Northern Nut Growers Association Report of the Proceedings at the 41st Annual Meeting Part 36

MR. BERNATH: Yes, same way with hickories and oaks.

MR. WEBER: What sort of shading element do you use? Anything real tight, or how?

MR. BERNATH: Yes, air tight. The grafting case has got to be air tight.

MR. WEBER: The shade?

MR. BERNATH: Oh, any kind of cloth, cheesecloth, muslin. I know that will do it.

MR. CHASE: Whitewash?

MR. BERNATH: That's all right, too. If you use whitewash, I would recommend using white lead with gasoline and just spray it on. That will help a lot, but I generally use a cloth for shade.

MR. O'ROURKE: Why do you place the scions so that the bud is on the inside?

MR. BERNATH: It makes a straighter tree. The other way it's inclined to grow out this way (indicating). It grows toward the stock, makes a straighter tree.

MR. STOKE: I think there is one more advantage there. On the edge next to the stock you get a better contact than you do on that lip on the outside, and it leads more directly into the bud.

DR. CRANE: Less danger, too, that that bud will rub off.

MR. BERNATH: Keep them shaded, but only 50 per cent shade. And then in about two weeks you take the shade off, let the sun s.h.i.+ne on it. It doesn't hurt--over the gla.s.s. And then you take these pots when danger of frost is over, plant them out, in nursery rows, or, if you want to put them in permanent places, it's perfectly all right. Take this, put your finger under like that (demonstrating), give her a tap, and the ball comes out of the pot in your hand. And if it's permanent, plant it down to here; cover the union.

MR. WEBER: And the scion eventually forms its own root?

MR. BERNATH: It will. You will find that pot will be filled up with fibrous root.

MR. SZEGO: When do you take the tape off?

MR. BERNATH: Don't take it off at all. It will decay.

MR. MILLER: But the same graft can't be used outside without grafting wax, can it?

MR. BERNATH: Yes, you have to wax outside. That's right, you have to use wax. Otherwise the grafting method is the same for top-working.

MR. MILLER: Because in there you have it air tight. Outside you have to wax.

MR. BERNATH: You can't do it without wax, not outside. But budding you can do without wax outside.

This is a whole plant right here. That's a whole plant root, and this is right in this four-inch pot. That tap root is cut away and all the lateral roots, finer roots, put right in there and put in soil like any transplanted plant.

DR. ROHBACHER: When do you put that stock in the house?

MR. BERNATH: If you want to start work in January, towards the end of December after the understock has had the rest period. You can store them, unless you are in a place where you don't get much frost in your ground.

DR. ROHBACHER: You have to dig those up in the fall?

MR. BERNATH: You have to dig these up about three weeks before you want to graft. There is another point I should have been wide awake enough to tell you in the beginning: when you put these in the bench put them in peat moss like that, because otherwise it would be next to impossible to keep those plants moist enough.

MR. WEBER: That's standing upright.

MR. BERNATH: Upright until you graft. That's only the understock. Watch them closely, say about two weeks, and you may test it. In other words, knock these out and examine the root system. When you see those little white rootlets beginning to grow like thin macaroni, white, most of them, that's a sign that you had better get busy grafting.

MR. WEBER: But not until you see the edges of those roots poking through.

MR. RICK: And the stock isn't in the case until you are ready to graft?

MR. BERNATH: They are in the benches, but not in the case. No outside cover except just the gla.s.s of the house.

That's about all there is to it. It isn't much.

MR. RICK: It's been a wonderful demonstration.

MR. SZEGO: When do you cut your scion wood?

MR. BERNATH: Oh, I get scion wood from December on, late December, January and February.

MR. RICK: It would be all right just to go out to the tree and cut your scions and bring them in and the next day graft?

MR. BERNATH: Yes. Well, no. I like to store them a little bit, for the reason that the starches will form. It's amazing how wood will act after you cut it, provided it doesn't dry out. All those cells, you know, in that they form what we call a certain type of starch. You can do it all right with apple trees and pear trees. You can put it right on the tree right from the tree, but I wouldn't advise it on the nut trees.

MR. RICK: Do you keep your scions cool until you are ready to use them?

A MEMBER: My way of keeping it is in fresh sawdust. That's the best means.

MR. WEBER: Do you dampen it any?

MR. BERNATH: Yes. And I have nothing but an earth cellar where I store my scion wood, and they keep well until June.

MR. RICK: To prevent fungus would it be a good idea to dip them in a weak solution of Bordeaux?

MR. BERNATH: I never tried it. I couldn't say. That's one reason why sometimes some of our members here wonder why I write and say, "Please do not wax." I do not want a waxed scion. As far as I am concerned, I would throw them right out. I wouldn't bother to graft them.

MR. CORSAN: You just put them in damp sawdust?

MR. BERNATH: Yes, put them in damp peat or even damp newspaper, wrap it and s.h.i.+p it.

(Newspaper is very good for this purpose.--J. C. McD.)

MR. CORSAN: And no waxing.

MR. BERNATH: No.

MR. STOKE: I agree with you. I got some scions that were waxed, and the scion was beautifully green and every bud was dead.

MR. BERNATH: That's it again. The reason for that is that you have to heat the wax to make it thin enough, and the reaction of the heat is bad for the scion wood.

MR. STOKE: I don't believe it's that alone. I believe a bud can't go without air for a great length of time. It is a living organism and needs the air. Those scions had come from Europe, and every one was dead.