It's me again! Asking hard qeustions.


For a rather way-out (but wholly legal!) project I need to graft this
year's growth of Alder (Alnus glutinosa) onto last year's growth of
the same. This is a difficult tree to graft, but last year I made
significant progress by fixing to the graft a 2 K Ohm resistor, fed
with 24 volts AC from a transformer (heat output = 0.2 Watts) and
wrapping with 3 turns of bubble-wrap which raised the temperature 10°C
above ambient and the grafts showed promise.

On 1 May in Newcastle, with 1-2 leaves showing at the terminal I tried
again.

My grafting advisor said that the scions were too small and they dried
out and ran out of food before they could take, so I thought I would
do something about them drying out and lacking food and

1) Some of them I wetted with Miracle-Gro + Interflora flower food,
just to stop them from drying out during handling.

2) Others I wrapped the graft with small, well-washed cotton strips
soaked with the above mixture

before wrapping with Parafilm and binding with rubber strips.

I thought I was doing right, but maybe I was doing wrong! This year I
did even worse! Has the use of Flower Food and /or the Miracle-Gro got
anything to do with it?

I think my grafting technique is probably OK. Any good ideas for next
year?

My own good idea, try when the catkins appear. End of February. hould
I look to other factors?

Michael Bell

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On 15/06/2014 19:52, Michael Bell wrote:

I think my grafting technique is probably OK. Any good ideas for next
year?

I have no idea if it will work, or might prove toxic, but I wonder if
spraying the grafts once every few weeks with that "anti-needle drop"
Christmas Tree spray might help, as that is supposed to help stop the
leaves drying out.

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Jeff

In message
Jeff Layman wrote:

On 15/06/2014 19:52, Michael Bell wrote:

I think my grafting technique is probably OK. Any good ideas for next
year?

I have no idea if it will work, or might prove toxic, but I wonder if
spraying the grafts once every few weeks with that "anti-needle drop"
Christmas Tree spray might help, as that is supposed to help stop the
leaves drying out.

I'll try it. There is nothing to loose!

What other wonderfull products are there out there that might be worth
trying?

Michael Bell.
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