Joe
I followed your instructions over the week end but quit after the first attempt. I could not get the bark to separate. My attempt was to graft a ponkan onto an old Armstrong. One side of the bark separated a little but the other side would split and brake off. I did manage to get a little contact but not enough to feel confident. Our weather has been the fifties over night and seventies during the day. I am either too late or too early to do grafting. What do you think?
Karl

The bark will start to slip once you see new growth.

Ok, then I am a little too early. They are starting to flower so maybe in a couple of weeks I can give it another shot.
Thanks Laaz

Yes, give it another shot.

sometimes, if you can't wait for the bark slipping, you can force the issue on the limb by cutting off about 6" away from where you intend to graft. Then a week later, you cut off that 6" portion to do your graft, it will be slipping if you get minimum temperatures consistently above 50 deg F.

Greetings. Why are slits made on both sides of the rootstock when only one side will receive the scion? I'm not sure I understand the purpose of the slit at the other side. Thanks in advance.

Update (January 29, 2011): I see it now....you meant both sides of the *cut* should have the bark lifted. I thought you meant both sides of the rootstock should be cut as it also seems to be the case on the photos with a little visible notch at the other side.

That said, I'm happy to say that after 100% failure on cleft and bark grafting on lemon, mango, and avocado trees, my scions finally made a successful take on the avocado using Joereal's bark grafting technique!!....so far anyway....he he he.....Actually, one of them has a couple of half-centimeter buds growing at its tip. I didn't realize it until it got that size because I placed a clear plastic cover over the scion (grafted 8 feet up) instead of wrapping grafting tape around it. Then just a couple of afternoons ago, I thought I saw a greenish glint inside the plastic so I took a closer look with the ladder and sure enough, there's growth in there.... The other one has a 2mm bud beginning to come out so I removed the plastic covers on both of them.

I'd like to ask the experts 2 questions now:
1)is it a good time to remove the plastic cover or should I have waited some more?? This graft was done in January 2 and it's now the 27th.....
2) since I didnt have grafting tape, I used masking tape to wrap the rootstock and scion. Is it advisable to remove this tape or can I just leave it there? If the former, when should I remove it?

Thank you thank you to Joe for the great tutorial!!!

I was also wondering why you split both sides when it appears you are using only one side. Would this grafting method work on figs?

Can the scion be sanitized with alcohol as well before doing any work on it to minimize contamination?

I'm planning on using your technique to topwork a large Meyer lemon into a multi-varieity mandarin/satsuma tree. Should I shade the grafts for the first few weeks?

at this time of year i do not think you need to shade the grafts. if you do the grafts in the summer when it is hot here in Houston area then shading would probably be helpful.

I've used joe's bark graft method using plumbing(teflon) tape with a bit of masking tape minus the rubber band on an avocado and so far it's growing very very rapidly....like it's on steroids...This little scion is *prolific*. I'm afraid some high winds may just snap this thing off especially that the leaves are quite large--so far, the biggest is about 7" by 3.5" wide and growing and a few others will probably be that size soon as well. I can also see that the masking tape has snapped loose due to the bulging of the union between scion and rootstock, although the teflon tape is still in place.

My question is, given that it's sprouted a little over a month ago, is it too late or would it do harm to wrap rubber band around it to provide reinforcement?

Thanks in advance.

How does one know if a rootstock/seedling is mature enough to receive a bark graft operation? I plan to use this technique on young citrus, avocado, mango, durian, and mangosteen seedlings. Or should I also ask if bark grafting is recommended at all on young seedlings since the technique may result to a somewhat weak trunk structure?

thank you all.

Why would this method be preferable to cleft grafting? I don't have enough experience to compare the two methods in cases like this.

I'd prefer t-budding because it is the fastest to do and requires least amount of scionwood. But you cant t-bud when stock is old, the stock will swallow the grafted bud. About Pencil sized diameter is my upper limit for t-budding, any bigger or more woody stem, it will swallow the bid before they vroe big.

Thanks,

I just received my budwood order from the Texas A&M Citrus Center. Even though I asked for round budwood, it was all triangular. I presume triangular would be fine if I was T-buddng, but I've been using your bark graft and cleft grafting. I have had good luck cleft grafting with only one side of the scion being in contact with the stock.

Unfortunately, we're getting a little bit of a cold snap right now, so I'm kind of forced to do these grafts in less than ideal temperatures. I guess I ordered the budwood too soon, even though the bark was slipping on my Meyer lemon (own roots) and on the trees on sour orange rootstock. Trees on trifoliate rootstock are not slipping yet.

I'll try both methods and report the results. I'll be grafting Kinnow, Fairchild, Pixie, and Page mandarin budwood (and maybe a Chandler Pummelo) onto the Meyer lemon.