I was just curious if anyone does any grafting with an Omega Tool that you can find reasonable on Amazon. I used one last year and had about 50% success rate. I am a member of a scion exchange group on facebook and I saw they had a post about it where people had terrible results. I was just curious your thoughts. I chalked the 50% success rate to not matching up rootstock diameters to scions correctly and not wrapping tight enough. Any thoughts or would I be better served getting better with a grafting knife?
Grafting Tools
- Thread starter KylePa
- Start date
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
In general you will be better off with a grafting knife. It is much more flexible. Most grafting tools have issues when things are not pretty close. They can also have crushing issues in some cases. There is nothing you can do with a grafting tool that you can't do with a grafting knife but it does take practice. A grafting tool can speed up the process if you are grafting hundred of similar sized root stock and scions in a commercial setting, but practiced grafters are pretty fast with a knife. It just takes some practice. Some tree species don't graft as easily as others.
I eventually found a grafting tool that is cheap enough to try one. Here is a link to a fruit growing form thread that discusses the one I purchased: https://growingfruit.org/t/zenport-generic-labled-grafting-tool/10511 Folks on that forum seem to think this design is much better than the Omega. For me it was the low cost that caused me to try one. I've had very good success with it. I'd say about 25% of my grafting is a good fit for the tool and I use it. The rest I do with a knife. The thread I posted shows the good and the bad with the tool and I made some modifications shown in that thread. If I have a rootstock and scion where the diameters align well and it is in the size range of the tool, I use it. I sort of knew from reading a lot of discussion threads on grafting tools that I would only use it a fraction of the time, but for that price, I found it worth it. I am glad I got it.
Keep in mind that a grafting tool only makes the cuts. There are still lots of things we have to do correctly in terms of timing, alignment, wrapping, and after care. Things like apples are pretty easy because they have thick layer of cambium to align. Grafting persimmon seedlings can be more difficult. I still can't figure out how to have success grafting chestnuts, but professionals have issues with grafting chestnuts.
When scion and rootstock diameters don't match there are a host of other grafting techniques that can be used with a knife. Some like bark grafting don't rely on cambium alignment as much as pressure.
If you plan to be grafting for a while, I would suggest this:
- First, buy a good grafting knife. I'd get one with a budding blade in case you get into that.
- Next buy a good set of sharpening stones. A sharp grafting knife is key in many cases. Keep in mind one side is straight and the other is sharpened. You want is sharp enough to easily shave the hair on your arm.
- My last investment would be an inexpensive grafting tool like the one in the link above. I would not put much money into one because unless your only graft large volumes of matched diameter trees, you will only use it a fraction of the time. Once you get the grafting bug, there are many types of grafting you will try and they can all be done with a knife.
By the way, I don't even use the tool or knife 100% of the time. For example when I'm bark grafting persimmons in the field, I use a box cutter with break off disposable blades. Pretty much any old knife will do for that and the box cutter means I don't dull and need to spend more time sharpening my grafting knife.
There are a lot more experienced grafters on this forum than me and they may have other ideas, but this is my 2 cents.
Thanks,
Jack
I eventually found a grafting tool that is cheap enough to try one. Here is a link to a fruit growing form thread that discusses the one I purchased: https://growingfruit.org/t/zenport-generic-labled-grafting-tool/10511 Folks on that forum seem to think this design is much better than the Omega. For me it was the low cost that caused me to try one. I've had very good success with it. I'd say about 25% of my grafting is a good fit for the tool and I use it. The rest I do with a knife. The thread I posted shows the good and the bad with the tool and I made some modifications shown in that thread. If I have a rootstock and scion where the diameters align well and it is in the size range of the tool, I use it. I sort of knew from reading a lot of discussion threads on grafting tools that I would only use it a fraction of the time, but for that price, I found it worth it. I am glad I got it.
Keep in mind that a grafting tool only makes the cuts. There are still lots of things we have to do correctly in terms of timing, alignment, wrapping, and after care. Things like apples are pretty easy because they have thick layer of cambium to align. Grafting persimmon seedlings can be more difficult. I still can't figure out how to have success grafting chestnuts, but professionals have issues with grafting chestnuts.
When scion and rootstock diameters don't match there are a host of other grafting techniques that can be used with a knife. Some like bark grafting don't rely on cambium alignment as much as pressure.
If you plan to be grafting for a while, I would suggest this:
- First, buy a good grafting knife. I'd get one with a budding blade in case you get into that.
- Next buy a good set of sharpening stones. A sharp grafting knife is key in many cases. Keep in mind one side is straight and the other is sharpened. You want is sharp enough to easily shave the hair on your arm.
- My last investment would be an inexpensive grafting tool like the one in the link above. I would not put much money into one because unless your only graft large volumes of matched diameter trees, you will only use it a fraction of the time. Once you get the grafting bug, there are many types of grafting you will try and they can all be done with a knife.
By the way, I don't even use the tool or knife 100% of the time. For example when I'm bark grafting persimmons in the field, I use a box cutter with break off disposable blades. Pretty much any old knife will do for that and the box cutter means I don't dull and need to spend more time sharpening my grafting knife.
There are a lot more experienced grafters on this forum than me and they may have other ideas, but this is my 2 cents.
Thanks,
Jack
Jack,
Amazing response thank you. I am really only looking to graft apples and pears at this time for wildlife. My first foray into grafting with a knife led to some stiches:( I think I will have to revisit my strategy for this coming winter. I have a large number of scions coming from GRIN and a rootstock order from Cummins to play with.
Amazing response thank you. I am really only looking to graft apples and pears at this time for wildlife. My first foray into grafting with a knife led to some stiches:( I think I will have to revisit my strategy for this coming winter. I have a large number of scions coming from GRIN and a rootstock order from Cummins to play with.
yoderjac
5 year old buck +
I've got scions coming form GRIN as well. I'm experimenting with grafting in the middle of the winter and putting the trees under lights in my root pruning containers to get a head start on spring. It is hard to get rootstock until normal grafting time in the spring but I finally connected with a wholesale nursery in the northwest who thinks they can ship me rootstock this month. Since I had to by wholesale, I ended up with way more rootstock than I need. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
Glad you found the response helpful.
Thanks,
jack
Glad you found the response helpful.
Thanks,
jack
