Thread Grafting

[chris]

This is an Arakawa Maple that Mike bought 2 years ago, the tree had a fantastic trunk but the branch structure had gone
Mike allowed free growth with heavy feeding to produce the massive extensions these were caged wired to position in preparation for the thread grafting
By drilling at an angle the "new branches" can be developed at the correct area of the trunk
Wound sealant is used to make the drill holes air tight. we will know when the grafts have worked if the branch gets thicker on the out going side, this could be as quick as 6 to 8 weeks!!!!!!, we will see.













Regards Chris

[Auballagh]

That's really nice work. Thanks for the great pictures and detailed explanations - I learned a lot.
Please do post back with info on how well the grafts take and how the work on this tree progresses! I love the bark on this maple. With your branch structure hopefully fixed with those thread grafts put in, this tree should develop into something very nice.

[abcd]

Electric machine is not very good for pierced graft, you can burn the cambium, i prefer a manual engine with small rotation speed.

[sunip]

Hello Chris,
Is there a special reason why the branches are not wired?
Some support to secure them in place would be a normal procedure?

Hello ABCD would an electric drill with low speed and careful drilling with a thin drill first, be safe?
Sunip

[Guest]

nice work i gotta do some thread grafting in the coming weeks on some larches of mine

[abcd]

spin is the most suitable tool
[img][/img]

[Guest]

hello Chris, and nice work
like many others, i'm sure you will have succes with the technique you used. Nothing wrong with electric drilling if you are carefull and take good care afterwards. With manual tools you can mess thing up as well. Electric tools for drilling such small and clean holes is not a problem, if you have a steady hand. Looks good what you did, clean holes, good sealing etc
Show us your results in a year

[tmmason10]

nice work i gotta do some thread grafting in the coming weeks on some larches of mine

Please post some pics of the larch thread grafting when you get around to it. I've read it in Lenz's book but would love to see it in practice.

[Guest]

nice work i gotta do some thread grafting in the coming weeks on some larches of mine

Please post some pics of the larch thread grafting when you get around to it. I've read it in Lenz's book but would love to see it in practice.

will do but it looks just like these but i use wire to hold the thread grafts in place and don't use cut paste but use petroleum jelly a little nick lenz trick to help the wound heal faster

[chris]

Hi everybody and thanks for the replies
Thread grafting is a great trick to have up your sleeve, but the are inherent problems with this technique.
1, The hole that is drilled is parallel but the branch that you put through is tapered, therefor I think the first place that grafts is on the ingoing side and then the out going side swells and grafts so the outgoing side is not tight when first done

2 The size thickness of all the branches are the same i.e small!!!!!. So the bottom branches need to be addressed in a different way to the top ones. The bottom branches need to grow on for some years to get the size that will give the image. You need to pay attention to where you position the first bud distance from the trunk, so in other words you adjust the position when placing the graft so that you have a bud lets say 1.5ins from the trunk, this is the one that you will eventually cut back to. Your first un controlled growth will have long internods but you know that you have the bud close to the trunk to cut back to after you have the diameter you want and then you can grow with control for the ramification you want.

Regards Chris

[LSBonsai]

spin is the most suitable tool
[img][/img]

this seems like more work than necessary. I have done many thread grafts with electric drills on full speed and been successful. granted i clean the wounds when done with a grafting knife. I cannot imagine trying to get through a 10cm hornbeam trunk with the hand drill.

cheers,

[marie1uk]

Another tip is to put tape on the outgoing side of the trunk as when the drill bit penetrates to the other side it can take little bits of the cambium with it.

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