The Pecan and its Culture Part 8

{Resin 6 pounds.

I. {Beeswax 2 pounds.

{Linseed Oil 1 pound.

{Resin 4 pounds.

II.{Beeswax 1 pound.

{Linseed Oil 1 pint.

Break the resin and cut the beeswax into small pieces. Place in an iron vessel, pour the oil over them and melt over a slow fire. Stir slightly to insure their being well mixed together, pour out into a bucket of cold water, grease the hands, and as soon as the ma.s.s is cool enough to handle, pull until it becomes light yellow in color. The wax may be made up in quant.i.ty and stored in greased tin or wooden boxes for future use.

To prepare waxed cloth, cut the cotton cloth into pieces of convenient size, say eighteen inches square, dip them down into the melted wax, remove them with a couple of sticks and stretch them out until cooled.

For use, the cloth may be torn into strips of desired width and wound about a stick eighteen inches or so in length. Use a little grease to prevent the grafting wax and grafting cloth from sticking to the hands.

For waxed twine, procure No. 18 knitting cotton and drop the b.a.l.l.s into the melted wax for a minute or two or until the wax penetrates them.

SELECTION OF SCIONS.

Great care should be exercised in the selection of scions for use in budding and grafting. Much of the immediate success of the work depends upon the character of the scions, while the health and longevity of the future tree may be materially influenced by the kind of wood used in propagating work.

The practice of taking scions and buds from young trees which have never borne, or from nursery stuck, must be strongly condemned. They should be cut only from thrifty, vigorous, prolific trees. Even trees of the same variety differ in these things, and a thorough knowledge of what a tree will do and has done is the only true guide in the selection of scions.

It is a well-known fact that desirable qualities can be reproduced and perpetuated by grafting.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From Bul. 57, Florida Exp. Sta._

FIG. 19. Scions: 1-3, Curtis; 4-6, Van Deman; 7-8, Stuart. 1. Poor Scions--long, slender, pithy. 2,4,5,7,8. Scions from one year's growth.

3. Scion, partly one, partly two years old. 6. Scion with cut, back of tip. 8. Scion which bore fruit at a.]

Grafts should be selected from well-matured branches of one year's growth. Fig. 19, No. 1, shows an undesirable scion. The wood is angular, small, the internodes long, and the pith large in proportion to the diameter. Either terminal portions of twigs may be used or portions back of the tip, but the buds should always be well developed, full and plump--Fig. 19, Nos. 2 to 6. For this reason grafts should not be cut from wood far back from the tip of the branch. As stated, twigs of the previous season's growth are generally used, but scions composed partly of two-year-old wood may be used, provided the growth is not too large.

Fig. 19, No. 3, shows one of these. Grafts are generally cut about five or six inches long, and should be from one-quarter to three-eighths of an inch in thickness.

It is best that the grafts be cut while still in a dormant state, and inserted in the stock just before the growth starts. The scions may be kept for a considerable length of time by placing them, loosely packed, in damp moss or sawdust, in a box. The box should be covered over with earth and the scions kept sufficiently moist to prevent drying out.

For bud sticks, well developed one-year-old branches, one-half to seven-eighths of an inch in diameter, and on which the buds are well formed, may be used. Such sticks frequently show three buds at a node, and if some misfortune should overtake one or two of these, there is still a chance of success, though the upper one being the strongest is generally the one which starts, provided it is uninjured and the bud takes. The degree of maturity of the bud is important, and care should be exercised that only those which are plump, full and well developed, are used. As soon as removed from the tree all bud sticks and grafts should be wrapped in damp newspapers to prevent drying out.

TIME.

Grafts should be inserted in spring just before or at the time growth starts. Buds may be inserted any time during the period when the bark will slip readily. Last year's dormant buds may be inserted early in the season, or buds of the current season's growth may be used during the latter part of July and the month of August, at which time they have become fully matured in the southernmost parts of the Gulf States. The time may even be extended into September. Very many of these late-inserted buds remain dormant during winter and begin growth in spring.

BUDDING.

_Annular Budding._--A ring of bark about one inch in length is removed from the stock. A bud stick of the same size is selected, and from it a similar ring with a good bud on it is removed by cutting around the bud stick and slitting down the back or side opposite the bud. This bud is then placed in position on the stock. After the buds are in place, a piece of stiff wrapping paper should be tied around the stock just above the bud and allowed to flare out over the bud to protect it from the sun and wind. Preferably all buds should be inserted on the north side.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _From Bul. 57, Florida Exp. Sta._

FIG. 20. Annular Budding. 1. Stock prepared for bud. 2. Bud. 3. Bud in place and tied.]

Stocks from three-eighths to three-quarters of an inch may be worked by this method.

_Veneer s.h.i.+eld-Budding. (Patch Budding)._ This method differs from the last only in that the piece of bark removed from the stock and the piece with the bud attached are not complete rings, but only parts. A rectangular or even a triangular piece of bark is taken out of the stock, a similar piece with a bud in its center taken from the bud stick is fitted in its place and wrapped in the usual way.

[Ill.u.s.tration: From Bul. 57, Florida Exp. Sta.

FIG. 21. Veneer s.h.i.+eld-Budding.]

Mr. George W. Oliver, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, Was.h.i.+ngton, D.

C., has described[J] a modified method of veneer s.h.i.+eld-budding, which has given good satisfaction in his hands. Instead of removing the patch from the stock, it is slit down the center from top to bottom and the edges are lifted back, the buds inserted beneath and the side flaps are then tied down over it. He has also found that dormant buds of last year's growth give better results than buds of the current season.

The use of these buds has not, however, come into general use; first, because of the large amount of wood which must be destroyed to secure them; and second, because in those sections where bud-worms are prevalent, their larvae are to be found cl.u.s.tered about the buds until quite late in the season and make their attack as soon as the bud starts to grow.

Mr. E. W. Kirkpatrick,[K] McKinney, Texas, described a method successfully used by him, as follows:

"We prepare the stock to receive the bud by cutting out a section of bark and wood as shown in Fig. 22. The bud is cut from the scion in the same way the cut on the stock is made. It should be about the same length, width, thickness and shape of the bark removed from the stock (see Fig. 22), so that the bud will fit the stock. * * * * The bud should be firmly tied until growth begins, usually about twenty-five days, when the string should be cut and the stock also cut just above the bud. * * *

All shoots must be kept rubbed off so as to give the buds the right of way. The small buds about the base of the scions or those on the two-year-old wood are preferred. Where the buds are small and in a cl.u.s.ter, several may be included in one set and the thinning done after the growth starts."

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 22. Chip Budding. Bud cut; Incision made; Bud in place.]

GRAFTING.

_Cleft Grafting._ Having selected the branch for cleft grafting and the point at which the scions are to be inserted, the branch should be carefully and smoothly cut off. The limb is then split by using the grafting iron. If rapid work is to be done, grafts should be prepared beforehand and carried to the field, wrapped in damp paper. In preparing the scion, a sloping cut should be made about one and one-half inches long, cutting into the pith from a point one-half way up the cut down to the lower end. On the opposite side, the cut should not be made to touch the pith, but should be confined to woody tissue throughout its whole length. The knife should have a keen, sharp edge. The cut should be clean, smooth and straight, and the scion should be left wider on the outer side. Start the cuts on each side of, and just at a bud, as shown in Fig. 23. Having made the cleft, it is opened with the wedge on the end of the grafting iron and the scion is placed in position. The cambium layers should be in contact. Slip the scion well down until the whole of the cut surface is within the cleft. If the stock is large enough insert two scions. After inserting the scion it should be firmly held in place by binding the stocks with strips of waxed cloth, after which a covering of wax may be placed over the cloth. The cut end of the stock should be covered, and if the scion be other than a terminal shoot, its distal end should be waxed also.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bul. 57, Fla. Exp. Sta.

FIG. 23. Cleft Grafting. 1. Scion. 2. Scion inserted ready for tying. 3.

Stock showing cleft.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Bul. 57, Fla. Exp. Sta.

FIG. 24. Whip Grafting. 1. Stock showing cut. 2. Scion. 3. Stock and Scion ready for bandage.]

_Whip Grafting._ Branches, which are to be worked by whip grafting, should be less than one inch in diameter. The method is ill.u.s.trated in Fig. 24. A sloping cut, an inch and a half long, is made diagonally across the stock. A corresponding cut is made on the scion, a tongue is raised about the center of each cut by making another cut with the budding knife held almost parallel to the sides of the wood. The tongue is raised a little on both stock and scion and the two are shoved together. They should be securely bound with a strip of waxed cloth, and a layer of wax should be spread over the whole, covering up all the cut surfaces to the exclusion of water, air and the germs of decay.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo by J. F. Jones._

FIG. 25. One year Pecan in fruit. Unusual; due to bearing wood being used as a scion.]

The scion and stock are preferably chosen of nearly the same size, but a scion somewhat smaller than the stock may be used, in which case the cambium layers along one side of the surfaces in contact should be placed opposite each other, and the projecting portion of the stock trimmed off.

AFTER-CARE.

In from ten days to three weeks, the buds should unite. They should be examined, and if union--indicated by the full, plump condition of the buds or the commencement of growth--has taken place, the wrappings should be removed. If growth has started, the stock should be cut off or lopped just above the insertion of the bud, in the case of budded trees.

From time to time the trees should be examined, and all sprouts which might rob the bud of sap, thereby preventing its growth, should be rubbed off.

FOOTNOTES: