Author Topic: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.  (Read 2556 times)

palingkecil

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Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« on: September 08, 2020, 04:39:04 AM »
My friend who has 30 years of experience on grafting fruit tree told me that guava and lychee are the toughest to graft.
I really want to multi graft my guava tree. It is a healthy Vietnamese giant, about 7 ft tall, has been 8 months in the ground. I want to graft Dolores and Jalisco to it.
My grafting experience so far is only white sapote and loquat with 95% success rate. Avocado with 10% success rate (part of the failure because of the heatwave).
If anyone have any helpful tips or tricks to increase the success rate, please kindly share here.
I will graft the scions onto the lateral branches. Possibly the green young ones since it will be easier to cut through.
Any thought will be highly appreciated.
Thank you everyone!

« Last Edit: September 08, 2020, 04:45:23 AM by palingkecil »

Satya

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #1 on: September 08, 2020, 08:15:57 AM »
I am in the same boat as you. I have a mexican dwarf bought as 3g pot that has not fruited in 4 years in ground. Was getting some Thai seedless scions but not sure about grafting. I have 80-90% success with mangoes and mostly all other trees i grafted this year exceptions are Jamun(java plum), jackfruit and one try on guava- a side graft green wood on green wood that failed. One forum member said spring is best for guava grafting. I am now wondering if gettimg the scion and rooting the cutting is better than grafting it. Anybody here knows how easily they root if dipped in rooting hormone + water mix or simply water changed weekly.

sc4001992

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #2 on: September 08, 2020, 09:57:08 AM »
Satya, I have been trying to determine the best grafting time/method also. Had many failures so far but did manage to get some to take (10%).

I think the rooting path may be easier so this time I will try to root a few cuttings. Here is a very good step-by-step procedure from a forum member "shpaz" that sounds like it will do the trick. I will follow his advise and see how it goes. His method of rooting give 60-65% success which is much better than my grafting.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=39016.msg386276#msg386276

Since you have a mexican dwarf tree, you should cut some scions and try the rooting method before you buy the good stuff you would like to grow.

skhan

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #3 on: September 08, 2020, 12:20:09 PM »
From what i understand guava is one of the harder trees to graft.
I've also been looking into Genip (aka spanish lime aka mamoncillo).

All the cuttings I've done with guava have failed too.
Seems like air layering is the best option. (Doesn't help if you don't have access to the tree)

Zills charges a decent bit more for Guava trees vs mangos so I figured even they don't have the cutting thing down yet.

Long story short, I'm open to tips as well
« Last Edit: September 08, 2020, 12:58:01 PM by skhan »

spaugh

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #4 on: September 08, 2020, 12:52:14 PM »
Spring and summer seems best for grafting everything. 

If you want to graft a guava tree, maybe an approach graft would be best. 
Brad Spaugh

mangomanic12

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #5 on: September 08, 2020, 01:04:15 PM »
 I have had great success with cleft grafting my inground 6 year old guava Bush. The best bet is spring...
 
  Study and know when the tree gives its first growth flush in spring
  A month or two before that known upcoming growth flush feed the tree and heavily water it.
  Drive your neighborhood and beg for scions when its about to flush
  Graft as many different varieties that you can get a hold of.
  Keep the tree hydrated during growth flush and whlie grafting
  My result this year i had over 50-100 fruit here in Arizona for the first time.
  Not one of the fruit were from the grafts i did because they were done in the spring.
  I would say 75-80% of my spring grafts made it through our tough 110-115 degree heat ...pretty  long and very harsh summer we had , i even noticed a lot of natives dying due to the prolonged
  heat.
  The key to me was early feeding b4 growth flush, good hydration for the tree and good scions and timely grafting just as the tree started to push new growth.

  Hope that helps.   Ohh also heavy free woodchip mulch i dumped around the tree after feeing it and watering heavily.
   


 

Seanny

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #6 on: September 08, 2020, 03:42:07 PM »
I’ve gotten 6/8 cleft in winter, used 8 resistors to keep each graft union at 80F.
I’ve gotten 3/4 bark graft in spring and summer, with water bags to keep cut leaves wet.

I’ve made 8 cleft grafts a month ago.
Heard they were mostly bad.
Most likely my fault for not securing the water bags and leaves.
The leaves dropped before the graft heal.


Satya

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #7 on: September 08, 2020, 03:43:58 PM »
Satya, I have been trying to determine the best grafting time/method also. Had many failures so far but did manage to get some to take (10%).

I think the rooting path may be easier so this time I will try to root a few cuttings. Here is a very good step-by-step procedure from a forum member "shpaz" that sounds like it will do the trick. I will follow his advise and see how it goes. His method of rooting give 60-65% success which is much better than my grafting.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=39016.msg386276#msg386276

Since you have a mexican dwarf tree, you should cut some scions and try the rooting method before you buy the good stuff you would like to grow.

Thanks Kaz. I will try this method. Grafting i will try on my own trees first, even one success will be an encouragement to try more.

Satya

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #8 on: September 08, 2020, 03:48:59 PM »
I’ve gotten 6/8 cleft in winter, used 8 resistors to keep each graft union at 80F.
I’ve gotten 3/4 bark graft in spring and summer, with water bags to keep cut leaves wet.

I’ve made 8 cleft grafts a month ago.
Heard they were mostly bad.
Most likely my fault for not securing the water bags and leaves.
The leaves dropped before the graft heal.


Is the water bag an airtight bag or a bag with water inside? I have used a polythene bag with water spray inside for mangoes at certain times during the year for better takes. Do you not wrap the scion with buddy tape/parafilm but use the cutting with half cutted leaves and keep it inside the poly bag?

Seanny

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #9 on: September 08, 2020, 06:08:43 PM »
Water bag is a sandwich ziplock bag.
It’s not air tight.
Water is only 1/4” from bottom, enough to keep the cut end of the nurse leaf wet.


This is a successful guava bark graft after 5 weeks.
I removed the water bag after new shoots emerged, 4 weeks in this case.
The nurse leaf with the cut end still feeding the scion.









This my Atemoya graft.
I’ll remove water bag next week.


This is another good atemoya graft during summer.
The nurse leaf still attached.




I hole punch holes into white lunch bag to protect delicate graft during summer, like guava and Atemoya and young mango scion.
Hardened mango scion can handle full sun.

You can use this technique to graft mango during winter.
You can graft evergreen tree any time as long as there is no frost.

palingkecil

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #10 on: September 08, 2020, 06:59:06 PM »
Water bag is a sandwich ziplock bag.
It’s not air tight.
Water is only 1/4” from bottom, enough to keep the cut end of the nurse leaf wet.


This is a successful guava bark graft after 5 weeks.
I removed the water bag after new shoots emerged, 4 weeks in this case.
The nurse leaf with the cut end still feeding the scion.









This my Atemoya graft.
I’ll remove water bag next week.


This is another good atemoya graft during summer.
The nurse leaf still attached.




I hole punch holes into white lunch bag to protect delicate graft during summer, like guava and Atemoya and young mango scion.
Hardened mango scion can handle full sun.

You can use this technique to graft mango during winter.
You can graft evergreen tree any time as long as there is no frost.
Sorry, I missed the word 'bark' in your explanation.
Thank you very much.
I will try this technique.
Do you leave a little opening on the ziplock bag so it is not airtight and the leaf can breath?
« Last Edit: September 09, 2020, 01:02:40 PM by palingkecil »

Odenwald

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #11 on: September 09, 2020, 11:16:13 AM »
I've had success with ground layering low lying branches.  Weighting them down and putting some soil on them for a few months until they grow roots.

Satya

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #12 on: September 09, 2020, 11:36:17 AM »
Water bag is a sandwich ziplock bag.
It’s not air tight.
Water is only 1/4” from bottom, enough to keep the cut end of the nurse leaf wet.


This is a successful guava bark graft after 5 weeks.
I removed the water bag after new shoots emerged, 4 weeks in this case.
The nurse leaf with the cut end still feeding the scion.









This my Atemoya graft.
I’ll remove water bag next week.


This is another good atemoya graft during summer.
The nurse leaf still attached.




I hole punch holes into white lunch bag to protect delicate graft during summer, like guava and Atemoya and young mango scion.
Hardened mango scion can handle full sun.

You can use this technique to graft mango during winter.
You can graft evergreen tree any time as long as there is no frost.
Thanks so much for the detailed explanations. I've never seen it done before so it's very interesting to me. I want to try this technique to guavas and jackfruits, two most difficult ones for me. I will utilize the lunch bag technique as well, previously i was doing it without the punch holes.

Seanny

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #13 on: September 09, 2020, 05:10:33 PM »



This is the same guava tree.
Left and center are bark graft.
Right is side graft.

All grafts used water bags.

Most important step is to cut the nurse leaf.
The capillaries in the cut end draw water up to the scion, to keep the scion fresh.

I used 3 bags to graft a big branch of Atemoya.
I left grafted tree under shade.
I didn’t know it got morning and afternoon sun light.
All leaves except the 3 inside water bag wilted.
All 3 water bags were dried.

So check water bag and use a syringe to refill.

If you have good shade you could graft a big branch, with a few water bags.
My friend have successes using 1 water bag to graft 12” Atemoya branch.

palingkecil

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #14 on: September 09, 2020, 05:49:37 PM »



This is the same guava tree.
Left and center are bark graft.
Right is side graft.

All grafts used water bags.

Most important step is to cut the nurse leaf.
The capillaries in the cut end draw water up to the scion, to keep the scion fresh.

I used 3 bags to graft a big branch of Atemoya.
I left grafted tree under shade.
I didn’t know it got morning and afternoon sun light.
All leaves except the 3 inside water bag wilted.
All 3 water bags were dried.

So check water bag and use a syringe to refill.

If you have good shade you could graft a big branch, with a few water bags.
My friend have successes using 1 water bag to graft 12” Atemoya branch.

You are a professional grafter!
The multi grafted atemoya looks great.
My tree is in the ground, so there is no way I can put it under the shade.
It gets about 12 hours of direct sun.
Do you think put the lunch paper bag over the graft part will work?
Just want to make sure, do I close the ziplock bag completely or do I leave a little opening so the leaf inside can breath?
Thanks!



Malhar

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #15 on: September 09, 2020, 08:52:50 PM »
Guava has very thin bark which makes it difficult to get a good cambium contact. In March, I did a few bark and cleft grafts.  All the cleft grafts failed and only one bark graft (Jalisco rojo) survived. Probably more of bark grafts would have survived had I not removed the buddy tape prematurely.



In July, I did two veneer grafts of Pakistani Guava scions on to a Century guava root stock. Veneer grafts I did were about 2-3 inches long. Once grafted, I covered them with white kitchen towel for 2 weeks to prevent drying from sun exposure and both took.



I have read that Bud graft (especially Fokert) also do well.

Seanny

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #16 on: September 10, 2020, 12:42:10 AM »
I’ve gotten 6/8 good cleft grafts in December.
Maybe it’s the cold that keep the scions better.
1 of the bad graft was green scion.
It rotted from fungus.

I’ve used Forkert on guava once.
It was winter.
Graft took really long time.
I ruined it by opening the bag too many times.
Leaf fell off before graft taken.
Tiny callus wasn’t enough.

I’ve many good grafts using Forkert on cherimoya.
I grafted them in November.

Only 1/10 using bark graft on cherimoya.
Very good rate on guava.

My guava tree is in ground.
It gets full sun after 10.
I use white lunch bag to cover grafts.
That small graft was done August 1st.

palingkecil

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #17 on: September 10, 2020, 02:51:45 PM »
Guava has very thin bark which makes it difficult to get a good cambium contact. In March, I did a few bark and cleft grafts.  All the cleft grafts failed and only one bark graft (Jalisco rojo) survived. Probably more of bark grafts would have survived had I not removed the buddy tape prematurely.



In July, I did two veneer grafts of Pakistani Guava scions on to a Century guava root stock. Veneer grafts I did were about 2-3 inches long. Once grafted, I covered them with white kitchen towel for 2 weeks to prevent drying from sun exposure and both took.



I have read that Bud graft (especially Fokert) also do well.

Thank you for sharing your experience.
Sorry I might ask silly questions, I am new in grafting world.
Do you cover all part of the scion with tape, or you leave the bud part open? Because I saw a video on youtube about grafting guava in Asia, and seems like they like to keep the buds on the scion uncover.   
How long before you uncover the scion?
Thanks!

Malhar

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Re: Anyone has tips on grafting guava? Please share.
« Reply #18 on: September 10, 2020, 03:03:32 PM »
I cover the buds with the tape. Normally buds go through the buddy tape when they start growing and you don't have to remove the tape.  Rarely, if buds are having hard time going through the tape, I would use a needle to make a small hole next to the bud. If the tape is removed early, buds tend to dry up.