Delerium, I always open my healing chambers for a short time to allow in some fresh air at least a couple of times a day after the first day closed up. You were right about leaving them closed up for so long. At the end of the 4 1/2 days I left the chamber cracked but I had to remove a couple of grafts that had rotted where they went into the DE. Leaving them inside the extra day and a half didn't seem to improve the wilting that occurred a few hours after leaving the container open. Besides the few with rot at the base I didn't have any of that nasty fungus further up the grafts like I used to when using potting soil so that was a relief.
I have been doing around 25 grafts at a time and my success rate seems to be averaging around 70% but I'm sure that will drop as the weather gets hotter and the bacteria and fungus gets thicker in the air down here. I think I could have done this better 10 years ago before arthritis got so bad in my hands.
I have now so many completed grafts that there is no way to even plant one of each so I am going to try using the single stem method on at least one bed. I am going to mix in the different rootstock to see which do better with this method. I am looking forward to how that super vegetative Multifort rootstock does when trained to one stem. I think I'll end up coiling the stem at the base and lowering the plant as it gets above the top of the trellis and see how long it will get. I did that just a little on plants with more than one stem but it was too difficult to lower the plant with multiple stems. I think it would be easier with a single stem plant.
Bill
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