Cuzn. I looked up the pdf you mentioned. Not how I do my bark grafts, but there are probably as many variations of a given grafting technique as there are grafters. Konrad, who's a frequent poster here, does his a little differently, as well - but it's a graft that takes quite nicely, and it's easy to do. My technique: Behead the rootstock with your pruners. Make a single vertical slit in the rootstock bark. Make a long, sloping cut in the base of your scion - just as you would for a simple whip graft. Now, shave some bark off the two 'long' sides, to expose some cambium tissue on the lateral edges. Gently 'lift' the edges of the slit in the rootstock bark and slide the scion down into the slit, until the cambium at the 'top' of your sloping basal cut is just above the level of the beheaded top of the rootstock. I wrap the union and scion with parafilm, then overwrap with rubber band - or sometimes, just with a couple layers of masking tape, if it's something that will callus in rapidly, like pears. For nut trees, I do a 'sap-stopper' modification of the graft above - instead of completely beheading the rootstock, I just cut 3/4-7/8 of the way through the stock and break the top over, leaving it attached, to serve as a sap-drawer/pressure relief valve, as nut trees often tend to bleed excessively. After the scion calluses in and growth commences, you can come back and snip off the still-attached top of the rootstock. Osborn's technique, as outlined in the pdf, may actually be a sturdier graft, less prone to 'blow-out/break-out' than mine - might try a few that way this year. I have done simple whip grafts on persimmon, with 100% success rate, before someone told me that persimmons are hard to graft. (They're NOT. But, aftercare, for at least the first growing season, IS.) Here is a link that might be useful: Grafting persimmons.

In the spring of 2012, I attempted to graft a Pear scion onto my apple tree using Winter Banana Apple as an inter stem. (All of he grafting i do is "Whip and Tongue" grafts wrapped in grafting tape. I then coat the wrapped union with grafting wax) The parent branch was a Winesap Apple branch with a grafted Winter Banana Apple scion from a few years before. (I actually have two of these paired branches.) I then attempted to graft two "Kieffer" Pear scions onto my two Winter Banana Apple inter stems. The "Kieffer" Pear scions started to grow, but died a few weeks later. This spring (2014) I attempted to graft this Apple / Pear union again using the same Winter Banana Apple inter stems. I had just enough branch on my Winter Banana branches to try this experiment one more time. This time around, I used "Sunrise Pear" scionwood. The grafting was a screaming success! (I had enough "Sunrise Pear" scionwood to graft two branches onto my apple tree, and two more onto an ornamental pear. All four pear grafts were a success!) I have no idea why this experiment failed in 2012 and was a success in 2014. I do not know if it had to do with the pear variety used, or if it had to do with environmental circumstances. I will re-post in 2015 with an update. There are a few different treads on this subject so I will be re-posting on those threats also. Below are pictures taken on 07/27/2014.

strudeldog, I've never used the Parafilm Grafting Tape - have seen photos of it, and thought that it looked different - thicker than the old standby Parafilm M that I've been acquainted with and have worked with for over 30 years. The manufacturer's description is that the Grafting Tape is a different formulation (higher olefin content?) - perhaps that's why it doesn't stretch as much as Parafilm M. The unstretched Parafilm - whether M or GT won't just stick to itself, the way you're trying in your video - it has to be stretched to 'activate' it; as you're wrapping around the stock or union, it seals to itself pretty nicely. I don't try to stretch the whole piece at once, but stretch it a little at a time, as I'm wrapping around and around, allowing it to adhere to itself as I work my way up the scion and back down again. Have a look at the linked video below - looks like they're using Parafilm M Here is a link that might be useful: budding with Parafilm

Good thinking. First, it would be good to clip healthy stems (pencil thick to 3/8" thick work well) with fat buds from the fruiting tree while the tree is still dormant, cut them to 8" lengths, dip the cut ends into melted candle wax from a wide, lit candle's puddle, lay them in a 1 gallon freezer bag with a moist pc. of paper towel, and put the bag in the fridge where it won't get bumped and crushed. You won't need to keep all the branches on the fruitless trees, so it would be good to prune away excess/unimpressive/less valuable branches before grafting time. Such as twigs and branches that grow downwards, or branches that are jammed too close together, all side growth on the bottom 4 feet of trunk (so a slit pc. of metal duct can encircle the lower trunk to keep out climbing rodents), etc. When choosing which branches to leave for grafting to, be on the lookout for vertical, fast-growing suckers from 3/8" to 1/2" thick for doing cleft grafts, as well as thicker suckers from maybe 5/8" to 1" for doing bark grafts. There is no need to whack off every branch that will not get grafted to, and leaving some of the leafy ungrafted branches will help the tree to keep growing while the young scions begin growing. Try to graft to suckers that are lower for convenience sake, and figure out which suckers are possible contenders to become the new central leader(s). It would be great to eventually have the new central leader(s) to be fruiting branches. One way to try to get that to happen is to graft some suckers near the center of the tree and graft them higher up than other grafts. Once the fruitless trees begin growing out new leaves after the last expected freeze, it is a good time to graft. If the weather has been very dry, it would be good to water the tree real well a week before the grafting. After a year of good growth for the grafted branches, more ungrafted branches could be pruned away. If you choose to, you can graft lots of extra suckers and later prune away those that do not grow as well. Over a few years of growth grafted suckers that are only a foot apart will crowd each other, so they can be pruned later. Try to graft branches over a wide area and spaced apart so as to take over the same tree circle over time. I would not graft horizontal branches at all. There are many youtube videos illustrating cleft and bark grafts. Although you may be content with the fruit from the other tree, it would be worthwhile learning from your local county agricultural extension agent which pear trees are recommended for your area, and then try to acquire dormant scions from those varieties also for grafting to such big trees that have room for lots of grafts. Fire blight resistance is a huge preference. Good luck on your worthwhile project.