've always been intrigued with.

Jarpe, Barbara:

The field grafts my friend has done haven't been in large enough numbers to have a reliable system established.

He has a lot of shade in some areas of his yard. Personally, I would use white plastic to reduce heat build up. The two grafts with clear bags that I looked at the day I took pictures looked fine, but we haven't had too many sunny days this spring.

I think that gradually opening the bottom of the bags to slowly decrease humidity is a good plan.

As far as I know, he has only had success with five needle pines. He has tried on spruce several times without success yet. He tried fir as well (1 or 2 grafts)

He grafts in late winter/early spring

If I were going to experiment, I would try to harvest scion a couple of weeks before anticipated bud break on the rootstock and then graft as buds were beginning to expand on the rootstock.

Sluice: I agree the SP growth is fantastic. It took us a while to figure out what we had on there because the tag was gone, but then I remembered what we'd done.

Unpro: wish I could give you more info. I think the typical grafting methods are probably superior. Unless you are looking to modify something already in the ground this is not the preferred method.

I did review a couple of Youtube videos with demonstrations of top grafts of pines. One is linked below.

Keith

Here is a link that might be useful: Field grafting loblolly pine

Very killer. I think it would be wise, as well to bag them with white poly & also open the bags many times per day if one could do so... but success is success.... I gotta grant that to you guys.

Dax

I suddenly noticed a shoot of new growth pushing throw the binding material of (assumed dead) fieldgraft. It is not clear if it is from scion or not but it seems a little bit yellow. Grafted cultivar was ôkultasurukuusiô narrow golden spruce with weeping habit. On the backround a new shoot from the rootstock-plant.

heres another one

More signs of life. Only ones that havenôt been taken by silent one seem to be those that have almost total shade. Here an innovation for blocking sunlight from southern side. Made from childrens plasticfoam camping gear. Cultivar is `kuhmoisten kultaô. golden spruce.

Closer look reveals the developing new growth.

Congratulations on your successes

Keith