Did you try using a razor when you found yourself peeling the bark. Its a pretty easy solution and only takes a moment.
I take mine off in November without any problems.
That was the point of my original topic. In spring the bark becomes susceptible to stripping when you peel it off- when the trees are dormant- not so much.
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I agree, the rubber electrical tape is all the same. It’s all designed for waterproof electrical connections. I like it for the stretch, the “right” amount of stickiness, and no potential girdling if I leave it on. It is more expensive, but I only do enough grafting to go through about a roll a year.
I keep saying a lot of this is what one gets used to and proficient with. A lot of the old Nafex folks used masking tape or bread sack strips (I never liked masking tape because it had no stretch). People have even used string.
IMO vinyl tape just went up a notch as one of preferred materials if it can removed easily w/o fear of tearing the bark. Still, I will probably continue to use rubber tape as my preferred. It just seems to work lovely in my fingers. It does take time to split the strips in half longways, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it for anyone doing hundreds of grafts. That part does slow you down.
I use it right off the roll- or used it that way for grafts. Why do you split it?
Besides the price the lack of stretch in vinyl has one advantage- you can pull the wood tighter. Sometimes I wonder if I don’t sometimes pull it too tight when I see fairly loosed wrapped grafts take well.
I agree that once you use something that works it’s hard to change with grafting. There is fear new methods won’t work more with grafting than almost anything I do besides spraying.
I fear using thicker forms of parafilm than “buddy tape” and pay a premium price for the comfort of already knowing the buds will have no difficulty pushing through. I continue to use my Swedish pruning putty to cover the tips of my grafts even though I’ve already proven to myself that using only parafilm works just fine. If only one graft in 50 benefits from all this it is worth it to me.
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Does anybody use actual grafting rubbers? They stretch, you can choose how tight to make them (tighter if the cuts aren’t perfect to force conformity).
I use grafting rubbers then wrap the union up to the tip of the scion with parafilm stretched tight (tighter than most pictures I see). The parafilm and rubber break down and fall off before girdling. If they are still there at the end of the season I may peel of or make a vertical slice to help it fall off.
That’s what I use for whip and tongue or small diameter bark graft (less than an inch or so).
For larger grafts I do bark grafts with a simple splice on the scion and a single slit in the host. For larger than one inch diameter, I use vinyl electrical tap and Doc Farwell’s Heal and Seal. if there are gaps on the sides of the scion I will fill it with modeling clay or plumber’s putty so the Farwell’s doesn’t seep to to the cambium contact area.
Because the tape is wrapped around the large diameter host stub, it would take more than a year to girdle. I make a couple of slits perpendicular to the tape and it works lose on its own.
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I’ve used wide rubber band and they’ve worked fine at initially holding the graft together. They do have a tendency to break down quickly so for that reason I don’t think I’ll use them any more.
Alan,
I do mostly budding and like to leave the grafted bud uncovered. For me this is easier to do w/ 3/8" wide strips rather than 3/4" wide strips. Not only that, but the 3/4" wide strips seem like overkill on thin grafting stock, using the thicker rubber tape (even though I pre-stretch the rubber tape - like parafilm)
I take a roll and with a razor knife cut as deeply as I can longways around the roll, so I can pull off as much tape as I need for each graft. After I get down a few layers on the roll, I have to run around the roll again with the razor knife to cut the next few layers.
I see, that explains it entirely. I do almost all my grafting to upright water sprouts.
Why not used electrical tape over parafilm? That way you can peel of the Elec. tape without hurting the graft?
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Yes I use budding rubbers for grafting and budding. Like you say you can pull them as tight as you like. For me on splice grafts that’s pretty tight. And I usually put on at least two layers for grafts one for budding. They’ve never broken down too fast for me. In fact on one graft with 3-4 layers it about girdled the union before I noticed.
I like grafting rubbers and have often used them, especially for budding or chips. But I have the clumsy gene and it could be a problem for me to get them finished off without loosing my grip and having to start over. I like using a tape such as the temflex or equivalent that will stay where I put it. So I’ve pretty much decided to switch over to the temflex/splice approach.
On clefts, where my cuts usually aren’t as clean and precise as they should be, the rubbers can help pull the pieces together.
In any event I overwrap the entire graft with parafilm to help prevent drying. I like to wrap a scion stick completely with parafilm before cutting it, cutting right through the parafilm when I cut the scion for grafting. That’s because I’ve sometimes knocked the graft out of alignment if I wrap it after grafting. Sounds a little weird but actually works quite well, and is something you can do in advance. Wouldn’t do it that way for buds and chips, obviously.
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This probably sounds incredible but I just can’t get the hang of of tying those suckers! It seems I’m always a few fingers short (or the ones I have are tangled) and in the meantime I’m trying to keep the graft union aligned… Phew! That’s why I jumped at the splicing tape when my neighbor showed it to me. For me it’s just like using grafting rubbers (I split the tape lengthwise so it’s about the same width as a typical grafting rubber—also, I’m cheap!) except I don’t have to worry about tying it off since it sticks to itself and also form-fits/seals as you wrap.
I do use parafilm over the union first, and as you say for the regular grafting rubbers, the whole mess degrades slowly during the season so there is generally just a little gentle help required to get rid of what’s left.
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Is that enough to kill the limb or will it be fine after that?
In a few years that gap will fill in but the deformed still be visible.
Tony
Good question. I am very curious.
This is a sweet cherry all healthy til now, first wait for the new season
I also do the “peel off a little, then let the tape unravel over time” method. For electrical tape that it particularly difficult to pry off, I use cuticle scissors to get under it and cut it off. Sometimes this leaves a tiny wound on the tree, which I just let air out and heal-- so far, no big deal. I do not think any of these tiny wounds have introduced any disease into the tissue.
I use a box cutter razor knife and cut right into the wood leaving a wound that has healed cleanly without fail over a thousand times. However, I continue to safely unpeel every graft I meet this February. In the past when I’ve peeled some bark with the tape, it concerned me, but that also healed.
I can’t leave the darn grafts alone. As soon as I think I can I start picking at the tape and cutting it with my box knife. My grandson is the same way at Christmas. He picks up his presents and try’s to peak in the corners of the paper.
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