Budding Oranges
Categories:
Fruit Growing
My first attempt at budding, I cut 20 buds and immediately inserted in
stock of Mexican sour orange "Amataca." I left bands on them for ten
days at which time about half seemed to have "stuck," but after a few
days the bark curled away and the buds dried up and died. I then tried
again, but left the bands on for thirteen days and lightly tied strings
around below the bud to prevent the bark from curling, and also put
g
afting wax in the cut and over the bud. These appeared fresh and green
at time of taking off the bands, but three weeks later I found them
rotted. The grafting wax used was made of beeswax, resin, olive oil and
a small amount of lard to soften it. Do you think that the action of the
lard on the buds would cause them to rot?
Consider first whether the buds which you use are sufficiently
developed; that is, a sufficient amount of hardness and maturity
attained by the twig from which you took these buds. Second, use a waxed
band, drawing it quite tightly around the bark, above and below the bud,
covering the bud itself without too much pressure for several days, then
loosening the band somewhat, but carefully replacing over all but the
bud point. It is necessary to exclude the air sufficiently, but not
wholly. The use of a soft fat like olive oil or lard is not desirable.
If you use oil at all for the purpose of softening, linseed oil, as used
by painters, is safer because of its disposition to dry without so much
penetration. Having used olive oil and lard together you had too much
soft fatty material.