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Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter
I followed Bill's advice last year and had a very high success rate. However, in my environment (cooler), the rootstock grew much, much slower than the scions. I had stocky, thick stemmed scions while the rootstock was so tiny and spindly that I had to graft practically at the soil line.
This year I'm starting rootstock at least week ahead of the scions, but otherwise staying with Bills technique.
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When I first started grafting I did the same thing several times before I realized I could just wait to start grafting. The thing to do when that happens is to just wait til the root stock is larger and then just use a section of the scion from near the top. If I can get my arthritis to ease up a bit I will be grafting again today. Most of the scions I will be using are now from 7 inches to a foot tall now but I will take just the very top and graft to the section of the root stock that is the same size. I used all my root stock with those last three batches and planted new seed for this go around. I have some of the tips of the root stock that were rooted that are now large enough to use and will be using them also.
My success rate should drop some because I will be using so many different aged plants. I find that the highest success rate is with the very young scion and root stock and as everything gets older and bigger the success rate drops. From my experience the younger the two plants the better they take to grafting. Even with a lower success rate using the rooted root stock from the past grafting sessions it is well worth it. Rooting the tips from the root stock that are large enough to root gives you a second seedling from the one seed and sometimes a third or forth. These rooted seedlings also give you thicker stems on short plants that will match up with the larger scions better. As the scions get older the growth tips will frequently tend to get fatter and sometimes shaped different making grafting with them more difficult. I also have some new scions coming on that will be ready to use in a day or two and will be using them with most of the new root stock seedlings.
Bill