Skinny scions happen. Maybe you get some scions through trading, you open the package. and there are some very scrawny little sticks in there. Or, you find a very old tree somewhere that is completely overgrown and just puts on very short, small weak growth. Or, you encounter a tiny twiggy variety of apple, It could be a species crab apple, or maybe some variety that just naturally has very thin shoots, like Pendragon. These things are all likely to happen to you if you graft for very long. I try to send out decent sized scion wood when I sell it, but some varieties just have weak growth and better a skinny Pendragon scion than no Pendragon scion right?
I personally use a lot of skinny scions. I get them in trades and I also sell or trade off most of my best and largest scion wood and use the little stuff for my own grafting. This year I auctioned off all the best scions of my new crab apple, Cherub, and I have a bunch of tiny sticks that I grafted to make a few trees, to produce more scion wood going forward. Here I will discuss methods for grafting very small scions, and tricks to increase success.
By skinny I mean 1/8 inch and smaller at the base where the graft is made. Really 1/8 isn’t too terribly small, but the smaller they get, the less resources the stick has to survive on through that vulnerable period before the graft heals. Scions are prone to drying out until that healing takes place, and they can begin receiving life supporting moisture and nutrients from the stock. It doesn’t take much to dry out a small diameter short stick. tip cuts also dry out faster. They have thinner, less waxy, less developed bark, allowing the scions to dehydrate easily.
Scions may also dry out even before they are put on the tree, during storage or transportation. It never hurts to clip a little off the end of the scion to expose fresh wood, and then soak the butts in water in the refrigerator overnight to plump the little guys up before grafting. So give those little guys a drink to be sure they are well hydrated before grafting.
Before we get into grafting skinny scions, another option is to just graft older wood. While the conventional approach is to graft wood from the previous years growth when dormant grafting, I’ve grafted wood that is at least 4 years old and had it take fine. So, for instance if you find an old overgrown tree and the largest growth from the previous year is tiny short twigs, you could cut back into slightly fatter wood from the year before, and use that thicker, older portion to make the graft. Leaving the tip of younger wood intact as well, where the vigorous active buds are.
Skinny scions of March Hedge, a hedgerow apple that I discovered. There is not a lot here to work with if I were only using last year’s growth. But you can graft onto the previous years growth, which is usually considerably larger in diameter, and leave the tips on to grow out. Often, the tips have the most vigorous vegetative buds, but if you can find good buds on two year old wood, you can just use that as well. Often in two year old wood you’ll have buds that are either fruiting buds, or tending in that direction, but those buds can still grow into shoots. Sometimes they are hesitant to do so, but they usually will.
A graft made with scion wood that was at least 3, probably 4, maybe 5 years old and rather large in diameter.
Same graft as above after one year’s growth. The yellow painted parts are all the original graft wood, complete with fruit buds. The branch set a few weak fruits the year of grafting, but they didn’t mature. Conventional practice would not favor such an approach to grafting, being more about young, vigorous wood, but the possibilities are actually much broader than most think.
CUTTING TECHNIQUES
Skinny scions really bend away from the knife, because they lack rigidity. The cutting technique I use the most to prepare scions involves using the thumb to support the cut, by pushing up on the scion with the thumb from beneath, right under the blade. The thumb follows the knife for the entire cut, so the cut is stabilized and supported and the scion can’t get away. This technique works for long slope cuts, whichever type of graft is being made. You can see it here in this video https://youtu.be/B32nKvZMzFY?t=243 I highly recommend watching that whole video, but that link is time stamped to the relevant part.
What I didn’t show in that video, is making tongue cuts on skinny scions for whip and tongue grafts. Basically, I lay the scion right along my forefinger for support. I often use this position for any tongue cuts, but especially with very small scion wood. Again, the support keeps the wood stable preventing it from bending away from the knife. You can see that here- https://youtu.be/aKV6gPmzeDU?t=591 It can be delicate work, but tongues can be cut in very small wood. The trick to cutting tongues is to slide the knife along, so that it is slicing, rather than just pushing forward on the kinfe.
WHICH GRAFT?
So, what types of grafts can we, or should be make with those skinny, hard to handle, easily desiccated scions? Which graft you chose will be partly determined by the size of the stock and scion you are working with. We don’t always have a choice what we are grafting, or what we are grafting it onto, so I’m going to suggest some basic options for different situations, though there are certainly more.
IF THE SCION AND STOCK ARE THE SAME SIZE
Use either a whip and tongue (more advanced/challenging) or cleft graft. If the stock and scion are the same size, and the graft is clean, either of these configurations should get near full contact of the cambium layers of stock and scion all the way around the circumference of the cuts. With practice and a sharp knife, whip and tongue is very doable on small scions. Cleft grafts are easier though. Watch this video for how to make those grafts.
IF THE STOCK AND SCION ARE FAIRLY DIFFERENT
If the stock is larger, but not large enough to comfortably do a rind graft under the bark, I use either a cleft graft, a side whip and tongue, or lay the smaller scion along the larger one, something like a side lap or scarf joint in wood working.
If using a cleft graft, It is usually better to put in two scions, one on each side of the split, assuming you have enough scion wood, and enough room in the split. You can even put in a scion of something different on the other side, and plan to cut it off after a year or two. Using two scions is good insurance against failure for one thing, but it also usually heals the cleft and top of the stock cut much faster. I like to think of the cambium as the very thin layer between the bark and wood, so I will assess the thickness of the bark on the stock and scion. If the bark on the scion is much skinnier, I’ll scoot it slightly deeper into the cut to achieve better alignment.
If using a whip and tongue, you can make a small cut on the outside of the stock, removing just a small strip of bark and cutting barely into the wood. If the cut is too big/wide, the cambium of the scion will have to be shifted off to one side, so that the cambium layer of at least one side of the scion is aligned with the stocks’s cambium.
There is an easy way I’ve come up with to determine the depth of the stock cut in whip and tongue grafting when the stock and scion are different sizes.… Cut the scion’s slope cut first, and look at the cut. Make the stock cut so that the width of the wood showing on the stock and scion are the same. Ignore the bark and just go with the width of bare wood showing on both. If anything, the stock cut can show less wood, but I prefer to just shoot for the same wood width on both. It is okay if they don’t match perfectly all the way around, which they won’t. It’s also okay if 1/8 inch or so of the cut on the scion overhangs the end of the stock, but seal the cut surfaces up if you can.
An easy way to judge the cut width on a large stock for whip and tongue grafting is to make the width of cut wood showing on the stock and scion the same. You might note that the cut on the scion will overhang the end of the stock a little when this graft is fitted. That is fine, just seal the overhanging cut.
A “side whip and tongue” graft, after one season’s healing and growth. The scion is catching up in size with the stock and the end cut on the stock will be healed by the end of the next season. I use this graft more and more on mismatched wood.
A graft I’ve been using more and more is like a lap, or scarf joint. The small scion sits on the outside of the larger stock. If you want to keep it simple, you can just make a long strip cut on each of them and tie them together. A fancier version is shown in the photo, with angled cuts at the top and bottom of both stock and scion to lock the scion in place a little bit. Either way, the important part is good cambial contact, as with all grafts. If you can achieve that, it doesn’t matter too much what the graft looks like.
I’ve been using this lap, or scarf, joint graft a lot when the scion and stock are somewhat mismatched. It is pretty easy to make, it can be made long for lots of cambial contact and a stable joint when wrapped, and it matches most of the way around. It’s a good clean graft. More advanced than a cleft graft, less advanced than a whip and tongue, but maybe better in some ways than an offset whip and tongue. I just used this graft, or variants of it, far more than any other to set out 90 new seedlings onto a single 8 foot tall dwarf foundation tree. Cut the scion first, making the top cut at an angle. Cut the stock off at a slight angle (not too much) and strip off enough bark to show the same amount of cut wood as shows on the scion. If you finish the lower angled cut on the stock by splitting it a couple of millimeters, the stock will sometimes slide in the split and lock in place.
It may look odd to have a very small scion sitting on the outside edge of a 3/8 inch stock, but this is a very good method. It makes a pretty clean graft and has plenty of potential for good cambial contact. I rarely do cleft grafts anymore, preferring to do this side whip and tongue when stock and scion are mismatched. Unless they are very mismatched, in which case…
IF THE STOCK AND SCION ARE VERY DIFFERENT SIZES
If the stock and scion are very different in size, use a rind graft, AKA bark graft. These are easy grafts and very reliable, as long as the bark is slipping enough. Watch this video, to learn how to make bark grafts.
If the stock is very large, put several scions around the edge. If it is more in the small range, I’ll almost always put in two scions if I can. Using more than one scion offers some insurance, and it heals the stock faster. Sometimes the stock will die down on one side if there is nothing growing there. So on something like a 2 inch stock, I’ll put in 2 or 3 scions spaced around the edge. When the cut face of the stock is mostly healed over, cut off the extra grafts, leaving the strongest. You may also severely prune back the growth of extra shoots during summer, winter or both to stunt them, and favor growth of the chosen one.
Two Cherub scions under 1/8 inch, grafted one on either side of an established root stock. Multiple scions used in rind grafting offer insurance against failure, faster healing and reduced chances of stock die back on the un-grafted side. Why didn’t I coat these scions like I usually do to prevent drying? I have no idea, must have just spaced it out. I was probably thinking about girls, or apples, probably apples. I just checked them and at least a week after grafting, they still look plump and fine. When the weather is warm, the union may begin healing quickly and the scions can start receiving moisture from the stock. As long as moisture in balances moisture out, we’re all good.
Two small black Strawberry scions were grafted into this 1/2 inch stub. After one year of growth, I cut off the extra one, which will heal over rapidly. sometimes if you have a small scion on one side of a stub graft like this, the other side of the stub may start to die back. The extra scion gives it a reason to stay alive and heals the cut over more quickly.
Bark graft of scions under 1/8 inch into a small stub. These grafts can work great for small wood, and they are easy to make.
SEALING
I generally seal the ends of all raw wood or cut bark that is left showing after any of these grafts are wrapped. My go to is Doc Farwell’s Grafting seal, the yellow stuff. But they seem to no longer sell it in quarts though, and a gallon is 75.00 or more. I am currently using Doc Farwell’s Heal and Seal, which seems to just be a blue/green version of the grafting seal. Aside from the color, I don’t see any functional difference, though I prefer the yellow, because it is easy to spot remnants of paint on the old graft unions years down the road.
PREVENTING DESICCATION
Assuming you’ve made decent cambial contact between the scion and stock, now it’s a waiting game. Will the graft heal before the scion dries out and dies? We want to keep that moisture in. First, lets look at the causes of desiccation…
Exposed cut wood or bark.
Heat
Wind
Sprouting buds or leaf surface
Low humidity
Shade will help with all of those problems. You want the graft to be warm enough to heal, but assuming it’s grafting season, you probably don’t need it taking sun baths. On a nursery bed, I’ll usually put in some 3 foot stakes, tack small finish nails into the stake tops and hang shade cloth over the whole bed, including draping down the South and West sides if the cloth is long enough. For single small, very short trees, I’ll take a small fir branch and stick the butt end in the ground on the south end, so that it leans toward the tree, and shades the scion like a fan for a few weeks. Some people use tinfoil wrapped loosely around the scion and graft, others use a paper bag
A well shaded nursery bed of new seedlings on bud 9. Shade is for graft establishment. Once growth is underway and grafts are healed, it is removed. Note that some of these scions are over 2 feet long, but they still had a very high success rate. No doubt the shade helped!
For insurance, it never seems to hurt to seal the entire scion. I use doc farwells grafting seal or heal and seal, to paint the whole scion surface and all cuts. Many people use parafilm, a very thin plastic film coated with wax, to wrap the entire scion, buds and all. I just got some to try this year. It is very popular and the common assertion is that buds usually break through it on their own, so it can be wrapped and left in place until it falls off.
A bud mummified in grafting paint. it will bust right through there when it’s ready to grow. In the meantime, though this coating is not 100% prevention from drying out, it does seem to help a lot.
Wind can dry scions out extra fast. If it is frequently windy, take extra precautions.
IF SCIONS ARE SPROUTING
In the unfortunate event that your scions have buds on them that are showing green and pushing out, you face the possibility that some leaf surface will be exposed before the graft is healed. Any leaf or shoot growth can dry the scions out quickly as the new leaves loose water. If this is the case, you can look the scion over carefully and remove most of the buds, leaving just the most dormant. Leave the scion long so it has more resources. Often the most dormant buds are the small ones near the base. Then employ all the other methods above as well until the graft seems healed. Usually when you see healthy, rapid, sustained growth on the scion, you’ve got a healed graft and the scion is getting what it needs. Dealing with sprouting scions is the subject of the next blog post, because like skinny scions, sprouting scions are just a reality you will eventually have to deal with.
This bud was pushing out and showing green already, which you can see through the paint. Some buds on this scion were worse than this one. If some buds are pushing on a scion, I will usually leave the most dormant two or three and remove the rest before sealing the entire scion. I just checked, and 6 days after this was taken this shoot has sprouted through the coating and is showing leaf tips. It will most likely survive.
It is not always fun to work with skinny scions, but they often turn out just fine, and I have been told by some that they even prefer very small scions for rind grafts. Best of luck. Happy grafting!
