Fruit and Berry Cutting (Scion) Exchange: Saturday, March 10th. Alder Creek Middle School
As the HOS Fruit & Berry Cutting Exchange approaches (formerly the Scion Exchange), it's important, imperative we collect the scion wood necessary to make this event successful. For years I've counted on others to provide this wood, but some longtime members are no longer able to procure varieties as they've no longer access to their orchards. And, as a regular grafter at this event, I can attest to the difficulty of working with 'inferior' scions.
In past HOS Pome News articles there heve been several excellent descriptions of the scion collection process ... but with 20 years worth of mine too scattered to locate, I'll try to add anything I can remember of importance (help is always appreciated!). Personally, I've both Anthracnose and Arial Crown Gall in my apples trees (likely transmitted from a similar process...) to the point of not harvesting scion wood for the exchange. I do collect and deliver prime scions from 2 / 3 varieties of Asian Persimmons. Which reminds me; if you've got known fig varieties, grape or Kiwi cuttings {I'll even bring in some Persian Mulberry wood}, bring those as well! This is not strictly an Apple growing Organization!
From the following site I found a decent description of how to procure scion wood; their description refers to an apple tree, however, it's also applicable to pears, plums (prunes), cherry, persimmons... in other words - most fruit trees.
OK, here's what I found pertinent from the following site: http://www.bighorsecreekfarm.com/horticulture.htm Emphases mine.
"Procedure for Collecting Scionwood for Grafting": "Grafting is the process by which a fruit tree is asexually propagated resulting in a new young tree, which will be genetically identical to the parent tree. To reproduce an exact copy of any selected apple variety, it must be spring grafted or summer budded. A shoot or twig (known as a scion or scionwood) is collected in January or February and stored under refrigeration until grafting season. The process of grafting itself is quite simple. A selected piece of scionwood is inserted into the rootstock of a young apple tree where, over time, it will heal and fuse together to produce a new tree."
"The most important point in collecting scionwood is to be sure to collect new growth; that is, twigs or shoots that emerged the previous summer. New growth is identified by its smooth, reddish or greenish bark in contrast to older growth which will have rough, grayish-colored bark. New growth will have small, tight buds and rarely have side limbs, twigs or branches which are common on older growth." "The two photographs below are examples of good and bad scionwood." [ I suggest you look over their comparison photo's; we grafter's will occasionally be handed "bad scionwood," and it's sad to describe it lacking the chance of 'taking' like new wood. Some 'customers' have driven back to the orchard to procure 'good wood' during our event! ]
"On older, unmanaged trees, new growth may be difficult to find. Normally, this new growth can be found out on the tips of twigs high up on the sunny side of the tree. You can also find new growth on water sprouts which are vigorous, whip-like shoots ranging in size from a couple of inches to several feet in length and typically found growing vertically upwards from the trunk or larger limbs. Be sure that any water sprout selected for scionwood has no side limbs or twigs on it. Collect the proper scionwood cuttings in late January to mid February. The cuttings should ideally be eight to ten inches in length and approximately the diameter of a pencil, although pieces of a smaller length and diameter can be successfully grafted. Bundle the scionwood together and label each variety separately. Wrap the bundles in a damp (not wet) paper towel and enclose tightly in Saran Wrap or a plastic bag."
Viron here; they go on to describe mailing them off for grafting ... fortunately, local HOS member's can simply haul them into us and get their 'tree/s' the same day! ...But let me emphasize storing them in your refrigerator until you need them; that includes vines. And please, don't bring wood from multi-grafted trees (another problem of mine), one's never certain which variety they're procuring - and it's a real bummer to wait years for the 'wrong variety'... And, as mentioned, if you've known diseases affecting your trees, please leave it at home...
Otherwise -- Bring em on!
First – Here is the HOS Fruit Propagation Fair (Scion Exchange) information for 2008:
March 8th, 2008, Alder Creek Middle School, Milwaukie, Oregon;
Don't miss the annual HOS Scion Exchange. Hundreds of FREE scion wood for grafting available. Rootstocks, plants, and much more. Talk with experts and get custom grafted fruit trees. For all the details, please visit our special Fruit Propagation Fair page: http://www.homeorchardsociety.org/scion_exchange/
Second – Please look over the post above; it’s time to collect Scion’s!
- And – look over the site referenced there for collecting scion wood: http://www.bighorsecreekfarm.com/horticulture.htm - scroll to the bottom and look over their photo examples of ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ scion wood. Otherwise – see you at the Fair!
Greg, nooooo.... but it has been cold - and no school today due to snow out here. But my suggestion is to get it sooner that later, especially Japanese plum and cherry wood. It’s a real drag in the grafting zone when scions ‘pushing’ buds are laid down with the request they become a tree…
With that in mind, two days ago I cut, wrapped, sealed and labeled a nice bundle of Red Ace Japanese plum wood; partially for my own use, the rest for the Exchange. And since I plan to scour the show for some compatible (late blooming) Japanese plum scions I hope to find more with healthy tight buds 
[quote="Viron":t2bmp3sx]But my suggestion is to get it sooner that later, especially Japanese plum and cherry wood. It’s a real drag in the grafting zone when scions ‘pushing’ buds are laid down with the request they become a tree…
With that in mind, two days ago I cut, wrapped, sealed and labeled a nice bundle of Red Ace Japanese plum wood; partially for my own use, the rest for the Exchange. And since I plan to scour the show for some compatible (late blooming) Japanese plum scions I hope to find more with healthy tight buds [/quote:t2bmp3sx]
I will offer up my experience with wood that is no longer dormant in the refrigerator. Go ahead and graft as usual, preferably bark graft or whip&tongue. Bind the union well, airtight of course. Then paint the whole scion with Doc Farwell grafting glue. Elmers school glue or even school paste would also work if you could manage to keep the rain off it. Doc Farwells is rain proof once it is dried. Even if there are obvious, tiny leaves on the scion, just paint the glue right over them. Next thing you know the buds will be breaking thru the glue, the union has knitted, and it has not mattered one whit that the wood was trying to grow in the frig!
I do not use Parafilm, but it might work okay for this same purpose. It would just bother me in my psyche that I am squashing flat the developing buds by smooshing the Parafilm on tight. I have never used it, but it could work. I love the glue, altho it is a bit messy. To cut down on mess I use a bamboo skewer stick, like the kind you buy at the dollar store a hundred for a buck. when I am done using it, I just wipe it off in the grass or whatever. Still using the same bamboo skewer I started with 5 years ago! Sure beats a paint brush, which will dry into a solid mass of hard glue very quickly and is hard to clean.
I did a whole swack of plums one year that were forcing on me in the frig, and they all took. 
[quote="plumfun":2myp5pyg] I will offer up my experience with wood that is no longer dormant in the refrigerator. Go ahead and graft as usual, preferably bark graft or whip&tongue. Bind the union well, airtight of course. Then paint the whole scion with Doc Farwell grafting glue. Elmers school glue or even school paste would also work if you could manage to keep the rain off it. Doc Farwells is rain proof once it is dried. Even if there are obvious, tiny leaves on the scion, just paint the glue right over them. Next thing you know the buds will be breaking thru the glue, the union has knitted, and it has not mattered one whit that the wood was trying to grow in the frig![/quote:2myp5pyg]
Thanks for the advice … it adds up! If you retard the growth and seal it at the same time it would delay it enough on top to allow the bottom (graft) to ‘knit.’ I suspect dabbing some Doc on each bud would cause the same effect as painting the entire scion & union?
I’d once thought wood stored properly in the refrigerator would last almost indefinitely; I recently found out different. “Testing†(or lazy neglect) some stored scions in an extra refrig, I unwrapped them a few months ago to find they’d all pushed lengthy ‘white’ growth from their buds! They were obviously too far gone to graft - but it proved to me that even in cold storage growth continues!
I agree Parafilm would likely be too ‘thick’ a substance for the emerging buds to penetrate; but I’ll keep in mind your technique with the Doc.
When grafting at the exchange it’s heartbreaking to have a client lay down “The last†twigs of a special tree, with buds pushing green growth... Often times they’ll suggest I go ahead and put it together, and I will. Now I’ve got another method for possible success. Before, I’d been snapping off the obvious buds, assuming the ‘lateral buds’ at their base would replace them. But this 'experimentation' then heads home with them and I rarely learn of the results. And I guess I’ve been too picky about the quality of wood I use on my own projects … and would likely skip it till ‘next year’ if I had an iffy scion. But I’m still learning 
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[quote="Viron":s78oumc0]
Thanks for the advice … it adds up! If you retard the growth and seal it at the same time it would delay it enough on top to allow the bottom (graft) to ‘knit.’ I suspect dabbing some Doc on each bud would cause the same effect as painting the entire scion & union?[/quote:s78oumc0]
You are not retarding growth, but you ARE retarding moisture loss. I once ran a battery of tests, doing nothing to a scion, dabbing the buds only with glue, and smearing the whole scion with glue. All were identical pears. The "nothing" treatment had the most problems and grew the least over the summer, while the "buds only glued" group obviously had it better and put on more growth for the summer. The "whole smeared scion" group did wonderful and grew the mostest. That is how I do 100% of my grafts nowadays. I learned my lesson from that one experiment. At the time there was nobody to tell me, so I found out the school-of-hard-knocks way.
[quote="Viron":s78oumc0]I’d once thought wood stored properly in the refrigerator would last almost indefinitely; I recently found out different. “Testing†(or lazy neglect) some stored scions in an extra refrig, I unwrapped them a few months ago to find they’d all pushed lengthy ‘white’ growth from their buds! They were obviously too far gone to graft - but it proved to me that even in cold storage growth continues![/quote:s78oumc0]
With Doc Farwells glue, even those twigs with the white growth could probably be whip & tongued okay and still make it. Rootstocks would have to cooperate though! I would bet money on it if done correctly. Plum wood that has grown in the frig has been bleached looking, and you'd think by looking at it that you should throw it away! But it works, as the season is right: early, lots of root reserves to push growth, and warming up.
[quote="Viron":s78oumc0]I agree Parafilm would likely be too ‘thick’ a substance for the emerging buds to penetrate; but I’ll keep in mind your technique with the Doc. [/quote:s78oumc0]
If you could find a way to airtightly wrap the Parafilm on the scion so as not to break buds off, I am sure the film would work as well. It is just that the glue breaks no buds off, and dries pretty hard. Sans that, one could get into tying slender plastic bags around the scion in an attempt to conserve moisture (dessication is always your enemy). But then you run into problems with sun making the bag too hot, and leaving the bag on too long before removing is hard on the new leaves due to lack of hardening, etc. Bags would be for the meticulous amongst us. I like the utter simplicity of glue!
[quote="Viron":s78oumc0]When grafting at the exchange it’s heartbreaking to have a client lay down “The last†twigs of a special tree, with buds pushing green growth... Often times they’ll suggest I go ahead and put it together, and I will. Now I’ve got another method for possible success. Before, I’d been snapping off the obvious buds, assuming the ‘lateral buds’ at their base would replace them. But this 'experimentation' then heads home with them and I rarely learn of the results. And I guess I’ve been too picky about the quality of wood I use on my own projects … and would likely skip it till ‘next year’ if I had an iffy scion. But I’m still learning " title="Wink" />[/quote:s78oumc0]
Just tell the customer that until the glue dries, the buds are subject to damage, and after the glue dries, the buds are subject to damage, ie, bumping around the car on the ride home, fidgety kids, dogs, whathaveyou. Basically they have to treat the grafted subject like some sort of shrine until and after they get the thing in the ground. It is not quite as robust as dormant wood grafts, but still do-able.
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