8/17/2024 LEARNING-DAY PLANS:
GRAPES; MANGOS; GUILLOTINE GRAFTER DEMO; WATER!
We will start the learning day at 9am!
Last year (2023) at Grape Harvest time, we had the hurricane. ;(
Looks like this year (2024) will be fairly low-key as well, as I didn't get the bags on the grapes this year; too busy in May with blueberries.
But, there's too much good stuff going on to let that slow us down.
We're still game to have a good work-day on 8/17, with lots of interesting stuff planned:
I) Bancroft Grapes -- not a huge crop this year, but you'll still be able to taste different things.
II) YOUR grapes. This is your chance to BRING and SHOW OFF and SHARE what grapes you have grown! I haven't ever tried in San Diego-grown Muscadines!
III) GBU demo. Amy Huie (horticulture, Cuyamaca College) has the SCIONON GUILLOTINE BASE UNIT GRAFTING system, and her class used it in Spring. It's a device for PRODUCTION GRAFTING at high speed and efficiency. It makes grafting MUCH EASIER and SAFER! The GBU can make FIVE KINDS OF CUTS with the sweep of a guillotine blade, and the grafter's hands are always kept safe behind the guards.
1 Horizontal chop. (Ok, you could do this just as easy with a pair of clippers)
2 split Rootstock down the middle to make cleft for Wedge/Cleft graft.
3 SINGLE wedge cut on scion for side graft, or bark-graft, or first cut for whip & tongue graft
4 DOUBLE wedge cut on scion, for wedge-in-cleft graft.
5 For whip & tongue grafts: Automatic tongue cutter to cut tongue 1/3 the way through, once the single-wedge cut has been made. This is a very clever design, as it calculates exactly where the tongue-cut goes, you don't have to do any math.
It's the making of the LONG, STEEP, TAPERING wedge cut that has always driven me up the wall. Starting the cut is hard, as the knife has to be at an sharp angle, and yet made to BITE into the wood. Bringing the cut to completion in one motion of the knife is hard, because the uncut wood gets thinner and thinner, the deeper you cut, and eventually bends. So you end up scooping or arching your cut, and have to do it again and again. BUT once you've made a PERFECT, SUPPORTED, LONG, FLAT, TAPERING cut with the GBU, with a single, easy motion of guillotine blade, you won't want to go back & fool with the knife!
So we're very glad to invite AMY HUIE to bring the GBU down from Cuyamaca for a demo on apple, Surinam cherry, mango, avocado, cherimoya, and other woods.
Grafting has always been central to our operations at CRFG, and to getting new members to join. Anything that can help NEW GRAFTERS get over the two big hurdles -- intimidation and safety -- is a big help for passing on our CRFG traditions of grafting and sharing new varieties. RS production has been very successful these last two years . . . We're on track to graft some 1000 trees over 8 weeks Feb/March 2025; that's a lot of grafting! (Plus more, later in the year.) I'm 58, but I guess I'm not the only person to start feeling a little stiffness in the joints. 5-10 grafts by knife is OK, 50-100 is TOO MANY. The GBU really speeds up the grafting process by making quick, accurate, safe cuts! So I'm hoping that EVERYONE with an opinion about grafting shows up on 8/17 to TAKE A LOOK at the GBU guillotine grafter, give it a try, and SAY WHAT YOU THINK about it.
The Scionon GBU is not like the "grafting machines" that we've had (bad) experiences with before.
It's a PROFESSIONAL MACHINE for PRODUCTION GRAFTING that has been VERY INTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED. So please approach with an open mind!
10 minute demo of GBU device:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeVlOqUfBGI&t=2s
Scionon Grafting Tool - Guillotine Base Unit (SGC6-GBU)
IV) This is the time of year for MANGO GRAFTING, as the young mango trees are in full growth. The 48 seedlings in the bed are growing well, but need another year before grafting. We do have about a dozen young mangos in 5 gallon pots that could MAYBE get grafted on 8/17. THING IS, it's a matter of catching the Scion at JUST the right time, with buds starting to expand, but not fully expanded. We have a few choice mangos that MIGHT be ready with scions. So IF we have good match-up between mango-scions and mango RS, we might be able to do some MANGO GRAFTING.
It would help if people could bring a few mango scions, no more than 5.
(Healthy, well-labeled, and known to produce tasty fruit here in San Diego!)
If you haven't prepped mango-scion ("knobs") for grafting before, here's MISS CHRIS of TOP TROPICALS explaining how to select & package mango-scions.
How to Prepare Mango Graftwood (Scions)- 2 Ways
You're looking for SWOLLEN BUDS, (pushing 2-3mm) and you'll want to wrap your scions well in wet paper-towels or parafilm, and LABEL the plastic bags.
How to Prepare Mango Graftwood (Scions)- 2 Ways
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neMo29p8Khw
V) Helix water, and the County water-management people, will also have tables set up! We can take SUN for granted here in San Diego; but everybody involved in gardening needs to PLAN and CAREFULLY HUSBAND every drop of water that comes into our watershed, whether from CITY WATER SUPPIES or as RAINWATER. The Bancroft Drive nursery is on track to be a part of the larger re-development of the whole property with water-management in mind! So this is a great opportunity discuss WATER with the pros.
As Benjamin Franklin would have said,
if he lived in San Diego and not Boston:
WASTE NOT WATER IN WINTER, WANT NOT WATER IN SUMMER!
---Mark
