I have a rambutan root stock which the grafted portion died a while back. I cut the dead off back below the old graft union and it is starting to push new growth. I asked the nursery where I purchased the plant to send me a scion so I could attempt another graft.

I believe they are sending me "two" scions. Given what I have, I believe my options here are sort of limited. I planned on doing a top wedge graft with one and a side veneer for the other. Does this sound good? Only attempt one? Any suggestions/advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I'd really like this to work out. Thanks!

The two grafts could work. Side veneer and top wedge (or cleft graft). I'll do them simultaneously. But be sure to cover the whole grafted branches with parafilm.

Thanks Joe. I'm excited about it but...not too confident about the outcome. Let you know how it goes. Hopefully the scions will arrive tonight.

The scions were much smaller than I thought they would be. Only about 1/4 the size of the trunk of the root stock. I did one graft of each the best I could. Only time will tell if I did them good enough.

Good luck Jay, I'm sure it will be fine that the rootstock is bigger. As they say, rootstock should be AT LEAST pencil size. You may even have a better chance because of it:)

I was looking for you all over the house and yard when I was hovering over the rootstock trying to puzzle all of this out! Couldn't find you so I went with the original plan. They sent me around 5 scions of each type. There just didn't seem to be enough beer on hand to decide which to use. But we got them in and on, at least one side matching up and tight.

How come when you look at pics or watch video, the people making the cuts on the scion seem to make the cut nice, even, and straight..with no little bumps and curves? Then when I do it, the end of the scion looks more like a ramp?! Probably didn't help that the pieces I had to work with were so tiny. Anyway...if I had more grafting to do besides just the two pieces...I'd still be down there at it! Talk about slow!

I don't want to be pessimistic, but be aware that rambutan is a very difficult plant to graft, and unless you're quite an experienced and successful grafter, don't be surprised if none of the scions lives. Not your fault -- it's just the nature of the beast. For such difficult stuff, I like a rather long veneer graft, giving as much cambial contact as possible.

You can't be any more pessimistic than I am about it! I would have liked more cambium contact as well but the scions were very very tiny. As long as I don't kill the rootstock...I can always try again at a later date.

The interesting thing about that part of the plant family Sapindaceae (including lychees, longans, rambutan, etc.) is that their cambium is not in a neat cylinder in the stem, like most other plants. Rather, it undulates in and out, so when you cut through it for your graft, you can't open up a nice, smooth continuous cambial field; rather, you get little areas of good cambium among areas of just wood. Then matching the good cambium of the scion to that of the stock becomes quite problematic -- can you get enough of a match-up for the graft actually to make properly? Hence the desirability of a very long scion -- you increase the likelihood of at least some good cambium-to-cambium contact. On the other hand, even with a small scion, maybe you'll be lucky and get it to grow. I wish you the best of luck.

Malcolm