Chip Budding Technique
Pictures and Diagrams of Chip Budding
Chip budding can be done both in the dormant season with non-active buds and also in the growing season with active buds. The procedure is almost identical, with the exception that the budstick you will be working with during the growing season will have leaves which will need to be removed, leaving a short stem, or "handle", known as a petiole. In our climate, chip budding during the growing season is usually done during the first couple of weeks of August for optimum results, but can also usually be successfully done in late July and late August. Because pictures of this propagation technique are so important to gaining skill in chip budding, I am introducing you to several pictures and diagrams in this section to prepare you for the Whitman County workshop on August 4th at our farm.
1. Start by looking at Figure 1 in the following pdf: "Chip Budding: An Old Grafting Technique for Woody Plants With Rediscovered Advantages for Nebraska" from the University of Nebraska--Lincoln Extension. This diagram illustrates the chip budding technique we will be using in the grafting workshop at Mercy Acres. Incidentally, the last page has a list of plants and trees that can be chip budded, including grapes and roses.
2. Below is a similar diagram (source unknown-anybody recognize it so I can give credit?) of dormant season chip budding.
Chip budding can be done both in the dormant season with non-active buds and also in the growing season with active buds. The procedure is almost identical, with the exception that the budstick you will be working with during the growing season will have leaves which will need to be removed, leaving a short stem, or "handle", known as a petiole. In our climate, chip budding during the growing season is usually done during the first couple of weeks of August for optimum results, but can also usually be successfully done in late July and late August. Because pictures of this propagation technique are so important to gaining skill in chip budding, I am introducing you to several pictures and diagrams in this section to prepare you for the Whitman County workshop on August 4th at our farm.
1. Start by looking at Figure 1 in the following pdf: "Chip Budding: An Old Grafting Technique for Woody Plants With Rediscovered Advantages for Nebraska" from the University of Nebraska--Lincoln Extension. This diagram illustrates the chip budding technique we will be using in the grafting workshop at Mercy Acres. Incidentally, the last page has a list of plants and trees that can be chip budded, including grapes and roses.
2. Below is a similar diagram (source unknown-anybody recognize it so I can give credit?) of dormant season chip budding.
Because the text below the diagram is hard to read, I am summarizing it here:
A. Shows a shoot of 1-year wood from which a chip will be taken. The dotted line indicates that immature buds on the tip (to the right of the dotted line) would be discarded and not used for chips. Remember that in the active growing season your summer scion wood will have leaves that you will snip off leaving only a short stub of the leaf petiole to use as a miniature handle to hold on to the chip while inserting it into the cleft made in the rootstock (receiving shoot).
B. Shows chip taken from the 1-year shoot with a frontal view on the left and a side view on the right.
C. Shows the receiving shoot on either a rootstock or on a 1-2 year shoot on a tree that is being topworked. The frontal view is on the left and the side view is on the right.
D. Shows the chip bud inserted on the receiving shoot (frontal view). You are striving to have a really good fit between chip and the notch in the receiving scion. Do you notice that there is a tiny, tiny ring of exposed tissue around the sides and top of the chip?
E. Shows three illustrations of possible ways to insert chips into the the receiving shoot. (i) Shows that if your chip is narrower than the receiving shoot you place it on one side so that the cambium layers match up on at least one side. This has been known to work, but if possible, should be avoided—instead cut a new chip that is the correct size. (ii) Shows an incorrect match because there is no cambium match up on either side because the chip is too narrow. Cut a new chip. (iii) Shows a chip that is too long (chip overlaps up at the top). That could be corrected by lengthening the cut on the receiving shoot. If the chip had been too wide, the easiest way to correct the mismatch is to slice a little more from the receiving shoot to make the cut wider and thus create a better fit. Or you could discard that chip and try for a smaller one that is a better fit. Cutting the chip itself down to size is very difficult because it is so small and hard to hold on to.
F. (i) Shows a small hard dormant bud (like you might find with apple or pear scions) that is covered when tying-in with polyethylene tape. (ii) Shows more prominent bud (like you might find with stone fruit) left exposed when tying-in with polyethylene tape. This is also the way all chip buds done during the summer months are tied (the leaf petiole sticks out and you wrap around it) .
3. Now that you understand the process, here are some good pictures showing how the rootstock and the scion buds are cut. The photos on the Cornell University website show both active and dormant scion buds being slipped into position:
https://courses.cit.cornell.edu/hort494/mg/methods.alpha/ChipMeth.html
Note that their first example was of growing-season chip bud (first two photos over on the right). They did not show the poly wrapping for this example. It would be wrapped in such a way that the leaf petiole would not be covered by the poly wrap (it would stick out and the wrapping would take place above and below it). Note their second example was of a dormant chip budding procedure where the bud was small and firm. In this case they wrapped the poly film right over the top of the bud (last photograph down on the right). The point of the wrap is to prevent the chip from drying out before it calluses and starts growing.
4. Chapter 13 of Hartmann and Kester's Plant Propagation (see link below) provides a good overview of most of the major budding techniques used in plant propagation. On page 519 it introduces the virtues of chip budding and discusses why it is replacing T-budding as the dominant budding method. There are three types of chip budding based on the time of year when executed. Spring chip budding is done in the dormant season, June chip budding is only done in warmer climates with long summers, and Summer chip budding is done in the late summer or early fall (August in our climate). If we have time at the workshop on August 4th I also want to introduce you to the T-bud (see pages 525-6) since it continues to the the most widely used budding technique (but is being replaced by chip budding). This chapter covers the chip budding technique along with other budding techniques. Be sure to read the captions of the diagrams and pictures of chip budding found down at the bottom of page 520. Especially look closely at (i), which appears to have a chip that is too small for the cleft created for it (see how much border there is between the chip and the cleft what it has been placed). This is probably for emphasis-that it is better to have a little too much margin between the chip and the cleft than to have the chip overlap the cleft (then you would not have a callousing zone where the cambium cells of the chip unite with the cambium cells of at the edge of the cleft). Here is the link to Chapter 13:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/faculty/davies/pdf%20stuff/ph%20final%20galley/M13_DAVI4493_08_SE_C13.pdf
5. Two other ag school bulletins have sections on chip budding that are also helpful. Check out Reproducing Fruit Trees by Graftage: Budding and Grafting (from U. of Kentucky Extension), Figure 3 on page 3. Also look at Figure 14 on page 10 in Grafting and Propagating Fruit Trees (from Penn State Extension)
6. If you have access to R. J. Garner's The Grafter's Handbook, you will find a section on chip budding from the perspective of European and UK horticulturalists. The section on chip budding is under VI Methods of Grafting, 2.Detached Scion Grafting, a Bud Grafting. In the latest edition (the 6th) it is on pages 153-157.
On the left below is a diagram that shows a chip bud being held by a budding rubber, which is also used in T-budding. Note that the budding rubber attempts to seal all of the cut surfaces so that the chip bud does not dry out. Polyfilm has generally replaced budding rubbers for chip budding.
On the right are three frames that show various phases of creating a chip bud. The first photo shows 30 degree cut being made at the bottom of the cleft to be created to receive the chip. The second (middle) photo shows the cleft ready to receive the chip. When the chip is placed in the cleft it rests on a shelf made by the 30 degree cut at the bottom of the cleft. Note in the third picture (on right) that we can see a little margin most of the way around the chip (this is good because cambial callousing can take place between the cambium on the cleft and the cambium on the chip) including down at the bottom where the chip is being held in place. Since both the bottom of the cleft and the bottom of the chip are cut at a 30 degree angle, it provides a matching surface on which to have callousing take place at the bottom of chip, not just around the sides and the top.
A. Shows a shoot of 1-year wood from which a chip will be taken. The dotted line indicates that immature buds on the tip (to the right of the dotted line) would be discarded and not used for chips. Remember that in the active growing season your summer scion wood will have leaves that you will snip off leaving only a short stub of the leaf petiole to use as a miniature handle to hold on to the chip while inserting it into the cleft made in the rootstock (receiving shoot).
B. Shows chip taken from the 1-year shoot with a frontal view on the left and a side view on the right.
C. Shows the receiving shoot on either a rootstock or on a 1-2 year shoot on a tree that is being topworked. The frontal view is on the left and the side view is on the right.
D. Shows the chip bud inserted on the receiving shoot (frontal view). You are striving to have a really good fit between chip and the notch in the receiving scion. Do you notice that there is a tiny, tiny ring of exposed tissue around the sides and top of the chip?
E. Shows three illustrations of possible ways to insert chips into the the receiving shoot. (i) Shows that if your chip is narrower than the receiving shoot you place it on one side so that the cambium layers match up on at least one side. This has been known to work, but if possible, should be avoided—instead cut a new chip that is the correct size. (ii) Shows an incorrect match because there is no cambium match up on either side because the chip is too narrow. Cut a new chip. (iii) Shows a chip that is too long (chip overlaps up at the top). That could be corrected by lengthening the cut on the receiving shoot. If the chip had been too wide, the easiest way to correct the mismatch is to slice a little more from the receiving shoot to make the cut wider and thus create a better fit. Or you could discard that chip and try for a smaller one that is a better fit. Cutting the chip itself down to size is very difficult because it is so small and hard to hold on to.
F. (i) Shows a small hard dormant bud (like you might find with apple or pear scions) that is covered when tying-in with polyethylene tape. (ii) Shows more prominent bud (like you might find with stone fruit) left exposed when tying-in with polyethylene tape. This is also the way all chip buds done during the summer months are tied (the leaf petiole sticks out and you wrap around it) .
3. Now that you understand the process, here are some good pictures showing how the rootstock and the scion buds are cut. The photos on the Cornell University website show both active and dormant scion buds being slipped into position:
https://courses.cit.cornell.edu/hort494/mg/methods.alpha/ChipMeth.html
Note that their first example was of growing-season chip bud (first two photos over on the right). They did not show the poly wrapping for this example. It would be wrapped in such a way that the leaf petiole would not be covered by the poly wrap (it would stick out and the wrapping would take place above and below it). Note their second example was of a dormant chip budding procedure where the bud was small and firm. In this case they wrapped the poly film right over the top of the bud (last photograph down on the right). The point of the wrap is to prevent the chip from drying out before it calluses and starts growing.
4. Chapter 13 of Hartmann and Kester's Plant Propagation (see link below) provides a good overview of most of the major budding techniques used in plant propagation. On page 519 it introduces the virtues of chip budding and discusses why it is replacing T-budding as the dominant budding method. There are three types of chip budding based on the time of year when executed. Spring chip budding is done in the dormant season, June chip budding is only done in warmer climates with long summers, and Summer chip budding is done in the late summer or early fall (August in our climate). If we have time at the workshop on August 4th I also want to introduce you to the T-bud (see pages 525-6) since it continues to the the most widely used budding technique (but is being replaced by chip budding). This chapter covers the chip budding technique along with other budding techniques. Be sure to read the captions of the diagrams and pictures of chip budding found down at the bottom of page 520. Especially look closely at (i), which appears to have a chip that is too small for the cleft created for it (see how much border there is between the chip and the cleft what it has been placed). This is probably for emphasis-that it is better to have a little too much margin between the chip and the cleft than to have the chip overlap the cleft (then you would not have a callousing zone where the cambium cells of the chip unite with the cambium cells of at the edge of the cleft). Here is the link to Chapter 13:
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/faculty/davies/pdf%20stuff/ph%20final%20galley/M13_DAVI4493_08_SE_C13.pdf
5. Two other ag school bulletins have sections on chip budding that are also helpful. Check out Reproducing Fruit Trees by Graftage: Budding and Grafting (from U. of Kentucky Extension), Figure 3 on page 3. Also look at Figure 14 on page 10 in Grafting and Propagating Fruit Trees (from Penn State Extension)
6. If you have access to R. J. Garner's The Grafter's Handbook, you will find a section on chip budding from the perspective of European and UK horticulturalists. The section on chip budding is under VI Methods of Grafting, 2.Detached Scion Grafting, a Bud Grafting. In the latest edition (the 6th) it is on pages 153-157.
On the left below is a diagram that shows a chip bud being held by a budding rubber, which is also used in T-budding. Note that the budding rubber attempts to seal all of the cut surfaces so that the chip bud does not dry out. Polyfilm has generally replaced budding rubbers for chip budding.
On the right are three frames that show various phases of creating a chip bud. The first photo shows 30 degree cut being made at the bottom of the cleft to be created to receive the chip. The second (middle) photo shows the cleft ready to receive the chip. When the chip is placed in the cleft it rests on a shelf made by the 30 degree cut at the bottom of the cleft. Note in the third picture (on right) that we can see a little margin most of the way around the chip (this is good because cambial callousing can take place between the cambium on the cleft and the cambium on the chip) including down at the bottom where the chip is being held in place. Since both the bottom of the cleft and the bottom of the chip are cut at a 30 degree angle, it provides a matching surface on which to have callousing take place at the bottom of chip, not just around the sides and the top.
If you have worked your way through this web page, you will have a good grasp of chip budding theory. The workshop will be where rubber meets the road - you will put your theory into practice, perfecting the art of working with specialty grafting knives, mastering the strokes needed for perfect chip buds, and developing the finger dexterity for tightly wrapping the buds with polyfilm and rubber bands. At the workshop, you will receive much more additional information including the management of your graft and its aftercare.
Aftercare for Summer Chip Buds
At the August 4, 2018 chip budding workshop I demonstrated wrapping the chip with polyfilm/parafilm and also with budding rubbers which are used for summer T-budding and dormant season whip and tongue grafting. There was a consensus among the participants that the budding rubbers seemed to be easier to use. When I did some chip budding a few days later I did a few chip buds with polyfilm/parafilm and a few with budding rubbers. Then I decided that I would first attach the chip with the budding rubber (it was easier for me to manipulate than polyfilm) with the leaf petiole sticking out and then cover the whole thing (including the leaf petiole) with polyfilm. This takes longer (two steps instead of only one) but is easier for me to do than try to keep the chip in place while trying to wrap polyfilm and I wanted the moisture barrier that polyfilm provides. Today (October 3rd) I went back to assess my take rate and see if there were any unintended consequences to this unorthodox approach to covering chips. Happily the take rate was excellent. I marked the location of the chips with Dr. Farwell's Seal & Heal and also used it to cover any exposed part of the chip union where there appeared to be gaps. Here are some pictures and accompanying commentary.
Aftercare for Summer Chip Buds
At the August 4, 2018 chip budding workshop I demonstrated wrapping the chip with polyfilm/parafilm and also with budding rubbers which are used for summer T-budding and dormant season whip and tongue grafting. There was a consensus among the participants that the budding rubbers seemed to be easier to use. When I did some chip budding a few days later I did a few chip buds with polyfilm/parafilm and a few with budding rubbers. Then I decided that I would first attach the chip with the budding rubber (it was easier for me to manipulate than polyfilm) with the leaf petiole sticking out and then cover the whole thing (including the leaf petiole) with polyfilm. This takes longer (two steps instead of only one) but is easier for me to do than try to keep the chip in place while trying to wrap polyfilm and I wanted the moisture barrier that polyfilm provides. Today (October 3rd) I went back to assess my take rate and see if there were any unintended consequences to this unorthodox approach to covering chips. Happily the take rate was excellent. I marked the location of the chips with Dr. Farwell's Seal & Heal and also used it to cover any exposed part of the chip union where there appeared to be gaps. Here are some pictures and accompanying commentary.
To the left you see the chip buds placed in mid-August on a plum tree I am topworking (those are two-year old shoots that I placed chips on. The chips have to come from mature this-season scions (called one-year wood) but you can chip bud onto this-season shoots, two-year old shoots, and perhaps even three-year old shoots.
You can see the reddish colored budding rubbers underneath the poly film. You can also see the bud (a little dark bump) which was not covered by the budding rubber (but was covered by the polyfilm).
You can see the reddish colored budding rubbers underneath the poly film. You can also see the bud (a little dark bump) which was not covered by the budding rubber (but was covered by the polyfilm).
If you take off the polyfilm you can see that the chip bud's bud was not covered, but all the rest of the chip was covered very well by the overlapping spiral of the budding rubber. It would probably have healed just fine without the layer of polyfilm, but you can see there are little areas that could have dried out on either side of the bud on the chip. By covering the entire area (including the bud itself and the leaf petiole) with polyfilm we maximized the containment of moisture.
On the chip to the left you see a little gap in the upper left corner that was not filled with callusing cells. There is another little gap on the left side down at the bottom of the chip. Since I was going to use Doc Farwell's Seal & Heal to mark the location of the chips so I can find them next spring (to cut of the understock with a slating cut just above the top of the chip), I can cover those two little gaps with Doc Farwell's to protect it against winter freezing. Here is an example of using Doc Farwell's to mark a chip so we can find it in the spring. Note that we have covered the upper and lower joint between the chip and the cavity into which it was placed in mid-August. There was a pretty good fit on the side. But we could also cover all sides of the chip-chip cavity union to further protect it going into the winter months and make it that much easier to see when we are ready to cut off the shoot above the chip in April next spring. Finer Points of Chip Budding Technique From here on down is a brief section showing how create and use the "shelf" at the bottom of cleft to hold the chip in place as you start to wrap the bud with parafilm. To the left is chip bud that is being held in the cleft by the "shelf" created at the bottom of the cleft. The chip is not in its final place (which is covering the entire cut on the receiving shoot) but is safe from falling on the ground while I get my piece of parafilm to hold the bud in its final resting place. In the picture to the left you can see that I have made one loop around the shoot with the parafilm. This exerted pressure on the bottom of the chip as it sits inside the shelf, However, it is not in its final resting place. Now it can be pulled up into place for the final wrapping. The bud has been pulled up safely without it falling out of place because of the pressure from the one loop of parafilm around the shelf holding the bud. Not that the top of the bud it tipping out away from the shoot to which it will be attached to. When we finish wrapping the parafilm the bud will be tightly pressed against the shoot so that the callousing process can take place between the cambium of the shoot and the cambium of the chip. At this point we shorten the leaf stem (petiole) back because we will no longer need it now that the chip is in place. We can continue to wrap the bud so that its cambium layer tightly pressed against the cambium layer of the shoot. As is frequently the case in grafting and budding there are often alternative ways to achieve the same outcome. In the picture to the left I have taken a piece of parafilm in one hand, positioned the chip bud into its final resting position, and started wrapping it from the top. Notice that I have a nice shelf for the chip bud to sit in and left a nice long leaf step to manipulate the chip bud into place. Once I have the chip firmly in place with these two circles of wrap I can shorten the leaf stem and finish the wrapping all the way down so that all cut surfaces are wrapped and the bud is held tightly to the stem. To the left is a picture of the completed chip prepared for the callusing process that joins the cambium of the shoot to the cambium of the bud. The following spring (chip budding is done in August) the shoot is cut off above the chip, forcing the bud into active growth as an extension of the shoot to which it is attached. Selecting and Preparing Bud Sticks Bud sticks are taken from the healthiest of the current season's growth in August. In these two examples (peach on left and apricot on the right) we would discard the top 1/3 of the current year's growth and use the bottom 2/3's. The reason for using only the bottom 2/3's is that the buds need to be mature (this is why we wait till early August to start budding in our climate). We snip off the leaves while leaving the leaf stem (the petiole) as a handle to hold the chip while putting it in place on the shoot to which we are attaching it. The completed bud stick is on the left (all of its buds are mature and can be used for chip budding or for T-budding). The discarded part of the current years growth with the immature buds (unusable) is on the right. Although it is best to complete chip buds as soon as possible after preparing the bud stick, the bud stick can be refrigerated (use sealable plastic bag with section of moist paper towel) for a few days if needed. There are variations in how much current-year wood is produced by a mature tree from which you are taking bud sticks. The peach and apricot trees from which the bud sticks above were taken was two to three feet in length (and abundant). Other times it may be hard to find vigorously growing current-year shoots for bud sticks. For example, the bud sticks to the left are only about 6 inches long and were the best found on a whole 6-year old European plum tree that has been carrying nice crops for the past four years. |
Whitney Grafting Photographs of Chip Budding
Whitney Grafting is a Yakima firm that does grafting for commercial fruit and nut growers throughout the US. They have a Face Book page with photos and videos of grafting projects they have worked on. Below I have an annotate list of some of the FB entries related to chip budding. You can get to that Whitney Grafting FB page here.
1. July 28, 2020 Use of Polyfilm to tie off chip buds
2. August 18, 2017 " Wath Arnoldo make a perfect match with his chip bud." - a video
3. August 16, 2017 "Chip bud propagation in the nursery." - video showing tying off with Polyfilm.
There are also a couple of entries showing patch budding.
1. July 20, 2018 Picture showing patch buds 21 days after budding.
2. July 18, 2018 Video of the techniques used in patch budding.
Whitney Grafting is a Yakima firm that does grafting for commercial fruit and nut growers throughout the US. They have a Face Book page with photos and videos of grafting projects they have worked on. Below I have an annotate list of some of the FB entries related to chip budding. You can get to that Whitney Grafting FB page here.
1. July 28, 2020 Use of Polyfilm to tie off chip buds
2. August 18, 2017 " Wath Arnoldo make a perfect match with his chip bud." - a video
3. August 16, 2017 "Chip bud propagation in the nursery." - video showing tying off with Polyfilm.
There are also a couple of entries showing patch budding.
1. July 20, 2018 Picture showing patch buds 21 days after budding.
2. July 18, 2018 Video of the techniques used in patch budding.