Bench Grafting

Steven J.

Steven J.

Well-known member
Last night, while I laid awake thinking about figs, I thought I had the most brilliant and unique idea. It turns out it is a thing already. There truly is nothing new under the sun.

It is called bench grafting. To put it simply, you do tour grafting first, and then you try to root the rootstock.

Has anyone ever tried this with figs?
 
Theoretically it works, but there is not a big enough market for grafted figs to justify doing it that way. Only certain high dollar varieties sell well grafted. The market is entirely different than Persimmons and Paw paws, since both of those must be grafted to replicate the variety in significant numbers. Figs create new trees from sticks..as we know.

So it makes more sense if you are going to graft a high dollar variety that you only have a few nodes of, to graft it to extra large root stock, such as 7 gallon +.
 
Grafting on cuttings - I did that in my first season when I didn't have any rootstock. Just to clarify, I have grafted on both rooted and unrooted cuttings.

I think bench grafting usually refers to grafting indoors, on a bench. I can be wrong but that is what I saw/heard from a few videos.

I prefer bench grafting as we have very hot weather here, even early in the season and it can be quite a struggle dealing with swarming mosquitos at the same time you are grafting. :ROFLMAO:

I live in a windy area. I have literally lost the scion (got blown away) while pulling out a piece of tape trying to bind it. Took me over 5 mins to find that scion. Also field grafting requires on your feet thinking as you need to adjust to the surrounding environment.
 
Last edited:
grasshopper said:
Grafting on cuttings - I did that in my first season when I didn't have any rootstock. Just to clarify, I have grafted on both rooted and unrooted cuttings.

I think bench grafting usually refers to grafting indoors, on a bench. I can be wrong but that is what I saw/heard from a few videos.

I prefer bench grafting as we have very hot weather here, even early in the season and it can be quite a struggle dealing with swarming mosquitos at the same time you are grafting. :ROFLMAO:

I live in a windy area. I have literally lost the scion (got blown away) while pulling out a piece of tape trying to bind it. Took me over 5 mins to find that scion. Also field grafting requires on your feet thinking as you need to adjust to the surrounding environment.
Click to expand...
Aw man. I don't blame you for grafting indoors. That sounds rough. I am sensitive to mosquito bites, so I get it.
I think you are right. Bench grafting is done in a controlled invironment. Maybe we can still name the scion to cutting technique. How about stick grafting? 😄
 
grasshopper said:
Grafting on cuttings - I did that in my first season when I didn't have any rootstock. Just to clarify, I have grafted on both rooted and unrooted cuttings.

I think bench grafting usually refers to grafting indoors, on a bench. I can be wrong but that is what I saw/heard from a few videos.

I prefer bench grafting as we have very hot weather here, even early in the season and it can be quite a struggle dealing with swarming mosquitos at the same time you are grafting. :ROFLMAO:

I live in a windy area. I have literally lost the scion (got blown away) while pulling out a piece of tape trying to bind it. Took me over 5 mins to find that scion. Also field grafting requires on your feet thinking as you need to adjust to the surrounding environment.
Click to expand...
What type of graft on cuttings were you most successful? Is grafting on rooted or unrooted cuttings better?
 
Higueras said:
Yeah I’ve done it and it works but my rooting success isn’t 100% so i prefer to root first and then graft only to the ones that have rooted.
Click to expand...
What would you say was the difference in your success rate between normal rooting and rooting a grafted scion?
 
aerofigs15 said:
What type of graft on cuttings were you most successful? Is grafting on rooted or unrooted cuttings better?
Click to expand...
Cleft graft is better than WnT or chip bud in my experience for grafting on cuttings, rooted or unrooted. I have done both but usually feel better to graft on a rooted cutting.

Using a healthy rootstock cutting with enough reserve and size is probably key to success. My failure usually came from the cuttings die off even after complete healing and had plenty of roots.
 
grasshopper said:
Cleft graft is better than WnT or chip bud in my experience for grafting on cuttings, rooted or unrooted. I have done both but usually feel better to graft on a rooted cutting.

Using a healthy rootstock cutting with enough reserve and size is probably key to success. My failure usually came from the cuttings die off even after complete healing and had plenty of roots.
Click to expand...
I agree that cleft has worked better for me also, but I’m not sure if it’s because I am just better at them. Some bench grafting.
Modified cleft
IMG_5334.jpegIMG_5332.jpeg
Chip bud
IMG_5331.jpegIMG_5309.jpeg
Bud graft (lower left) and cleft graft on the same rooted cutting.IMG_5314.jpeg
 
I like summer rooting all my extra cuttings in 1 gal or tree pots just for the purpose of bench grafting come cutting season. I did have 2 cases where I did it on an unrooted cutting and it was successful. But I literally took that cutting off my tree, grafted and fig popped it in the same afternoon so it rooted fairly quickly.
 
DCallahan said:
What would you say was the difference in your success rate between normal rooting and rooting a grafted scion?
Click to expand...
None. Both are horrible lol. Knowing I would only have like 60% success ahead of time, it’s best for me to wait and see which rooted and not waste those precious Scion buds 😊.

If your rooting is close to 100% I’d say you don’t have to wait
 
Higueras said:
None. Both are horrible lol. Knowing I would only have like 60% success ahead of time, it’s best for me to wait and see which rooted and not waste those precious Scion buds 😊
Click to expand...

IAK said:
I agree that cleft has worked better for me also, but I’m not sure if it’s because I am just better at them. Some bench grafting.
Modified cleft
View attachment 17612View attachment 17613
Chip bud
View attachment 17614View attachment 17615
Bud graft (lower left) and cleft graft on the same rooted cutting.View attachment 17616
Click to expand...
I’m surprised you can graft without parafilm. Mine would dry up. Good job
 
If you’re not good at rooting, you can air-layer the tree and graft onto the air layer at the same time; once the graft has taken, you can set another air layer to obtain that variety on its own roots.
 
IAK said:
I like summer rooting all my extra cuttings in 1 gal or tree pots just for the purpose of bench grafting come cutting season. I did have 2 cases where I did it on an unrooted cutting and it was successful. But I literally took that cutting off my tree, grafted and fig popped it in the same afternoon so it rooted fairly quickly.
Click to expand...
Did you let the rooted cuttings from the summer go dormant before bench grafting or you grafted right away.
 
aerofigs15 said:
Did you let the rooted cuttings from the summer go dormant before bench grafting or you grafted right away.
Click to expand...
I have done both. A rooted cutting wakes up fairly quickly on a heat mat. For bench grafting I also root longer cuttings to have extra grafting room up top. Normally I root a 3 noder with 2 down and just the top bud exposed above dirt line and I avoid using parafilm this way.
 
I did bench graft some ‘antique’ apple varieties once on a rootstock with a double dwarfing interstem. It was done in late winter (cleft grafts with rubberbands and grafting wax) and then they were buried in moist sawdust in the crawl space a few weeks for them to callus. A very good success rate and I only cut myself once.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top