I have not used 3M transpore, but am hoping for feedback from someone who has used it, or another grafting tape, perhaps one I have not yet heard of.
Parafilm releases too early causing some grafts to fail which would have made it had I used Buddy Tape.
If a graft is going to take it will take before Parafilm loses it's strength, but the continued mechanical support Buddy Tape offfers is what makes the difference. Otherwise, something like a sparrow landing on the graft can destroy it.
Buddy Tape is expensive and lasts a little too long. I have seen where it has restricted growth, and there are cases where I have manually removed it the year following grafting so that it would not continue to do so.
i use electical tape - not the cheap roll because its to stiff. i remove it once i know the graft took. one of our goats almost ringed a young apple tree that was about 3 inches in diameter. it chewed up the tree about four inches and when i found it the bark that was still there was starting to curl. i just wrapped it with electrical tape in hopes it would work. later on in the summer, i removed some of the tape and it had grown back over but the bark has a cork like feel to it. its been two years since this happened and the tree is still growing. anyways thats my cheap way that i do grafting. hope this helps.
I’ve played with parafilm but never used it for an actual graft. It’s interesting that you’ve had it release too early, that had been one of my concerns. And yes, Robin’s can also twist a graft sideways 
I began using electrician's tape, the ‘slick stiff stuff,’ not the supple ‘thicker stuff.’ It worked... but would not expand with the swelling graft, though cutting through it with a razor blade allowed for expansion...
I can’t remember the first ‘budding’ or ‘grafting band’ I used -- but I’ve never looked back … only hunted for longer & wider bands! They’ll bind slightly concaved sions and stock together while maintaining an air and watertight seal when slightly overlapped. They also break down in sunlight at a near perfect rate with the expanding scions. Bird action’s always a risk, but I’d say they’re as strong as any temporary bond.
Some use simple masking tape, and in the scheme of things, it appears to work far more often than not. My concern is it’s inability to expand or ‘stretch’ ...so I stick with the grafting bands. Some have used ‘cut open’ Postal Rubber Bands, but such rubber bands break down too fast in sunlight and aren’t all that easy to find…
Honestly, this subject’s started (too) many heated debates in which most of us agree to disagree… Seems most folks stick with what first worked ... I think the Egyptians used reeds to wrap their grafts, and maybe still do 
I mostly use the skinnier rubber bands. Supposedly the bud either takes or doesn't take within 1.5 days. One year I used parafilm because Jafar gave me some. Thanks Jafar. I heard the shipping is very expensive on parafilm.
FOr whip and tongue I use the wider rubber bands.
JohnS
PDX OR
My first gateway grafting material that landed me in this HOS rehab was strips of bread sack! It worked on some plumtwigs to actual dug roots outa the ground. I wound on way too much that I would later have to razor off but all that winding and winding as a neophyte was quite gratifying. 
" title="Laughing" />
Not sure what kind of heated debate (I disagree to disagree!) this would inspire, but anything at all that helps keep the union together is good as long as you can take it off in good time.
In the 80's or early 90's i attempted and succeeded at grafting carob seedlings to a really candy-good quality carob scion using dental floss. Put it in a terrarium to heal for 18 months before i had courage to remove the floss. Pretty girdled by then, but had the trees as bonsai's for the next 20 or so years. No internet back then so it was all hit and miss. Finally figured stuff out though!
If there is a chance that a bird would land on one of my grafts, i will rig up another piece of stick or branch around 6 inches above said graft using anything from twine, wire, vicegrips or c-clamps, whatever, just give the an alternate place to land fairly close to your graft. Nothing stinks like seeing your precious scion lying on the ground in the hot sun drying out!
...said I couldn’t remember my first budding band… till now ~ It was while grafting next to Bud Beck, nearly 20 years ago at the HOS ‘Scion Exchange’ (precursor to the Propagation Fair). It was wall-to-wall ‘clients’ and only 3 of us grafting, the good ol’ days! Bud tossed me some budding bands… I likely appeared fairly incompetent to my ‘clients’ as I’d watch, then ask him near constant questions regarding his techniques ... told them I was learning, too And I did, he showed me a ‘forward twist’ to ‘preload’ the band so you can wrap it several times without constantly regripping after each turn.
Bud, the owner of a pear orchard, where the North and South forks of the Yamhill Rivers meet, had grafted at the gene repository in Corvallis. Told me they’d be given smuggled scions, often tiny or in poor condition, most from the Soviet satellite nations… Said his team would plan their strategy for days before attempting to propagate the tissue. He was as good a grafter as I’ve ever seen ...and that includes every YouTube video I’ve watched on the subject. Problem was, he only volunteered that one day ...likely burt him out…
The most fun I had at an event was when my oldest daughter wrapped next to me! ...as in wrapping sions to rootstock … not what I still refuse to acknowledge as music 
She’d been practicing for weeks, and even began to answer questions for me ...I got to shut up and cut - we really put together some trees that day! And - she’s one of few ‘Robin’s’ that can actually secure a graft - and not break it 
Though having fallen asleep many an evening to The Grafter’s Handbook, I’ve rarely had the guts to try anything unusual when bench grafting at the HOS events. Now days… I drift over to watch Shaun Shepherd, he’s been playing with techniques for years so has gained confidence with success. I’ve played to that level on my established trees with top working, but rarely venture beyond the basics with HOS clients.
...and yes… I’ve witnessed some live and ‘virtual’ heated disagreements over what to wrap the graft with! What’s funny is how few of us venture far from what first worked, as though it’s magic and we're afraid to break the spell 
Read somewhere that in days of yore they would use strips of rag or animal parts (leather, gut etc) to hold the union together and slather the whole affair with fresh sloppy cow poop. Keeps the moisture in just like parafilm plus the nice odor! Ah, them were the days!
Probably some heated discussions when rubber band grafting parts came on the scene! Cannot imagine the total upset when the first bottle of Doc Farwell's showed up in somebodies kit.
YOU CAN'T DO THAT!
LoL
Yes, Jafar, at the school in Milwaukie ...with those magnificent floor to ceiling windows lighting up our work … as opposed to whitewashed boards and bulb lights at the Canby digs… But no, it was just a one-time event for the two of us ...though she’d practiced for years.
It’s strange, my girls were only interested in wrapping, not cutting. Now had I had boy’s ...would they still have all their digits..? If my dad had grafted, I’d have found a sharp knife
At 20 & 22 … both daughters have other interests, and it will be interesting to see if they pursue anything botanical beyond flower baskets..? Not long ago, I couldn’t even get them to make simple pruning cuts -- maybe I should have forbad it! Seems their only memories of pruning are dragging debris … for which they’d actually harnessed the dog and had her dragging tarp piles to the burn zone… ...miss it already… Do encourage your daughter, mine’s one appearance was apparently a hit, as I’m still asked about her ~
I remember your daughter grafting too. It was adorable.
Most of my friends who have 1 single hobby have kids who hate that hobby. My wife and I try to not focus too much pressure on any one hobby for that reason. I think my one son will grow fruit trees. THe other, I'm not sure. Ages 11 and 13.
John S
PDX OR
Idyllwild
jafar
Marsha H
Viron
John S
1 Guest(s)