AusBonsai

Hi all,

I have grafted a Weeping Maple to a standard rootstock maple last summer and it seems to be doing well.
The cultivar name is Germaine's Gyration.

I used the usual standard sizes of rootstock size which is usually around 5-8mm, maybe upto 10mm? And a scion of around 2-3mm in size.

But how large of a scion can you go and still get a good success rate?

Has anyone had success with a large scion of around 5mm to 10mm in thickness? or anything larger if it is even possible?

I do not see anyone doing large graft with larger scions online. I understand for business purpose and mass cultivation then the smaller sizes are more sustainable, but for a one-off project it assume it should be possible.

thanks very much.

Theoretically there's no limit to size of grafts. Provided you have good contact between cambium of both stock and scion it is possible to get a graft.
However, as the size increases it becomes more and more difficult to make the clean cuts required for success and to open the cuts to allow us to insert the scion. What is too large will depend on a range of factors including species (hardness of the wood) and what type of graft.

I've grafted onto branches up to 3 cm thick with cleft grafts and I've seen fruit and nut trees up to 20 or 30 cm diameter reworked using bark grafts but I don't think either of those methods would produce good bonsai.

Thanks for your information Shibui, this will give me some confidence to try abit larger grafts next time. Nothing too crazy, I’ll just make sure to make sure the contact of the union is 100%.

Thankyou.