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Old 28-06-2010, 01:47 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening
Charlie Pridham[_2_] Charlie Pridham[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2007
Posts: 2,520
Default Toxicity of soapy water and "Arbrex seal and heal"

In article ,
says...
In message
Charlie Pridham wrote:

In article ,
says...
I am trying to graft green stems (this year's seedlings) of alder onto
green (this year's growth) of the side-branches of adult alder trees.

I have been using Hellermann sleeves (thank you to whoever suggested
them) Using the Hellerman sleeves I made grafts which looked really
satifactory. But they all died! What is wrong?

One cause might be poor workmanship and wrong graft design, but I
think I have brought the right surfaces together. When else might it
be?

I have thought of 2 possibilities :-

* The Hellermann sleeves are very sticky on the prongs of the tool so
I soaked them overnight in soapy water (the soap is ordinary washing
soap) to make them easier to handle. The sleeves were still full of
water when I put them over the stock. These pieces of scion are 2-3 cm
long, 2 -3 mm diamter, and green, and the edge of the cut surfaces
maybe exposed to the soapy water. But surely soapy water is harmless?
Or is it?

* I have putting "Arbrex seal and heal" generously on the stock at the
bottom end of the Hellermann sleeves, and on the cut ends of the
petiole and the scion upper end. Now I look more carefully at the
label of the "Arbrex seal and heal" I see it says "contains ethanol
and colophony, keep out of reach of children". Maybe it is the cause
of my problems? And if it is, what should I used instead?

Michael Bell




Timing, tree grafting is often carried out in late winter and again in
July August after the trees finish growth, but I have no first hand
experiance of tree grafting and can find nothing relivant for Alder.
Most grafts are sealed with grafting wax


This is the time when the seedling have reached workable size and the
tree shoots are actively growing, and next year's catkins and cones
are formed at the end of July, which is why I want to do this now. I
am going to buy grafting wax, this is an outdoors job, a thermos flask
of wax might not be too practicable and too much hot wax on a small
graft might be too much. Is there anything available without these
problems?

I am given to understand its important to exclude water and dirt from the
graft, I bought grafting tape which proved quite unsuitable for Clematis
but I would imagine it would be ok for your purpose it is clear plastic
tape around 1" wide that you bandage the graft with, it is then secured
with ties, the process seems to need genetically modified humans with 15
fingers and thumbs allthough I am told is easy when you get the hang of
it!
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea