I am kinda miserable when its the dead of winter and one can not do what he desires due to dircumstance...like.........bark is not slipping, ptrif is dormant. ....weather will not do what I want it to....cold...wet.....hot....humid...then back to cold. so.....................

What if a man had about 40 ptrif in 3 gallon pots that were budding failures. The ptrif is about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch in diameter and has been cut off right about the failed bud. Lots of new green growth coming from the cut off. Since no bark is slipping I was planning on setting them on my work table on a comfortable sunny day and cleft grafting them. I would use scion wrapped in parafilm and grafting table to seal the cleft. I would then move them to a warm protected area and see what happens. I feel that the grafts would callous and the scion would break out since it would be in an area that was warm and protected with the right humidity. I could fertilize it as I would not be afraid of getting the new growth burned by weather....................Who thinks what of this...? Anyone ever done any winter grafting like this.......................? Comments are welcome....................David

David,

Everyone has his or her own way of handling something like this, but I believe I would take dormant budwood, of the variety you want to put on the rootstock, around the first to the middle of February and hold it in the frig. I would fertilize the rootstock good in February and get it into shape to make a good flush of growth in the spring. Then bark graft the scions to the rootstock on the first flush. You will get better results just as fast as cleft grafting now.

Ned