I wanted to share a grafting success from last season. I had a lot of Pinus thunbergii in a planting bed. This was mostly because i did not have enough tree band containers to put them in, and they were also starting to get too big to stuff into anything but a small container of 1 gallon or bigger. I did not want to take up so much space in the greenhouse for 72 rootstocks. I built a simple 8 inch tall plywood frame(about 4'x4'), and filled it with potting mix. I dug 72 black pine rootstocks and planted them in the box of soil tightly together in my greenhouse in January. I used bottom heat of 65 degrees or so for about 3 weeks until I saw a nice flush of new white roots. I grafted these with 2 needle pine varieties. Nothing fancy, just generic common varieties. You have to be somewhat gentle with them to not damage new roots. Bare root grafting is a lot slower than grafting in a container, but the root systems are very strong, and the vigor of the plant may be worth the time delay. There is also a benefit of not having twisted contorted root systems. My take was 71 out of 72. Hard to beat that. I also dug some volunteer white pine seedlings in January and did pot a few of those up as well with good grafting success. Most of these grafts were moved into 2 gallons, and in full sun by the first of September.

There seems to be little need to pot up pine rootstock in advance of the grafting season. This only works for me because I am in an area with minimal ground freeze during the winter. Tree band potted rootstocks are preferable for speed, and space conservation, but bare root grafting is hard to beat for a superior root system and vigor. One could grow roostocks in large containers to get a similar vigor and healthy root system, only if space was not an issue.

I would like to hear success stories from other propagators. How did you bend the rules, but still get good or excellent results?