Grafting away

As there are a number of wild plum trees in the garden, we also have a number of suckers from their roots. So I thought I'd try grafting on some slips from cultivated plums.

I had an old pot of wax for dealing with damaged trees, some sticky tape, and a sharp knife, so it seemed I had all that was needed.

My first attempts were all over these bits. There are seven or eight grafts in the picture: on some you can just about see the orange colour of the tape I used. If they all take I will cut away the wild rootstock so that there is just one branch of it left, with the rest the cultivated varieties.



The grafts are all the same: the scion (the bit of cultivated plum) has been cut to a wedge shape, while the stock has been split to take the wedge. I have tried as much as possible to match the thickness of the scion to the thickness of the stock, which gives a better chance of success (or so they say).

Then I decided that the insulating tape was a bit too stiff, so I have tried surgical micropore tape, painted over completely with wax to make it watertight. This is the result:



There's a bit of an issue with this one. If the graft works, I'll have a tree growing through the middle of an old harrow. I may need to move the harrow while the tree is still flexible - or just let nature take its course, I suppose. In between the insulating tape grafts and the micropore ones, I bought some proper grafting wax. It says very definitely on the tin that you shouldn't heat it, but in the event when I opened the tin the wax was so hard - almost like candle wax - that I didn't use it on the graft. I stuck with the "mastic à cicatriser" instead. In future I'll store the grafting wax indoors which should ensure it will be soft enough to use.

I have no idea what the cultivated varieties are. We'll find out, if the grafts work, in a couple of years' time. The rootstock is more like a damson than a plum, so possibly the tree will stay fairly small.

Finally, here's the (temporary) results of drain-digging:



I am waiting for the builders' merchant to get the grille, and I am also waiting for the roofer to do a proper zinc pipe down to the drain level. In the meantime, this works well.