don't be jealous...

of my superior grafting skills. LOL okay, that really should be don't laugh at my lousy graft. wah!

i did this on an impulse because everyone was talking about grafting. i'll have to find that thread to put a date on when it was grafted.

i should mention that the scion and root stock are from the same single tip plumeria. i did this to reduce the height of the seedling. i didn't realize how much wood the lower section had compared to the upper section. there probably is a two year difference between the cross-sections.

see where the top isn't matched? well, this section was covered with mold when i unwrapped the union. how can you avoid trapping in moisture?

dete

Dete, it is a beautiful graft. Don't worry about how it looks. The cambium will expand and fill in the gaps. It really is nearly perfect. Just tie the tape tighter and higher to avoid moisture getting in there, but the mold should disappear quickly in the sun. I just unwrapped a bunch of my grafts, and they all took. I was quite pleased. I put six cultivars on another cultivar all at the same time. Good job!

Nice Union!!
I use pins to prevent the sliding up that takes place sometimes.
I use electrical tape and plenty of it to keep the water out.
the area may also be covered with paraffin wax.

I think that is a cool looking graft; providing lots of surface for those cambiums to merge.... it should be fine.
I am grafting too, now, since Paula from the PSA told me her secret..... send me a D-mail if you want to hear about the trick she uses!!

Tucson, sorry but I MUST be jealous, lol
Clare, I guess when you do this type of grafting did you select the six cultivars with some features in common, such as bloom time and/or bloom size? Or do you go for full-fledged drama?

wow! i thought you guys would have kicked me out of plumieland. LOL thanks for the encouragement! now i'm more confident to forge on with more grafting.

Hi Nery! I didn't have many tips or branches that I could take so I couldn't be too fussy with what I used. One is actually supposed to match growth habit because otherwise you might get a lopsided tree if you have a lot of growth from one scion but not others. I just tried to do different colors and shapes onto the one tree. On another tree, I put a spidery yellow with a spidery red.

I too use staples to hold the pieces together and electric tape. Here is a picture of one I just did.

Here is a close up of the grafts. I like Dete's better because he has more surface contact. As you can see, I left the staples in, but they will come out shortly.

beyond cool. I sincerely look forward to a pic of that tree in bloom

Staples, parrafin wax, pins, nails, screws lol!!
Ive even used hot glue before lol!!

Thanks, Nery! I'll be posting pics all over, I'm sure! LOL!

Michael, you are right that so there are so many ways to graft for sure.

Thai plants they ship have shrink wrap on the graft they tell you to keep it dry. All those look like fine job. I guess I had clares idea to graft a few different colors on one plant good for people who don't have much room.

LOL, Dana! It actually wasn't my idea either. I learned about multi-grafted trees from a guy named James who was on GardenWeb about five years ago. It is a good idea and space saver. The ones that arrive from Thailand should be already healed, and it doesn't hurt to get it wet after it has joined together. The binding should be removed right away after receiving it from Thailand unless the seller has told you differently.

Dete, Awesome graft. Looks better than some I have received from so called "professionals".

Clare, You have inspired me to try a multi-graft! Great tree!

When is the best time to graft?

Davie

Thanks, Davie. I'm glad that I inspired you. Here is another one that I have with ten cultivars grafted onto a multi-branched tree that I did last year. The best time to graft is now while the plumerias are experiencing growth. As soon as growth slows in the fall, my failure rate increases greatly.

It's hard to see all the grafts in that pic, but it used to look like this. All but one of those branches became grafted.

way to go clare! better get an insurance policy on the grafting fingers! LOL

thanks everyone for the compliments on the graft. you are all my inspiration. heck, clare's got me wanting to go to walmart right now and get electrical tape. sheesh! LOL

clare! due you cut off the leaves on the scion before grafting???

dete

It is best to graft not only during a growth spurt (this is a must)
But also during a good strong period of heat.
If I do my grafts in July August and the first half of September I have high success rates
Once it starts kooling off the failure rate rises rapidly
Yes cut off all the leaves on the scion except for the tiny growth tip leaves
Cut them about 3/4 of an inch from the trunk to slow aspiration or is it dessication?

what does 3/4 of an inch from the trunk transplant into percentage of the leaf cut not including the petiole?

uhhh... WHAT? LOL!!
I made it easy
Cut the leaves at 3/4 of an inch from the trunk
Leave the growth tip alone.

so you're saying cut into the leaf stem, right?

Awe, thanks, Dete! Yes, the fingers are very important, especially for my upcoming second career! LOL! Yes, I always remove the leaves on the scion just like I would for a cutting. The growth of leaves tells me that the graft has taken.

Michael, you are so correct about heat being important. A little humidity may be beneficial too to keep the scion hydrated until it has connected with the root stock.

Yes, if you leave a little bit of the leaf stem, then there won't be so much sap bleedling, and the little stump will yellow and fall off by itself in a few days.

Man oh man Clare! You've done it all! I'm totally impressed. I may even dabble in grafting. I have plenty of electrical tape... my DH being an electrician.

LOL, Teresa. That's so nice, but I really haven't done it all and am still learning all the time. My mentor in grafting is actually Kukiat, who is an expert grafter. You should definitely try it.

the electrical tape has another advantage in that it draws heat directly to graft site when it heats up in direct sunlight.

Have to try it, may use all of my splash plants for the first go round. Who cares if they happen to die and if it works it would be one cool plant, Multiple splashes on one plant. I know not all of you are fans of splash, but I was sold cuttings with the virus without knowing!

just tried the v-graft. man, that was fast! clamped the scion and root stock down with electrical tape.

when will you do your last graft of the season?

Dete,
What kind of knife did you use to cut the plant with?
Mickey

i just used a pocket knife. nothing special.

Good job, Dete! Pictures? LOL! We still have two months of warm weather here -- fingers crossed -- so I could probably keep grafting through September, but I probably won't. I think I'm done grafting now for the season.

Mickey, I use a kitchen knife -- a sharp short one.

I tired it today 2 different ways that I have seen here. The slice worked pretty good the v is a little tricky. It cut way easy thought it was going to be hard. Cross the fingers and wait and watch.

here's my v-graft on the sixth day. it's still holding tight! i uncovered it to make the image. i wanted to check it because i'm about to do another.

Not too bad on the 'V'
I make the 'V' in the root section deeper as the tips tend to die back some.

i tried to go deeper today. something went horribly wrong! LOL ended up doing a straight cut. not much surface area but it will take.

Grafted plants on ebay that is the only place that I have purchased from I have a question. If they grow seedlings of the speices you want and graft to a root stock thats just like buying a seedling? correct. So now you have this plant thats lets say 13 inches and it will take a couple years for it to flower. It is still a seedlling tip on other roots. I have seedlings here 1 year old that are 2 ft high would be easy to do and the only way of knowing is how long it takes to flower. I have never seen the scar of an inflo on any of the grafts I guess that doesn't mean anything. But just wondering If the tip was grafted from the true mother plant it would take on the more mature effects of the plant.

i've bought grafted plants from florida colors. the way it works there is that if i want aztec gold i can get just the cutting or i can buy it grafted to a seedling root stock. a majority of the plants that i bought my first year growing plumeria bloomed that same year! what matters is what's growing on top.

i don't think that the genetic of the root stock is passed on to the scion. the scion will continue to grow as if it were still connected to the mother tree.

i hope this helps.

Danasplants I think your a tad confused.
The root stock is a seedling for the tap root and root system strength
The grafted tip is usually a known or hard to root variety
Also some varieties dont bloom well when rooted
But do real well grafted.
To graft a seedling to a seedling as a tip would be redundant and counter productive

Thanks what I meant was if there taking seedlings for scion. In a years time It can grow 2 ft from seed take off 8-10 inches from the seedling graft it and the seedling will branch. Were later on they can then cut those 2 branches off and graft 2 more plants.This is what I'm wondering is how they do it.