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May. 2nd, 2026 09:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greenstormYesterday I did my first sustained whip-and-tongue grafting. The rootstocks were pretty small and I only got through maybe 16. I only cut myself a little, shallow cuts that really only prevent me from working on the wheel and not from doing anything else (the clay packs into cuts with the pressure I put on my fingers and tends to infect them).
I don't love the tape I was using, some kind of micropore stuff. I realized only late last night I could use wax resist as, well, wax, so I need to do that this morning. I'm very very very curious to see how well they do. I had some hose issues etc so they got wet after being wrapped.
I still have at least a little of all the scions left, abotu twenty more rootstocks, and lots of wild saskatoons. I'm going to try some chip budding, try adding some bits to my big trees, and adding bits to the saskatoons. But, not today. Today I recover from last night's party across the way, and from the concentration needed for grafting yesterday morning.
I want to say it's easier than I thought, but that depends on whether anything takes. Rootstock and scion the same size would help a lot. Better tape would help a lot. A proper grafting knife, really sharp, did help a lot, and I only started getting cut because I didn't resharpen halfway through.
I don't love the tape I was using, some kind of micropore stuff. I realized only late last night I could use wax resist as, well, wax, so I need to do that this morning. I'm very very very curious to see how well they do. I had some hose issues etc so they got wet after being wrapped.
I still have at least a little of all the scions left, abotu twenty more rootstocks, and lots of wild saskatoons. I'm going to try some chip budding, try adding some bits to my big trees, and adding bits to the saskatoons. But, not today. Today I recover from last night's party across the way, and from the concentration needed for grafting yesterday morning.
I want to say it's easier than I thought, but that depends on whether anything takes. Rootstock and scion the same size would help a lot. Better tape would help a lot. A proper grafting knife, really sharp, did help a lot, and I only started getting cut because I didn't resharpen halfway through.
