Bark Grafting ... and my first!

TorontoJoe

Administrator
I know... in all the years I've been growing figs I've never grafted. I know I'm not exactly accomplished at this but I'll probably copy it to the propagation section since there isn't a bark graft there yet.

A fellow member was kind enough to send me some beautiful scions so with his assistance, this is my first. It's a bark graft on a Letizia rootstock.

I debugged the rootstock a few days ago and placed in sterilized Promix HP. Since this is in the house I wanted to make sure it was very clean. The root system was very well developed. I found the pressure washer did a very good job of removing old mix from the root ball. Then I cut it down and capped with some parafilm so it wouldn't dry out as I did this over a few days.


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I can totally see how the skill builds with practice. It was tricky for me to get nice, smooth cuts... I think I should have enough contact... 


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I was originally going to break out the parafilm again but in order to get it really tight I used some electrical tape, since this is not an area where it really needs to breath...


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I followed up with a light coat of wood glue to seal off the trunk and close off the gaps. 


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After the glue sets I'll cover with a plastic bag and tie it off with an elastic band.

Now we wait!

Hey @"GoodFriendMike"#9  This is the one I mentioned....  How did I do? :)
 
Maybe a mistake copying it over as the replies don't after the fact... oh well, LoL!

I had this thick Letizia that had been growing in my driveway all year. I know some rootstocks are supposed to be better than others but I figured, baby steps.....
 
If anything, I think it was a bit dry and hard to peel the bark back. I thought this was a good think to prevent flooding the scion but I may have gone a bit too far...
 
I did notice when you edited it removed my reply. Maybe others as well? But sometimes when we edit our post. The replies no longer fit. So no harm no foul. :)
 
I really need to do more grafting...I just didn't see the need, but I do now.
Yours looks pretty good, looking forward to seeing how they do.
 
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