Hello Beeone. I don't know if I cam fully answer you, but I'll see if my own experiences are helpful. Your first synopsis of questions: >>My questions are, am I being impatient looking for growth? Was the paint a mistake? Since the cambium was green, I presume it carries out some photosynthesis, so by painting did I block the light and help kill or delay the scions? I know electrical tape isn't recommended, but it was handy and I figured I would remove it later this summer, plus I didn't want to waste a bunch of money on parafilm until I had figured out how to have a reasonable chance of success. Did I cut the scions too early? Should they have been breaking dormancy when cut? Should I have done the grafting earlier or later?I doon't think you're being impatient. The grafts often pop within a week or three. But I've had a couple take much longer, and a friend reports one that didn't come out until the next year. As long as the scion acts like it isn't kindling I leave it on. The cambium should be covered completely, and I doubt that there is much photosynthesis going on from it for long. Once exposed it turns brown anyway. You need a callous to form where the cuts join. I've never used paint, but I doubt it was much of a mistake. Keeping the scion from drying out is a good thing, and people have lots of different ways, as you've read here, of doing that. Similarly, people often use electrical tape, which has the advantage of allowing lots of snugness- a good thing! "Pull those surfaces together!", I say. This is a weakness with parafilm, which is great stuff, but a little wimpy in terms of tensile strength. It stretches too easily, and needs help. I've used electrical tape but only with something under it to prevent it damaging the bark. I've also had successful grafts with masking tape, but I can't recommend it. Now I use budding rubbers or ordinary rubber bands and go over it with parafilm, or some such combination. Main thing is to bring the pieces into good cambial alignment without too much damage to the surrounding parts, hold them there while they heal together, and keep them from drying out until they take off on their own. You did not cut the scions too early. Late dormancy is probably the best time, for a couple of reasons, but mainly the scions have less time to get damaged or dry out in storage if you cut them in March. Although I have grafted sucessfully with scions that were breaking dormancy I understand that they are less forgiving than dormant scions. It is probably best to have the rootstock taking off- flush with water to seep across the seam of your suture into the new scion, which is surely thirsty, especially once it wakes up and embarks on its own career- but it's also doable to graft onto rootstock in its late dormancy and then let them wake up together. Essential, of course, to prevent dehydration. I think you're well on your way and just need to keep at it. But I have to wonder if you'll be happy waiting for results from all those seedlings. You'll have full-sized trees, almost certainly, and it'll be years and years before any of them start to bear fruit. I'd encourage you to graft onto a semi-dwarf rootstock, but I imagine once you have a little succes with this current experiment you'll get there if you want to. (Plus, I think you can do a lot better than Yellow Transparent, but that's just me!) Good luck, M ps- parafilm ain't pricey, and it sure is useful.

Carla: Peach, nectarine and apricot are harder to T-bud than apple or cherry because the bark is thinner and more fragile. The guy in the video was rather ham handed in my opinion. Doing the T-bud he tore up the bark on the rootstock. I open the T with my thumbnail a small amount, just enough to get the bud to slid in from the top. You don't open up the T and ploop the bud in place, you slid it in from the top. I also take the wood out of the bud. This helps the bud slid in easier but is only essential on small diameter wood where it gives a much better fit of cambium layers. Then I wrap with rubber budding strips. They work great. Key point: bark MUST BE SLIPPING on the rootstock to T-bud. If you need to remove the wood from the bud, then bark must be slipping on the scion. It takes a certain amount of dexterity to fit everything together with minimum damage to bark, cambium, and bud. If the bark isn't slipping well, things get tore up and the cambium layer isn't fully exposed. In that case I quit and give the tree a good watering. Water is the key to T-budding because that is what causes the bark to slip. I get ~95% takes on T budding even with the stonefruit and with small diameter wood, the hardest to work with. I got about 85-90% takes on whip and tongue this spring. Experience is the best teacher so keep trying. The Fruitnut

Look until you find one raised from seed or even a cutting. In addition to possible delayed graft incompatibility there is the possibility of the aforementioned ugly differential between the diameter of the sweet cherry stem and the stem of the Sargent cherry, as well as likely issues with emergent roots and suckers - here in western USDA 8 sweet cherry root-stocks are often a nightmare in parking strips and other turfed or paved areas.

Not sure it anyone still looks back at this section of the forum, but I found it extremely interesting. The question I have is more of a top-down question. I currently grow blue spruce, in multiple numbers (hundreds/maybe a thousand potted up now, and maybe another thousand almost ready to pot ). Mine are 2-3 years old, so early stage. Grown from seed. Some from "majestica" blue spruce seed which seem to grow quite eratically to be honest. In any case, I read of blue spruce cultivars like Hoopsi, and Fat Albert. I believe they are grafted onto Norway Spruce understock. What I don't understand is how the colour (very vibrant blue) is common to all grafted stock. I assume that "they" (whoever "they" are) select specific/specimin adult trees and take scions exclusively from that tree? Who would maintain the Hoopsi "trademark" i.e. select consistent adult trees? I assume certain of the "progeny" may then be a source of scions, thus improving the variety? Also, I know I can buy grafted Hoopsi grafted stock (a year or two old) but if I wanted to graft my own Hoopsi, how would one proceed (and is this type of activity monitored? i.e. purchase a Hoopsi adult tree and presumably take my "scions" from that tree??) Alternatively, if one of my current trees grew with a vibrant blue colour (I seem to have a few out of a thousand) could I then use that tree for scions, a number of years from now? (provided I obtained or grew Norway Spruce or some other suitable understock). Sorry, you can tell I'm very new to this. But any information will be helpful.