The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Beeswax graft sealant

Grafting waxI decided to take the plastic bags off my pear grafts since it's been getting so hot I was afraid the scionwood would cook.  The beeswax has done a remarkably good job of staying put...except for on top of one of the four pieces of scionwood.  I thought I might have just missed that spot when initially dabbing on the wax, but photographic evidence is to the contrary.

There's quite a difference in vibrancy between the scionwood that lost its cap and the one that retained its cap.  The former looks a bit shriveled up and the bud appears to have tried to open and failed, while the wax-capped twig looks plumper and content to wait until the rest of the tree starts leafing out.

Hopefully one piece of scionwood will be enough to change the variety on that pear.  I don't expect to see any growth for a month or two since grafted scionwood often waits to wake up until after the rootstock has already put out leaves.  Stay tuned for further updates.

Our chicken waterer keeps chickens healthy with POOP-free water.


Anna Hess's books
Want more in-depth information? Browse through our books.

Or explore more posts by date or by subject.

About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



Want to be notified when new comments are posted on this page? Click on the RSS button after you add a comment to subscribe to the comment feed, or simply check the box beside "email replies to me" while writing your comment.


Try soaking a small piece of cloth in molten wax, and put it of top of the scionwood when it has cooled down enough. Fold the cloth down and tie a string around it so it can't come off.
Comment by Roland_Smith Sat Mar 17 14:43:24 2012
Roland --- Very good idea! I suspect it might be too late for this piece of scionwood --- I didn't notice it until it had dried out. But I think I'll try that the next time since it does sound like it'll add more structural integrity.
Comment by anna Sat Mar 17 19:58:09 2012





profile counter myspace



Powered by Branchable Wiki Hosting.

Required disclosures:

As an Amazon Associate, I earn a few pennies every time you buy something using one of my affiliate links. Don't worry, though --- I only recommend products I thoroughly stand behind!

Also, this site has Google ads on it. Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to a website. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to users based on their visit to various sites. You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting this site.