Dave,
That is so fascinating and ingenious to do that. I've seen the one angle cut method, wrapped in muslin, and then sealed with wax. The way you're doing it is like a puzzle piece and requires precision & technique...Bravo! Good for you and keep us posted.

Btw: which two cv. are you grafting? I know Florida colors sells grafted cuttings. Are grafted ones better than cuttings fr. the parent tree? Since I'm a newbie to grafts, what is the reason for doing this besides crossing two in hopes of one spectacular outcome?

Suzy

Hi Suzy,

My reasons for grafting were several:

First, I was worried the cuttings I'd received might rot. Some were thin and rather dried up. And I'm going to be away on a road trip and the person watering my plants might have accidently water the cuttings too much. They'd rot for sure. A year ago I received a free Kimo cutting. The bottom of it was very dried up, so I tried grafting the top two inches of healthy tissue onto a rooted cutting and it worked! So this could be a good technique for salvaging rotting or dried up cuttings.

Second, I wanted to try grafting several different colors onto one plant. I will eventually run out of storage space for my plumies, so I'm trying to think ahead.

Third, I just wanted to perfect my grafting skills. I cut up a large generic yellow plumeria several years ago and rooted all the cuttings. So I had about 4 or 5 spare 'rootstock' plants to practice on! Some of the plants had thinner branches than others, so I could match the diameters of the new cuttings to the host branches pretty well.

The thing about this technique is, with a long cutting, you can keep re-cutting the 'V-shape' until you get it right, until you get a good fit. But I think the one diagonal cut you mentioned would be easier to do. However, I'm thinking it may not be quite as stable and would require more wrapping and support.

These grafts were all made from generic cuttings from Packers. There were two 'appricots', two 'rainbows' and a 'hot pink', I believe. So the cuttings were cheap. In the future I'll try to obtain some better named cultivars.

Dave,
Ingenious! Nice work! How are they doing? Do you have any pictures? Do all plumerias grow from the tips? I was just wondering if when you graft the only flowering parts will be from the grafted limb or is it like citrus where the root stock can also send up new shoots and continue to grow? I would like to try grafting 3 or 4 citrus onto one stock!

Dear Wanna,

I will try to get actual pictures of my two grafted plants sometime in the next few weeks. A few of the grafts are showing some leaf growth and all are still very plump and healthy looking (fingers crossed). The plants really look funny because one rootstock had three growing tips and the other had two and I stuck a graft on the ends of each of the growing tips. They look like they belong in the orthopedic ward of the hospital! Whether or not the plants will try to sprout from below the grafts is a good question. Time will tell. I suppose the rootstock could send out a shoot, but I don't think it is natural for plumeria to do this. They like to grow from tips. With citrus you do have to be vigilant to remove shoots that develop on the rootstock.

I think bud grafting is easier on citrus. You'd have to use branches that are at least pencil thickness in which the bark is slipping (during warm season), I think. Takes patience. Once you know the graft has taken, you cut off the stem above the graft to force growth on the graft. With citrus, it is not uncommon to get uneven growth among all the grafts. One variety may want to take over. But I'm certainly not an expert. I would suggest posing that question on the Citrus Forum. There are some experts over there. Good luck!

Hi Dave,

How are they doing?

Hi Wanna,

I've been out of town for about a week and had not checked the Forum.

It looks like I'm starting to get growth on 3 out of 5 tips so far. The two cuttings (grafts) that were the thinnest, greenest and softest (I think they were the 'apricot' color) have gotten very solid, and I think they are the ones that have started leaf growth first (believe it or not!). The beefier cuttings still feel very solid too... no mushiness. But I think they are taking a bit longer to begin growth. Fingers still crossed. So far so good. It looks like I'm getting good graft unions. Pictures to come when I can get to it.

Hi Dave, thanks for sharing your method and as of return here is the method that I experimented and worked. I assume this is the common route, but if IÂm wrong please correct me. I haven't received any direct training from anyone.

The method I used involve preparing the scion and rootstock as shown (a) by overlapping the stocks in similar size and using a very sharp knife (cleaned with alcohol) cutting it diagonally to obtain a perfect match. The steeper the diagonal cut, the easier to tide and maximize the contact between the two to give better holds once healed. It's important that white latex freely flows from both pieces. Don't let the cuts heal or dry out.
Immediately connect them and pin it with clean stainless steel pins as shown (b). Then I wrapped a long cut rubber band around the graft area as shown (c), crisscross around the pins to prevent sliding and around the middle tightly as I could to assure good contact of the cut surfaces (this is critical).
I then wrapped the grafted area with parafilm to avoid aeration and maintain humidity (use as much as possible to completely seal it). I then placed the plants in a shady location and let it take for 4 weeks till signs of new leaves evolve. Then remove the pins and rewrap with parafilms for another week before removing the rubber band. (Click to link to see the diagram)

-David Ho

Here is a link that might be useful:

David,

Thanks for your description of your grafting method. I'll have to try the single-diagonal cut method. I also need to find some parafilm -- since keeping the union from drying is critical.

Dave,

Ebay has parafilm for very cheap. Let me know if you can't find it.

so dave, how'd those grafts go? gotta update for us?

I posted a report quite a while ago. Most of them survived. Some got broken off from wind storms :-(

I the future, though, I'm going to try Madchemis' technique of the single oblique cut...and try to find some parafilm. I think this technique is sure to save any cuttings that might be difficult or too old to root.

Here are two successful grafts on one rootstock (with two branches). Arrows point to the graft union.

{{gwi:1171452}}

Very interesting. I'd love to try this technique once my plumerias get big enough. Thanks so much for sharing. I have parafilm if you need some you can send you your address.
Meixue

Thanks Meixue! I can probably find some in this area.

Dave,
I'm having problem with the image host and diagram isn't showing. And I don't know how to post image directly. Would it be o.k. for you post it directly for me?

-David

Parafilm is available on eBay. It is generally sold as a masking when painting models. Do a search for parafilm from the home page.

hi im doing a report on grafting could u plz send me some info dave?
-Ryan
P.S. hope ur grafts go well

I used the diagonal cut and so far the graft looks good. Will try this method again using a greater angle cut to join the two parts.