Variegated Scarlet Jaboticaba Rescue Mission with Approach Graft Attempt

[shilohtech]

This variegated scarlet seedling has been struggling in the large pot it was in. So I decided to remove the seedling and put it in a smaller pot with fresh potting soil and a new set of roots. The pot it was in was full of large worms eating the roots and was causing the seedling to die slowly.
I attempt to approach graft another set of roots onto this rare seedling in hopes of saving it. Wish me luck. I'll post updates.
https://youtu.be/OI1RW9QrPNs

[Zambezi]

Nice video Shiloh! I haven't tried approach grafting with Plinias, but you have me wanting to give it a go! I hope the escarlate seedling makes it. It's such a pretty variegation! I look forward to seeing the update on how it does.
Thank you for the detailed video. Good Luck!

[shilohtech]

Thank you, approach grafting seems to be the trick to get a high success rate. It requires a bit more effort supporting the rootstock to attach it to the mother tree and a little more cumbersome dealing with the 2 trees, but once you deal with those factors it is easy coasting from there. Thanks for wishing me luck, I hope it works out. No going back now. Let me know if you end up trying it sometime.

[sc4001992]

Is there any difference in approach grafting if you leave both of the rootstock (new root) and the varigated plant grafted but not cut off the rootstock at the graft point until the two fuse together ?

[shilohtech]

I will keep them as a double rootsock grafted tree, but yes in hindsight I think it may have been better if I kept the some of the canopy of the sabara rootstock attached and remove it later like I do on my other approach grafts. I guess one reason I am thinking of is since I removed the canopy it is going to try to push new growth hopefully causing the freshly attached/healing cut to receive more nutrients and push new growth to the variegated instead of it's own canopy.

[sc4001992]

Yes, I get it. For me I like to keep both until I see that the approach graft took. If it failed at least I don't have 2 dead plants. But for approach grafting longans I know they do cut off the top of the rootstock as you did so it should be fine if you have more rootstock plants if it fails.

[shilohtech]

Yeah I probably have over a hundred rootstocks if I need. I am experimenting and in the past my approach double rootstock grafts did well so I hope the same to be true here.

[sc4001992]

Ok, let us know how it goes in a month or two. I might be doing an approach graft on a rare longan I have but only one so I have been waiting before I try it soon.

[Zambezi]

Thanks for the advice! I wanted to try it on a watermelon that is not doing particularly well. It is growing, but very very slow and thought the extra root system might help. I changed the soil out mid summer, and the root system is very weak.
I've tried approach graft with mango rootstock, but never tried it on jaboticaba. Yes, mango is much easier to work with, and though I've been successful with cleft grafts on plinias, the approach graft on very small scions might be tricky. I'll let you know how it goes, thank you!