and this is the properly prepared scionwood, ready for insertion. The tip of the bark flap lifter is pointing to the exposed cambiums of the scionwood.

This is a series of pics showing that it is easy to insert the scionwood. Remember that we have lifted the bark earlier, so the tip scionwood can be used to lift the bark with almost no force required.

Wiggle the scionwood a little bit so that it is centered between the two bark flaps and inspect to make sure all the edges of the scionwood are under the bark flap of the branch.

You may have to push up or down to make sure the tip of the splice cut is aligned with end of the branch that you cut. No area of the splice should be exposed. Don't push the scionwood deeper either. The scionwood insertion is good if you can leave it alone and it stays in place.

Then take about a foot of parafilm tape and wrap starting from end of the branch. Hold the flap until you have wrap around at least once.

Make sure to completely wrap the cut end of the branch. Wrap several times as juices will flow out of this cut end, so better seal it off. The parafilm is highly stretchable and is good for this job.

Continue wrapping up to 1" below the vertical incision to make sure you seal off the graft union. The purpose of this first parafilm layer is for sealing off the graft union. It is very weak union and would easily snap off if a bird were to perch at the end of the scionwood.

So we have to reinforce this with a rubber band. Choose a flat rubber band. Start wrapping with rubber band from the end of the branch going downwards. Remember the rubber band here is the graft strength reinforcement and also it keeps a nice pressure between the scionwood and the branch which dramatically help increase your success rate.

Then loop over the end of the rubber band to prevent it from unwrapping itself. This picture is a dramatization of how it is done, but the quicker way is to simply place the second to the last wrap over your thumb and then slide it off to trap the end of the rubber band.

And here is super strong graft union.

Now take another foot of parafilm tape. Wrap starting from the bottom going to the top to seal off everything. It is extremely important that you start from the bottom going up for this final sealing step because it helps prevent trapping water in case it rains. The tape will be layered over each other like tiles on a roof that will not let water in, in case some of those wraps are a little bit loose.

It is also important to seal off the very tip of the scionwood. The parafilm helps preserve moisture to prevent the scionwood from drying out as the healing takes place which is about 2 to 3 weeks depending on temperature.

And here's the finished product. You can just leave it alone and don't touch it, only look or take pictures. Just be patient, it will grow.

Lookie here, I did 4 of them very quickly. It is really faster to work when someone else is taking pictures. Many Thanks to Bo Torres, my host friend that I visited after giving a lecture at CRFG, and especially for assisting me by providing ladder, taking nice quality pictures, along with some barbecued oysters, coffee, etc (I'm really demanding you know). In return, he gets the grafted cultivars for free. The base tree is a Lisbon lemon.

Look at this T-bud. It is still alive, green, and never sprouted. That's why I am switching over to bark grafting when doing multi-grafts on an established tree. Unlike grafting to rootstocks, we experience much more unsprouted T-buds on established trees than doing them on rootstocks. I'm sure Benny can vouch for this observation.

Yes we did all tricks to force this T-bud out, it is not a blind bud, I am sure of that. We tried bending it, halfway cutting it, fully cutting it, to no avail. Ultimately, this T-bud will be swallowed alive by the callous and forgotten. I intentionally retained this one for this purpose of picture taking. But there is always that hope that it might really sprout one day. I have a 3 year old T-bud that sprouted this spring, and this one is just 18 months old.