How to Prep Mango Scions before harvest for Grafting (Picture attached)

[behlgarden]

For those who dont know -

A lot of times folks send wood for grafting and end result sometimes is a failure of graft. besides other reasons for failure, one thing you could do is prepare the scion before you harvest. This is the best thing you could do to ensure whoever gets the wood has maximum chances of take.

see pictures below, this is how I prep.

I remove the terminal bud from hardened growth, cut all leaves off.



in about 3 days, the ends of leaf stems will fall off. In about 7 to 10 days, the leaf nodes will start to swell. Once they are swelled you harvest wood, seal it and send away. When buds are swelled, the budwood is fully energized ready to roar into growth post grafting. The picture below, it still has few more days of bud swelling left before I will harvest.






On packaging/shipping.

I dip the cut ends (usually bottom) into warm melted wax to seal moisture., then put it in a sandwich bag that also have moist vermiculite in it. I have successfully sent packages to other side of globe and were viable even after almost 2 weeks.

[FrankDrebinOfFruits]

Need a follow up post 

What are people using for packaging scions. Most come in a ziplock bag.  Inside the bag I have seen moistened vermiculite, small piece of lightly moistened paper towel, wrapped in moistened paper towel, dry and wrapped in para film/buddy tape... Any preference? Any drawbacks of each? I have yet to notice any...

[Cookie Monster]

We never prep scions. Pretty common here in FL, to just snip and graft. Don't think there's much of a difference in rate of take. You can actually graft completely dormant budwood. Once you get cambium binding, the scion can live for months without needing to grow. Where it could potentially have an impact would be when using budding techniques, as it's sometimes hard to get mango budeyes to spring.

As far as sending budwood, one thing to be careful of is not to over moisten the media. Just a few sprinkles of water to maintain humidity within the bag is sufficient. Too much water can lead to early scion failure.

Wrapping with paper towel and inserting into ziplock back works well. Just be sure not to over moisten. Literally a few drops of water is enough.

[echinopora]

Last year every mango I did with prepped scions shot before the cambium healed, then a secondary bud had to form and shoot later on. All clefts, veneer or terminal veneer. Final take rate was still good but this year I don’t think I’ll graft mango with buds that are so matured, or at least not during the wet season.  I prepped the wood by clipping the leaves and removing the stalks in 5-7 days. Does anyone else have that happen?

For mamey/green sapote, jacks, jaboticaba, wax Jambu and black sapote I’ve been prepping budwood and using veneer/terminal veneer without that problem.

I don’t send a lot of budwood but the couple dozen I mailed last year did fine wrapped in buddy tape in a ziplock.

[bsbullie]

We never prep scions. Pretty common here in FL, to just snip and graft. Don't think there's much of a difference in rate of take. You can actually graft completely dormant budwood. Once you get cambium binding, the scion can live for months without needing to grow. Where it could potentially have an impact would be when using budding techniques, as it's sometimes hard to get mango budeyes to spring.

As far as sending budwood, one thing to be careful of is not to over moisten the media. Just a few sprinkles of water to maintain humidity within the bag is sufficient. Too much water can lead to early scion failure.

Wrapping with paper towel and inserting into ziplock back works well. Just be sure not to over moisten. Literally a few drops of water is enough.

Agreed (and if I did prep, I would leave a tad bit of the leaf petiole and not cut so flush to the scion material).  I have sent fresh cut scions just as Jeff described to people and take rates are usually very good.

[behlgarden]

We never prep scions. Pretty common here in FL, to just snip and graft. Don't think there's much of a difference in rate of take. You can actually graft completely dormant budwood. Once you get cambium binding, the scion can live for months without needing to grow. Where it could potentially have an impact would be when using budding techniques, as it's sometimes hard to get mango budeyes to spring.

As far as sending budwood, one thing to be careful of is not to over moisten the media. Just a few sprinkles of water to maintain humidity within the bag is sufficient. Too much water can lead to early scion failure.

Wrapping with paper towel and inserting into ziplock back works well. Just be sure not to over moisten. Literally a few drops of water is enough.

Jeff, it works well for high humidity areas like yours, in CA, we already are humidity deprived and are limited to 2-3 flushes if we are lucky/year. From my personal experience having prepped wood grafting has been 100% success.

[Cookie Monster]

Curious. Seems like Peter (san diego area) is able to pull off good graft take % with unprepped wood.

We never prep scions. Pretty common here in FL, to just snip and graft. Don't think there's much of a difference in rate of take. You can actually graft completely dormant budwood. Once you get cambium binding, the scion can live for months without needing to grow. Where it could potentially have an impact would be when using budding techniques, as it's sometimes hard to get mango budeyes to spring.

As far as sending budwood, one thing to be careful of is not to over moisten the media. Just a few sprinkles of water to maintain humidity within the bag is sufficient. Too much water can lead to early scion failure.

Wrapping with paper towel and inserting into ziplock back works well. Just be sure not to over moisten. Literally a few drops of water is enough.

Jeff, it works well for high humidity areas like yours, in CA, we already are humidity deprived and are limited to 2-3 flushes if we are lucky/year. From my personal experience having prepped wood grafting has been 100% success.

[FrankDrebinOfFruits]

We never prep scions. Pretty common here in FL, to just snip and graft. Don't think there's much of a difference in rate of take. You can actually graft completely dormant budwood. Once you get cambium binding, the scion can live for months without needing to grow. Where it could potentially have an impact would be when using budding techniques, as it's sometimes hard to get mango budeyes to spring.

As far as sending budwood, one thing to be careful of is not to over moisten the media. Just a few sprinkles of water to maintain humidity within the bag is sufficient. Too much water can lead to early scion failure.

Wrapping with paper towel and inserting into ziplock back works well. Just be sure not to over moisten. Literally a few drops of water is enough.

Agreed (and if I did prep, I would leave a tad bit of the leaf petiole and not cut so flush to the scion material).  I have sent fresh cut scions just as Jeff described to people and take rates are usually very good.

Cutting flush to the scion allows the parafilm or buddy tape to have no air pockets for nasty mold/fungus to grow. Also, less chance that the leaf petiole won't poke through the parafilm wrap. I actually prefer flush cut with no damage to the bud.  Just my preference.... I have only done a few hundred grafts... so just a newb  (and I am serious, compared to nursery people).

[bsbullie]

Curious. Seems like Peter (san diego area) is able to pull off good graft take % with unprepped wood.

We never prep scions. Pretty common here in FL, to just snip and graft. Don't think there's much of a difference in rate of take. You can actually graft completely dormant budwood. Once you get cambium binding, the scion can live for months without needing to grow. Where it could potentially have an impact would be when using budding techniques, as it's sometimes hard to get mango budeyes to spring.

As far as sending budwood, one thing to be careful of is not to over moisten the media. Just a few sprinkles of water to maintain humidity within the bag is sufficient. Too much water can lead to early scion failure.

Wrapping with paper towel and inserting into ziplock back works well. Just be sure not to over moisten. Literally a few drops of water is enough.

Jeff, it works well for high humidity areas like yours, in CA, we already are humidity deprived and are limited to 2-3 flushes if we are lucky/year. From my personal experience having prepped wood grafting has been 100% success.

Exactly.

[bsbullie]

Six Walter Zill style vaneers:













A month later, 6 for



And as of July (one year after gratd applied)

[bsbullie]

And that tree went through the wrath of Irma 2 months after grafts applied.

[behlgarden]

first you guys are comparing conditions that are already favorable that my boy can succeed in grafting, LOL.  this is more when you have to ship. there is moisture loss and other issues that pop when scion is not prepped and leaf stems are not allowed to heal and naturally fall off. the moisture loss and fungus issues attack cut ends. hence I put the post for what its worth.

[sapote]

Rob,

On the 2nd to last photo, did you cut off the short stumps above the graft down to the union at some point in time  to prevent a dead and decaying canes?

[bsbullie]

Rob,

On the 2nd to last photo, did you cut off the short stumps above the graft down to the union at some point in time  to prevent a dead and decaying canes?

Nope, that is how the tree was left.   No further cutting on the main limbs.  Mangoes compartmentalize and heal up well.

[bsbullie]

first you guys are comparing conditions that are already favorable that my boy can succeed in grafting, LOL.  this is more when you have to ship. there is moisture loss and other issues that pop when scion is not prepped and leaf stems are not allowed to heal and naturally fall off. the moisture loss and fungus issues attack cut ends. hence I put the post for what its worth.

I have sent unprepped scions with buds dormant to our San Diego friend and he has had very good takes/results.

[Cookie Monster]

Walter does a good job with those fat side veneers.

Normally it's not ideal to head back limbs like that, but the tree is pretty young and will heal well. For larger trees, you really want to do it in stages. Using a drop crotch prune, lop off a major limb and graft the sprouts, then in a year or two do another major limb. This allows the tree to heal and provides a lot of energy (via photosynthesis) to drive the new grafts.

With a drop crotch cut, sap still flows past the cut site, so cambium growth is rapid, and the wound seals well. Also, the tree has some natural capability to compartmentalize at bifurcations.

But for younger trees, it's not a big deal.

[bsbullie]

Walter does a good job with those fat side veneers.

Normally it's not ideal to head back limbs like that, but the tree is pretty young and will heal well. For larger trees, you really want to do it in stages. Using a drop crotch prune, lop off a major limb and graft the sprouts, then in a year or two do another major limb. This allows the tree to heal and provides a lot of energy (via photosynthesis) to drive the new grafts.

With a drop crotch cut, sap still flows past the cut site, so cambium growth is rapid, and the wound seals well. Also, the tree has some natural capability to compartmentalize at bifurcations.

But for younger trees, it's not a big deal.

It was done in stages.  That is after final cuts (all grafts with multiple flushes).