Removing the wood, even when the bark is slipping very well, looks like it might damage the bud. On some things it apparently doesn't. Good to know that it apparently does damage the persimmon bud and likely other species. The only reason to remove the wood is for a better fit. On thin barked things like apricot when the wood is small diameter, removing the wood markedly improves fit of the bud under the bark of the T. I've never tried to do T budding with dormant scion wood. Have tried it doing patch budding of pecan with scions collected during the dormant season. The bud sticks were brought out of the frig several days prior to trying the patch buds. Higher temps were supposed to make the bark slip but it was difficult to get the bud patches off the wood and we only had about 50% takes. Don't want to try that again. If the bark isn't slipping easily on the rootstock, it is hard or immpossible to T bud. If you have to dig around to try to open the bark, takes will be few and far between. On the other hand, I can see it working if the scion is not slipping but don't try to dig the wood out of the bud. Instead, I'd try to cut the bud thinner so there was less wood and a better fit. Or with a dormant scion, just do some kind of grafting instead. Yesterday I grafted nine sweet cherry varieties using dormant scions onto a tree past bloom with bark slipping very well. That seemed easier than budding. I'll start budding after the new wood matures. The Fruitnut

Thanks for all of the feedback. I did a couple of things, I regrafted the cleft in one last ditch effort. If I get nothing again, I'll do a renewal cut on it in February and see if I can get another sprout next year on the chunk of wood I leave. Otherwise, you're right mark, I'll use that new sprout, this tree put out thick growth in 1 season. They're thick enough where a matching whip and tongue isnt possible. I made my own watersprout with a rind graft on an injury callous that is really green, huge cambium coverage. Vertical rind graft, dead straight up. I didnt know mature stock was tan, I was expecting to at least see the rind a green color. Thats good to know. The core of the wood was a medium brown and wet. It looked like the scaffold was keeping the scion alive, almost on life support, enough to keep it green but not enough juice to grow it. Almost like a zombie scion. It is the lowest branch on the tree, but its over my head, about 7 feet off the ground. Im greedy at this point, my Belle de Boskoop graft is going to be a monster, Freyberg took from Geneva, Scott, your freyberg grafts are still on the tree and turning bright green, no bud push, but they're bright red, so im leaving them on. I have Calville Blanc d'Hiver on the tree with a 1 year wood graft, Reine des Reinettes tried to flower but I clipped them on Mark's advice, now its blowing up. So all of this conjecture is just greed I guess, trying to get the most out of the wood I have, I think im ditching the rest of them soon. Thanks for your thoughts guys, I appreciate it, Im an amateur, totally new to this, and this has been a big time learning experience. People were staring at me from the road today, wondering what I was doing in the tree. Caught one lady staring, I said, "Just doing a little grafting." felt good to say that. She just nodded. "Ah..."

For decades I've managed trees on 111 rootstock into your zone in coastal CT and no pests have ever bothered any of hundreds and hundreds of trees in well over 20 years in spite of ample burr knots. Strange I haven't seen knots on 26 but I don't manage many trees on that stock (I like a real tree), however, I do prune and provide consultation for a small commercial orchard that has plenty of trees on 26 and the owner has never spoken to me of any problems with burr knots although the trees aren't buried as was crazily suggested in the article FN directed you to. No commercial grower would bury 26 below the graft union for fear of scion rooting which could eliminate the dwarfing affect of the 26. All this doesn't mean there was no legitimate reason for their suggestion that I'm unaware of, but before cutting your trees get a second opinion- and a regional one. England has a completely different climate and slew of pests than you do.

Thanks steve and exgm, Yes, they are properly inflated, and yes, the TCS is always on. But....I just thought of something. I take it in every 3,500 miles for its servicing. About 4 services ago, the manager told me that one of my tire rims was dented, and that meant they couldn't rotate my tires (only if I would buy a new rim). I decided to forego the rotation. 2 services ago, they rotated them and said there wasn't a problem. Well.....I noticed a shimmying of my steering wheel after that and told them, and they put the tires back to the position they were before the last rotation, and the shimmying stopped. So......I guess maybe that's the reason for the poor traction?? Do I have to buy 4 new tires and a new rim to get better traction, or could I just buy one new rim, and then have them rotate them? But......they told me that even though they put the tires back to their pre-dented-rim location, they couldn't see a dent in any rim. This is a very reliable service department, so I don't feel that I'm getting the run-around. But I am a bit confused now. Any suggestions?