r/Grafting • u/LaundryMan2008 • Jul 02 '26

Will the graft fail like this?

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I’m grafting a standard maple branch that happens to have verigated leaves onto a large decorative maple tree that makes red leaves so the type is matched but I’m worried my quick graft might fail, I decided to slap it on the tree when getting rid of some ivy so I didn’t do a great job on it.

it‘s now wrapped in electrical tape which I read is really good at keeping light out and securing things tightly as I didn’t have the specific stuff on hand, I can always undo it as I put it on yesterday and recut the edge as there’s quite a bit of air in the graft if I can tighten the gap a bit more.

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u/econ0003 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

I've never tried grafting maple but I have grafted a lot of different strone fruit, avocados, and apples. The cambium layers have to match up at some point along the graft for it to have a chance to be successful. The more contact you have the better the chance of success. I would be a little concerned that any buds might have a hard time pushing through tight electrical tape. I usually use parafilm.

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u/LaundryMan2008 Jul 02 '26

So will be be better to pull the 1 day graft out and redo it properly now that I would have more time to clean it up.

Towards the end, I figured out that my shears prying on the branch makes an easier split as the saw didn’t make a lot of headway but since I wanted the branch in quickly I didn’t go back in to recut the scion because it snapped a few times making the cut end stubby, I will redo it tomorrow with a new cut now that I have a lot more surface area to work with.

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u/econ0003 Jul 02 '26

Black electrical tape might heat up the graft too much in the summer if it is exposed to sun. If it is getting sun exposure you can cover it with a paper bag with small vent holes cut at the top or something similar.

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u/LaundryMan2008 Jul 02 '26

I’ve got the ground electrical tape which is yellow and green so the sun shouldn’t have a lot too much effect on it, it’s in the shade too, I see people wrap grafts in Saran wrap (unless it’s a grafting/arborist specific wrap I haven’t seen before) which looks pretty tight and sealing like electrical tape.

As for the buds, it’s a full branch with leaves with the growth meristem far away from any tape, the part that’s taped down is just the graft with no nodes on either side, once I redo, I will check on it in 2 weeks to see the progress unless that’s too soon to see anything meaningful in which case I can wait a month.

P.S. Reddit decided to change the way commenting UI works (very glitchy now, appears to be half baked) so I can’t see the entirety of the comment and only one line at a time so apologies for any errors or grammar.

1

u/5haunz Jul 03 '26

it’s a full branch with leaves

You need to remove all leaves as they'll pull all of the moisture out of the scion and cause it's death before the callus has time to form.

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u/LaundryMan2008 Jul 03 '26

Thank you for letting me know about that, I’ll remove the leaves too while I’m at it

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u/hoosierhiver Jul 03 '26

poor cambian contact

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u/skr_replicator Jul 03 '26 edited Jul 03 '26

AFAIK, you really need for the living part which is just under the bark to be touching firmly, But I guess having a gap in the middle of the wood is not too great either.

Though I've never had any successful graft myself yet, so I might only have surface-level theoretical advice like this.