good luck. You picked a beautiful variety in Autumn Moon. Now I see that this post is a few days old. Did you get them done OK?

Thanks for the response. I just grafted them today, I would have done it last weekend, but it rained. I'll let you know how they turn out.
Rich

Rich,
How did your grafting go? I did s few grafts about 1 month ago and all look great. I would love to try Autumn Moon some time. I was able to get a Butterfly, Viridis, Waterfall, Fireglow Sharps Pigmy, Red Dragon, Sango Kaku, Orange Dream and a couple others I cant remember to take this year. I lost some over the winter last year kept in the garage but not giving up. This year they will all be outside.

I hope you have seen signs of sucess by now. No brown or black wood and signs of leaf,

Grancru
jtcrane@aol.com

Grancru,
I've been meaning to post a followup.
This was my first attempt, ever at grafting plants, not surprisingly I made some mistakes.
I grafted four 'Autumn Moon' onto individually potted japanese maple understocks, and held them in place with grafting tape and grafting wax --I would have tried the rubber strips, but couldn't find a source for them.
Then I covered the tops of the plants with plastic bags. This was a mistake because the bags knocked two of the grafts loose. The next time I attempt this I plan to rig a little tent or green house to cover all the plants, but this was my first attempt. After removing the bags it was immediately obvious that two of the grafts had failed. It's possible that I didn't line up the grafts well enough, but I prefer to blame it on the bags.
The two remaining grafts were both green and healthy looking when I took the plastic bags off, though they both had already, or shortly afterwards lost their leaves, which scared me. Since then unfortunately one seems to be slowly drying up and turning brown, it still has some green on it, but I've given it up for lost. The last one seems to have taken fine, it budded out and has four new leaves about 3/4 unfolded. Hopefully it will keep growing fine.

Grancru, I hope your grafts continue to do well.

I did have some querstions, if anyone can help.
Is it normal for the leaves on the scions to immediately fall off, because when that happened I thought I'd lost all the grafts, and if it is, why the necessity to only use scions with perfect leaves?
When should I cut off the top of the understock, and should I treat the cut with anything?
And lastly, will it be alright to reuse the understocks from the failed grafts if I attempt to do this again next summer?
Thanks,
Rich

Ok.asking for help eh? Well me too...I have being trying to graft some japanese maples as well.I did last winter,but all four grafts failed.I put my best effort to do right,but still no luck.For this,I haven't give up on this method yet.Ok let me tell you where to get great help.Go to this page here...copy and paste onto you url address.Good luck Rich,if you have any success on this matter come back and tell me how you did it..ok??Cause I really like to try it out to,This is cost saving especially you a collector.
http://webpages.charter.net/wbshell/garden/graft5.htm

Rich,
The first thing you need to concern yourself with is sanitation. It is key to sterilize all your tools often.
Next, make sure the cambium layers line up on one side. Possibly get yourself one of those headpieces with magnifying glass and light. This can make a world of difference as well as free up your hands.

You should not lose leaves if the cambium layers line up and the graft takes. The humidity level must be maintained during this process. This is where the bag comes in. Sometimes you can lose a leaf but the should be a bright, swollen bud where the leaf fell from. Humidity should also maintain itself in the bag if a scion with leaves take. THey are doing their job. Try to find grafting bands as they will hold the graft far better then the wax and allow you to see within a week or so if the graft took. If it didn't you can see the scion turning brown or black.

As for cutting the top of your stock off, I prefer to wait 1 year since mine are kept outside and this helps protect the graft from being bumped, protects somewhat from critters, ect. The tops take all the abuse as well as helps provide additional nutrition from the added folidge. Don't be in a hurry to cut them off. You can seal the cut with a sealer but it is not necessary. Youcan also drown the graft by sending to much sap to the scion cutting tops off just before a growth spurt.

The reason to use healty scions is you want a healty plant. Scions with full, healthy leaves will give you the best chance at a healthy tree.

There is no problem with reusing understock that failed previously. Be careful not to cut to deep or to wide as it will cut off the flow of sap and kill the stock.

My grafts were all sunk in the ground this fall since I lost almost all new grafts last winter overwintering in the garage.

Best of luck,
Grancru

Some thoughts...

I have been using Parafilm to fix scions. I noticed recently there is a version of this made specially for grafting... This stuff is stretchy and tends to seal the graft union. You can use more of the stuff if you have a heavy scion that might want to shift before it begins to heal.

It would be worth trying Glad Press 'n Seal to create the tent for the graft. It is light weight and can be easily adjusted to odd shapes.

>> You can use more of the stuff if you have a heavy scion that might want to shift before it begins to heal.should read:

You can use more of the stuff if you have a heavy scion that might shift before it begins to heal.

Wondering why your first attempt at grafting was in the summer? Have done in the winter with good sucess - summer seems a little riskier.
Google grafting rubbers - or grafting tape ( clear, and elastic ---try grape grower.)
Good luck

There's a major mis-step in the process...

Prior to doing the carpentry, the leaves on the scion need to be clipped off leaving about 1/4 - 1/2 inch of petiole. The understock can either keep its leaves or really it doesn't matter. It's common to chop a 3 foot tall understock down to one foot where no leaves are and graft your scion right to that. No problem there.

It's more than ok to chop the understock way down so it isn't tall as well.

The plants may be sealed with all of the above mentioned materials. (parafilm, bud stip, rubber band)

The grafted plants need to be placed under a large tree so they receive minimal light. Perfect conditions are dappled light. Or you need to create this type of an environment. A camping tent will do the same work in a barn for example.

The graft will only be successful if the petioles turn black, then fall off to expose a healthy bud that has pushed from below the petiole.

Actually, summer grafting is 100% less work due to time involved. The new graft should be known to have been a success in approximately 10-14 days give or take a week.

Also, do not water the understock prior to grafting. You want it almost dry but just a bit moist. Too much water and you have a dead scion.

After the graft shows success, place it in full shade for the next two full years. And... when you place it into shade, give it one week of keeping the understock almost bone-dry again, but giving it just enough water to not allow it to die. This is MAJOR. After that week, you can water it as often as you like. Heavy amounts of water won't do any harm.

You still won't know if the graft is successfull until the following spring. Careful overwintering surely plays its part in the process. Don't go over 50 degrees F and you'll have given them enough cold for any dormancy requirements.

Grafting ends about August the first for Maples. (Mid July - Beginning of August)

You can also graft Ginkgo the same above-mentioned way. Ginkgo has a longer time-frame allowing grafting to continue into September first.

Here's a photo of some summer maple grafts...
{{gwi:1044911}}

Dax

Drop a damp wadded up paper towel in the sealed garbage bag as well.

Dax

Does summer grafting work the same for conifers? Mike

Sorry plantman,

First, (mid-June - August the first for Maples).

As to conifers, graft them exactly when the understock begins to push growth in spring and follow the same procedure. I haven't tried it, but others do so. I really can't tell you much more than that.

Dirr's 'The Reference Manual of Woody Plant Propagation' probably has the information you are looking for. A friend of mine who is a major player in the grafting world does do summer conifer grafts and he always asks me, 'Don't you have a copy of Dirr'??

If I find the information, I'll post it, otherwise I can't tell you anything else.

Prior on the conifer forum I once asked about field grafting and was told by another conifer grafter (nursery owner) that a friend of his used to graft conifers as I mentioned above and on the east coast.

That's all I know.

Dax

Plantman,

The conifer scion must be dormant but the understock growing so prior to grafting you need to collect your scions (2-4 weeks before) and keep them in your refridgerator in a sealed bag with a lightly damp paper towel wadded up.

Dax

Is there a time in the summer when conifers are dormant? Obviously in the winter.

I have a WB on a white pine that is only accesibel in the warmer months and want to try grafting -

Mike

Dax, I live in zone 8 here in South Carolina. Two years ago I bought 12 Japanease Red Maples that were each 3 feet tall. I left them outside these last two years in the containers I purchased them in. They all are looking great. My question is this. I want to take cuttings and graft them to other maple root stock. Dax you said that once the grafts are successful that you should place them in full shade for two years. Why for two years? My plan is to graft the cuttings and grow these for sale. Your suggestions would be helpful as I am a novice at grafting. Also I have been told that Japanese Red Maples are not good for bonsai. Why is that?
Thank you so much,
Rodney urb2165@bellsouth.net