My understanding is that either Farwells or Tree Seal can seep into the joint of the scion to the stock and cause a failure. Instead on cleft grafts where it is not possible to cover the joint with parafilm or anything else to prevent the seeping, I am using caulking compound that will not run, to seal the space. Al

You will have to seal the joint with parafilm, and then apply Doc Farwell. The advantage of Doc Farwell is that it is quicker to seal the remaining portion of the scion with it. The major disadvantage for me is that it is too messy for me to use it. I always ruin my brush, or the container cover would stick together like a glue and will have to ruin the container to reuse it.

And imagine, I am lugging around Doc Farwell's container, the paint brush aside from the ladder, knives, pruning shears, lysol spray, parafilm tape and rubber bands. So I just wrap the whole scionwood with parafilm and forget about using Doc Farwell.

But if you really want cheaper cost of grafting, you can use masking tape, make sure the joint are sealed properly, then seal the rest of the scionwood with Doc Farwell. Cannot be used on citruses though, but a friend topworked several acres of chestnuts this way, and have about 99% take. It would have cost a fortune and slow down in grafting time if he had used parafilm tape.

Whatever technique works for you, and you are comfortable with it, that's the one to use. About me, I'm experimenting most of the time, so I use different styles.

I don't like the appearance of masking tape -it seems to linger for years- but it works and is cheap. I've used it covered with black tar.

For the few grafts I do Parafilm is a gift -once I learned not to depend on it entirely to pull the pieces into contact. Now I do whip and tongue or clefts and bind them with a rubber band, followed by parafilm. I follow Joe's technique of carrying the Parafilm out to the end of the graft. Joe Pezzuti turned me on to bagging the graft, which can be handy.

Good luck,

M

Parafilm for me, too.
For quick and easy stuff like apples/pears, I don't worry too much about whether I put the Parafilm on underneath or over the rubber band - but on tougher stuff that takes longer to callus in, like pecans/hickories/walnuts, I usually do an initial wrap with Parafilm, then my grafting/budding rubber, then overwrap again with Parafilm - and I cover the entire graft union and scion with Parafilm, to keep it from drying out excessively.

Ed Fackler, who for years operated the well-respected Rocky Meadow Nursery in southern IN, told me that for his fruit trees, he never used anything other than masking tape - and if all you're doing is apples/pears, etc. that's probably all you need - they callus in very rapidly, and if you're doing hundreds - or thousands - of grafts, you don't want to be having to go back to cut off a wrapping material that may have the potential to girdle, if it doesn't degrade.

I have a friend who's a propagator for a major Japanese maple nursery on the west coast - she indicated that they used Doc Farwell's one year, and that it was an aesthetic disaster, because for years to come afterwards, you could still see that obnoxious yellow splotch, calling attention to the graft union. On a fruit tree, it's probably no big deal, but on an ornamental, not at all desirable.

I mostly bark graft and Doc Farwell's has never bothered it.
Konrad

Here is a link that might be useful: New Bark Grafting...

I find it is a lot easier to seal the scion with Doc Farwells than to try to twist the parafilm up it. Just a couple blops with my brush and I am done. I always put parafilm on the graft first so it never seeps through to the graft itself. It does stay around awhile, and I find that handy to remember where the graft was.

Scott

I'm with Al: use acrylic latex caulk, $1.50 a tube.

I use Doc Farwells and never had a problem with it.

Thanks all for the info.

I had used it on a more-difficult graft, so if they fail I won't really know the cause.

Does your modified bark graft work with slow healers like pecans

For cleft and bark grafts, I found that a toilet bowl wax ring (new of course and a soft piliable one) works like a charm. I use parafilm and bands for rootstock but prefer toilet bowl wax rings for top working. Lasts all summer and trees heal nicely. Oh and it’s cheap and so easy to work with. Grafting specific wax is so sticky and I hate it in my hands. ...

I've used wax and... but when using Doc. Farwell's you'll never look back.

Can’t FInd it around here. Have the heal and seal for trimming but it’s very thin. I do like lac balsam for sealing ends cuts on grafts (end of scion). Had wonderful results there