Heres how some of the grafts worked out this year. Pretty good success rates. Everything on reed seedlings took. I did a few others on hass and lamb seeslings and had the worst luck with those. They seem to not get sap flowing until much later in the year than reed seedlings.
I started grafting stuff in mid february. Was way too soon, the weather was very cool this spring and delayed the grafts a long time.
Heres a few pics of the different grafts and how they worked out. Most have only started to push this week. Over 2 months later...
This one was a big root sucker on a holiday tree thats falling over. Top worked to nabal and will remove the main holiday tree later.
It looks good after removing the tape 10 weeks later. But this one will grow fast and likely pop apart if left untied. So after checking it out, Ive put presco pvc flagging tape back on it to help it for another month or 2.
Sorry my hands are a mess, they got blisters even through gloves pounding in T posts with a stake driver. They look bad I promise they get washed very often these days.
Heres a few potted reed seedlings top worked to gem and lamb. These were in the greenhouse and under a grow lamp while it rained outside all spring. They did much better and quicker than the in ground seedlings this year. The GH really got them going faster than outside. I did 6 potted trees and 15 in ground seedlings. Most reed seedlings from last summer.
Heres a few more of the in ground ones. Because of the larger size, most had to be bark grafted or offset clefts. The offset clefts seem to work ok. I put the scions in slightly crooked to make sure the cambiums cross. Otherwise its hard to tell how to properly line them up with mismatched bark thicknesses.
Other side view. These will pop apart easily and so they get rewrapped with flagging tape around the union. All of them are re wrapped on the in ground stuff. Potted ones wont grow as fast and pop apart and dont need to be held together longer. These in ground trees are going to explode when it gets hot very soon and the graft will split without extra help for a while.
Heres one with 3 grafts. I thought they were going to fail but it now looks like all are takes. Will only keep the middle one.
This is one Simon did, looks like a very small bark graft maybe, not sure. I left the union tape on this one for now.
I used buddy tape on the scions this year. The tape is really nice and stretchy and stays sticky forever. But the stuff does not breath at all. And it never dries up and cracks like parafilm. Many of these scions were not growing for 6+ weeks because of the weather. They had stalled and were starting to rot in the tape. I had to go and remove all the tape so they could breath and then they started growing. It seemed to be a combo of removing tape and warmer weather. I have mixed feelings on the buddy tape. Its best to check on it often and if moisture is accumulating and buds are rotting after a few weeks, use a razor and remove the tape just over the buds. Or if its been 6 weeks, remove all the tape above the union.
We'll be doing a lot more trees next year and I havent decided which tape to use. I really hate having to come mess with the tape multiple times after top working the trees. Im planting 50-75 more avocado seedling trees in ground this year and not looking forward to top working next year. Too much effort and care has to be taken to remove and then check and reapply tapes. Maybe theres an easier way?
These are next years trees starting to sprout.