May 25
My last graft that hadn't leafed out started to leaf out today. All the buds on that scion (MacIntosh) look kinda black. One has been white. Yesterday I thought I saw a hint of green. So now that this one has leafed out, well just barely, I'm at 100% in my first attempt. I did M7 rootstocks and grafted those to M111. I also grafted an M7 to a M111 and intend to T-Bud a Red Rome from a dwarf seedling I bought this year.
Today I also grafted a MacIntosh Bud to the M7 with the scion that just leaf budded out today. I think I should have held off on that. I couldn't get the bark to pull away from the stem. If this one takes I'll be surprised. Today I also cut a branch off my Golden Delicious which bloomed this year for the first time. I made two T-Bud grafts to a Yellow Transparent. These two apples look kinda similar and I'm looking forward to find out how long it takes to fruit when grafting to an established ( 40 year old? ) tree. Those grafts went much better. The bark lifted and pulled away instead of tending to break.
It looks to me like you have to be patient when doing grafts. Don't give up on what you've done. And if your thinking of trying fruit tree grafting, give it a try. The only thing I used that I didn't have was some grafting tape that I bought on eBay for a few bucks, I think the shipping was free. I used a safety knife and I used teflon plumbers tape to seal the tips of the scions. I used the teflon tape where they suggest using parafin. I finally found it my
local grocery store for $6, they know it as "Gulf Wax". Then I found out they want you to use a double boiler to melt the wax. I had been thinking of using a metal jar lid on top of a candle with copper wire for a spacer between. At any rate the teflon tape is much simpler unless your doing
enough grafts to make it economical to do the wax method.