Power-grafting?

TorontoJoe

TorontoJoe

Administrator
I've seen videos of people doing this over the years on various YT videos. Has anyone here ever tried one of the drill techniques on a fig tree?

I was looking at this first video, wondering if it really needed to be on a node?


Either way, both of these are super cool. It's pretty late into the year but I may not be able to resist trying one of these methods.

 
I did 2 grafts on 2 different citrus tree and both failed, my guess is there are details that maybe doesn't get mentioned in the video to ensure success. I haven’t tried it on a fig tree. I am also interested to see if others had success with this method to learn what
Should we look to do to ensure success
 
Figneer said:
I did 2 grafts on 2 different citrus tree and both failed, my guess is there are details that maybe doesn't get mentioned in the video to ensure success. I haven’t tried it on a fig tree. I am also interested to see if others had success with this method to learn what
Should we look to do to ensure success
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I'm interested as well. Looking at the method, I think it should work. Do you have any sense of why you think yours failed? Do you think it was some element in the method?
 
TorontoJoe said:
I'm interested as well. Looking at the method, I think it should work. Do you have any sense of why you think yours failed? Do you think it was some element in the method?
Click to expand...

Yes I think 1- you have to seal the drill hole very well from both sides, I did a poor job on that. 2- I am still not sure if the cambium layer has to touch between the scion and mother tree & if true then how to achieve that. I will try again next spring and hopefully by that time we have someone from the USA or Canada have successfully used this method and they can give detailed instructions and important factors for success. Most of the video I have seem been from foreign countries and sometime crucial details doesn’t get mentioned
 
Figneer said:
Yes I think 1- you have to seal the drill hole very well from both sides, I did a poor job on that. 2- I am still not sure if the cambium layer has to touch between the scion and mother tree & if true then how to achieve that. I will try again next spring and hopefully by that time we have someone from the USA or Canada have successfully used this method and they can give detailed instructions and important factors for success. Most of the video I have seem been from foreign countries and sometime crucial details doesn’t get mentioned
Click to expand...

100% agree. We need to do some of our own trials on this side of the pond.
 
The videos I have seen the guy drilled the hole then sorta walked it outward towards the cambium. It actually ever so slightly broke through but he folded it down. I’ll see if I can find his video. I’d say the cambium needs to touch since that’s the main veins of the tree. While easy looking I think it makes an ugly graft and is sorta harsh. Just my opinion though. I really like JSacadura on YouTube. Nice clean straight cuts.
 
Another method I found interesting is taking a chainsaw socket tool (not sure what they’re called) and use is to remove the scion and to create the same hexagon shape in the receiving tree. Not sure if it just makes a cool video though.
 
bushdoctor82 said:
Another method I found interesting is taking a chainsaw socket tool (not sure what they’re called) and use is to remove the scion and to create the same hexagon shape in the receiving tree. Not sure if it just makes a cool video though.
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Do you mean one of these?

tool.jpeg
Would that need to be sharpened somehow to cut into the tree?
 
superdave336 said:
The videos I have seen the guy drilled the hole then sorta walked it outward towards the cambium. It actually ever so slightly broke through but he folded it down. I’ll see if I can find his video. I’d say the cambium needs to touch since that’s the main veins of the tree. While easy looking I think it makes an ugly graft and is sorta harsh. Just my opinion though. I really like JSacadura on YouTube. Nice clean straight cuts.
Click to expand...

I wasn't sure what you meant until I watched it. Yeah... the video I posted seems to be dependant on the cambium just at the entry. and exit point whereas this guy seems to be trying to get contact all the way through.... Makes sense.... but I'm sure I'd bust through a few trees before getting the hang of it.

Also noticed that everyone seems to be using bits that look to be 6mm (1/4") + or - If I do this I might attempt a few different sizes
 
bushdoctor82 said:
That’s the one. I couldn’t find the video on YT, but found another one using a piece of pipe instead. I would think it would need to be sharpened. Could be BS - no idea.

Click to expand...

Clever idea. I'd think it would be need to be pretty sharp to account for the wall thickness of the pipe/socket. Or perhaps even two of different sizes.

Of course now I want to try this as well....

And, since this method has no name... I officially declare it to be, "Die-Cut Grafting" ©TorontoJoe 2025 :p
 
TorontoJoe said:
Clever idea. I'd think it would be need to be pretty sharp to account for the wall thickness of the pipe/socket. Or perhaps even two of different sizes.

Of course now I want to try this as well....

And, since this method has no name... I officially declare it to be, "Die-Cut Grafting" ©TorontoJoe 2025 :p
Click to expand...

Wondering if the wall thickness is different based on tree age/ size?
 
Power grafting???

giphy.gif
 
A brief introduction : I live in N.Qld, Australia. !.000 metres altitude. 70 years old. I've been an orchardist and nurseryman since age 22.
(Avocados, Mangos, Annonas, (mainly atemoyas) , persimmons, low-chill stone fruit ) Nursery side : Grafted citrus and stone fruit, various other fruit trees, shade house ornamentals. Done countless grafts , top-worked many fruit trees.
I haven't watched the second video. This comment is in relation to the drill grafts in the first video.
It doesn't make any sense. Almost like a practical joke of some kind, to get people around the world doing grafts that have about zero chance of succeeding. With any graft, you're trying to maximise cambial contact. He carefully removes the bark from the scion, then inserts it into a hole drilled into wood. There is no chance of cambial contact there. The only chance of having some slight cambial contact is at the surface of the xylem (sapwood) on the stock, though in most of those grafts, the branch has been cut off, so there is no cambium on that sapwood surface, only around the edge of the severed branch. What does he do ? Uses a countersink drill bit to remove any trace of cambium from the stock around the hole drilled into the wood. Guaranteed to fail
I hope that makes sense to the readers here. For those trying to understand, you need to remember that the cambium is only a thin layer
of cell division between the bark and sapwood.
 
@David H do you have any pictures you might share with us on your Australian Nursery man grafting that you employed in your job down under? I would love to see some pictures of what a lifelong horticulturalist in Australia works on. Are you still working in the industry?
 
I watched that video last night , or some of it, got exasperated, registered, made that comment, went to bed, thought more about it. Morning now.
I'll just add that no sane orchardist would top-work a tree like that. You top-work a tree by selecting the branches you need to keep, then graft them over to the cultivar you want. Easier, quicker, and far far more structurally sound. Why would anyone remove branches like
that, then try to add branches , which are far more likely to not have a strong crotch than the existing branches.

Hello Figless, We came here in 1977 to a forest block, cleared about twenty acres for an orchard, built a cabin, shed, cattle yards for a small cattle herd grazing the grass understory of the forest. Grew and sold fruit for twenty years, then changed over to plant production ,so built shadehouses for that. We have a smaller orchard now in the homestead area. The older orchard is not watered now, only slashed once a year, but we still get plenty of fruit from it from the hardier trees. We have about seventy different mango cultivars in the older orchard, and I've got interested in trying different figs, which is why I found this site. In the homestead area we have quite a few Ficus opposita growing, as they are native to this block. It has a deep tap root and handles dry periods well, so I'm grafting over branches of them to different F.carica cultivars. Also have planted some F. coronata , and the grafts on it are doing well so far. We're semi- retired now, and were only ever a small scale operation. We grafted all sale and stock trees ourselves. Busy life, but didn't photograph most of it.
I mainly do side veneer or side bark grafts when I top-work, as the stem above the graft is very useful to tie to the shoot from the graft , to prevent wind-breakage until the graft union is strong. It can be cut back to about thirty cm . when the graft shoots, then removed when the
graft union is well healed. All the best.
 
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