When to cut thread graft

[dbonsaiw]

How does one know when it's time to sever a thread graft? Asking generally, but also have a blood good that I grafted. Branches have swelled to fill the hole. Exit side of branch is fatter than entry side. I have no good reason to cut it now and was planning on leaving till later in the summer, but wanted to know.

 

[SeanS]

Once it looks like this, and you’ve wittled the entry side shoot down roughly halfway through or more

 

[penumbra]

You are ready. In my experience when exit growth is greater in diameter than entrance, it is time.

 

[Tieball]

It won’t harm anything if you wait awhile longer though. No photo from you, but it sounds like you’re ready now. You could attach a close up photo to make advice better.

 

[dbonsaiw]

No photo from you,

I tried, but they are really lousy photos.

 

[Tidal Bonsai]

I'm separating this one today.

 

[dbonsaiw]

So I separated the two grafts - should have left them on longer and whittled the entry side down first. But I didn't. Within a day or so, the leaves shriveled. On one branch, the leaves totally shriveled up and fell off with no signs of anything going on now. The leaves on the second branch did not all totally shrivel - some still have some of the purple color of the bloodgood, albeit the leaves are very damaged. On the plus side, buds seem to be swelling on the second branch so I have some hope that maybe this one took.

 

[SeanS]

Could we see some photos of the 2 grafts?

 

[dbonsaiw]

Could we see some photos of the 2 grafts?

I managed to get some pics of the healthier one as well as the leaves/buds before it started raining. I'll take some of the other in the morning.

 

[Dav4]

For what it’s worth, for a graft started this year that appears to be ready to separate, I will still wait until the heat of summer has passed. For me here in Michigan, that would probably be in late August. If I have a graft that was started the previous year that I was unsure of, I’ll likely start the weaning process as the new leaves push and evaluate week to week

 

[coltranem]

I did this one this spring. I have just started to whittle the entry side by scraping the bark and cambium mayb .25 inch wide (sorry no photo of the scrape).

 

[dbonsaiw]

It's alive! Looks like I a caught a break on this one (the other one appears to have failed). Going forward, should I leave grafts on overwinter?

 

[Dav4]

It's alive! Looks like I a caught a break on this one (the other one appears to have failed). Going forward, should I leave grafts on overwinter?

You can leave them through the winter if you want. If the grafts look like they’ve taken, you can also gradually wean the graft away from the donor branch over a month or two as well, and not fully cut away the donor branch until late summer.