MR. STOKE: Dr. Dunstan reported two walnut trees in North Carolina, where the season is about ten days earlier than at my place in Virginia that blossomed after the first of May. I am going to investigate these trees further.
DR. MCKAY: We have about five minutes that we might devote to some other problem. Nearly all of us do grafting work of one sort or another. Do I have a question from the floor on grafting?
MR. MACHOVINA: With cleft grafts or splice grafts held with grafting rubbers, do you have to cut the rubbers?
DR. MACDANIEL: If it's a chestnut and you have it waxed, I think the answer is yes.
MR. MACHOVINA: The wax is a hot wax and the rubber does not disintegrate very quickly.
DR. MACDANIEL: Probably you will have to cut it on species in which the growth bulges up between the turns of the rubber. This is true of chestnuts in particular, possibly persimmons, walnuts probably not quite so much trouble. Let's hear from one of the nurserymen.
MR. BERNATH: I think the best way is after the union is firm enough, to cut the rubber with a sharp knife.
MR. STOKE: I'd make one qualification. I said I didn't think you had to cut rubber. I think that's true with grafting above ground. Underneath ground, with moisture around it, it should be cut.
MR. BERNATH: If you leave the rubber on and bury it, that lasts for years. Even above ground you find it sometimes.
MR. PATAKY: If you get a fast-growing callus, you have to cut the rubber band, but if it is rather slow you don't. I do a lot of budding with roses. I don't cut the rubber bands off, because they will eventually drop off. If you graft a black walnut or Persian, you will have to cut it or it will girdle the graft.