Parafilm can stay on, no need to do anything, [never touch it].
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussions/1512618/konrads-modified-bark-grafting

Should I be wrapping the buds tight Konrad? Or should I give them a little pocket to swell and ople inside ?

And using European plum wood now I need som advice on that never grafted with it yet......

I harvested some off my mt Royal in feb and on the weekend. The stuff harvested in feb the buds are black and are the only ones that have not done anything on any of my grafts yet and I've done 5-6 now? Does European plum wood need to be harvested later ? I cut a bunch SATURDAY off the my Royal as the buds are brown now and swelled a bit I am going to use this wood from now on but I do still have a big bag of the stuff from from feb I want to use on my apricots and randomly put on the italian plums as they do experience die back a lot on the tips maybe if I top work the entire italian trees with mt Royal I will have a super vigorous tree that produces two blue plums ?

I use 1/2" parafilm, find this size works good for me, I stretch/pull
first until it just about breaks, then wrap as tight as possible without
pulling apart, I go up and down, two layers, this would be about the
same as not stretched one layer.
The Mt. Royal plum, also other Domesticas push later and cutting later is better, scion from February is probably toast,..best is to take scion when you just see a little bud swell.

Didn't I tell you the Italian isn't hardy....hardiest of all domestica prune plum is Mt. Royal, even this one has some freeze back at times.

the Italian is not supposed to be hardy but it's been growing for me great it's just as hardy as lots of other European plums. I have only had die back twice in five winters And they are the most vigorous growing of all my plum trees only problem is they don't harden off. It's the only tree I've got fruit off so far in the five years I've been trying. They are zone 4 trees On some sites same as many of the European plums.

I've had two trees growing and both have out grown the rootstock after 4 years

Konrad how long after flowers do I have to graft? I did not touch my native plum tree at all it's just about done flowering maybe this week some small green has popped out. I just did not want to mess with it at all and remove flowers or buds until after bloom.

You can graft for another month if that's what you mean.

All my trees are pretty much done blooming now. You say I can graft for another month still and they will take .

Thanks Konrad.

I thought I only had a few weeks to graft .

I'm looking at some of the grafts that are taking now and a lot have shot out flowers through the parafilm. Than they just dry up. Will I loose the graft if they do this ? Is that normal. Some of them are flowering inside the parafilm I see but the ones that break through are just dying and I've read online the graft can loose all its moisture that way. My yard is like getting into a parked car that's sat in the sun all day. It was plus 22 yesterday but the thermometers in the shade on my deck say over 30. I'm worried everything will just get roasted.

I've had some time off work and done lots of grafting. I wish I could get a hold of some Japanese plum wood like the Ptitsen or foffonoff but can't find anybody selling any online. I think these will help the brookgold.

So this year looks like a great sucess grafting. Parafilm helped me a lot. Last years I used plastic that doesn't degrade with uv and weather or even growth

Must have done about 25 Mount Royal grafts and all have leafed out except 2.

Toka was about 6 out of 10 was my least successful

Apricot was great sucess on to toka and other apricot. It took about 8/10 on the brooks plums but lots had buds out or flowering scions that I grafted as experiments that mostly took . Capilano took pretty good on my westcots and on toka.

Waneta was almost flawless I can't find one that didn't take and there is about 10

Nigra is the easiest they took and flowered so well I might be lucky if there is fruits hanging of the grafts this year only months after I grafted. I did dozens of these only found 2 failures but they both flowered out than died .

Italian is 100% did lots of grafting with it and can't find one that hasn't taken. Also everything grafts so well to it

Nanking to brookgold 3/3 took

And also did a super hardy calgary grown peach maybe 10 of those and most have leafs out peach goes good to apricot .

I learned that nigra and euro plum grafts real easy to apricot or plums. grafting to the nigra is strange because none have taken except a westcot scion. Hybrid plum doesn't graft that great I tried my moms neighbours I think is a pembina or superior it's a big red plum with sour skin and yellow inside doesn't set much fruit ever no pollen around her house. They were fairly round fruits too but it's definately a hybrid plum. Euro plum to apricot worked good all took . The apricot scions with a lot of fruiting clusters also did not take that well but most took this was my lowest sucess rate with apricot riley tree with pink flowers. toka was strange everything grafts so well to it but it didn't graft to others so great.

Hi guys :D May I ask where you guys buy your parafilm tape?

I've been buying it here..

"C. Frensch Ltd." <cfrensch@idirect.com>

It's impossible to find here in stores. Thanks for the link

I grafted with the 1/2 inch parafilm but after reading this thread I am worried I did it wrong. I stretched and wrapped the scion with 1-2 layers but I put several layers on the actual joint. Is this going to girdle at the joint and should I try to remove some of the layers?

nope, it will not girdle it the parafilm will just disintegrate and fall off.

Thank you ubro!

The scion I tie with black electrical tape...might help callusing faster, warming up in the sun being black.

Bark grafting

Konrad can I just add the electrical tape over top of the parafilm now on he ones not growing yet? Do you remove the electrical tape and when? Thank you for your link to your grafting pictures, very awesome & helpful. I have a few scion pieces left to practice your bark graft method but I don't have Dr. Farwells but do have grafting wax.

Sure...you can put it over, wax is fine. Buy the good electrical tape...more money, but stretches better and sticks better, I leave them on most of the time and remove next spring. A easy, [my new way for about 3 years] is to make a vertical cut through the tape into the bark...no harm, in a couple of weeks it unwraps itself and you don't need to worry pealing off the bark. Sometimes I do this toward fall. Works best when growing.

Parafilm is not strong enough to hold the scion tight. It's good to seal it from drying out. Not a must do with parafilm but we can get really hot and dry here. I've experimented a little without parafilm this year, [actually I was running out of tape] so I was spraying the scion with wilt pruf, ...so far it's looking good. When I started grafting around 35 years ago no parafilm was used, one still can get good takes but sealing the scion enhances the success.

Did your bark graft this year for the first time Konrad. I was hesitant to change my ways because they worked for me. I find that I prefer this bark graft, it is super easy and my takes seem good.

In my house ( electrician for a husband) it is verboten to use the "good" stuff. I do anyway. LOL

Not sure what you mean...I've been bark grafting for over 35 year...nothing has changed much, only added parafilm later, and since I run out this year I tried the wilt pruf. If I have the same size, stock and scion, I do whip and tongue..but has to be farily heavy, most plum scions are thin, so bark graft is better. Aw...verboten for you! lol.

Grafting without parafilm is all timing. Has to be done in conjunction with weather.

Parafilm increases my takes to about 99% but if I graft after June even with parafilm I'm really sunny spots they leaf out and dry up quickly. I prefer to graft right before I know the buds are going to open on my trees. I get near flawless results and an extra 3 weeks growing so scions usually have that extra time to harden off .just a few weeks in our climate can make the world of a difference on hardening off a new variety you've been watching grow since spring. I did a lot of cool grafts this year lots of neat stuff

Konrad - if your comment "not sure what you mean......". was directed at me, what I was trying to say was that after doing your bark graft this spring it has become my preferred way to graft. It works exceptionally well on small scions and on scions I am put onto very large trees I was working over to totally different varieties.

For me as well, my take rate increased with parafilm. That said, I am not sure if it was because at the time I was a novice grafter and so it improved the success rate for those scions not perfectly aligned.

Timing plays a role in grafting also. Much better take rate when done before the trees are shooting out green

I don't see it that way...grafting when leafed out I do allot and don't see a difference.