So Far, So Good; Progress of a Graft

     Back in May, I performed a graft on one of my willow-leaf figs (Ficus salicaria.) This was my first attempt on a "graft that matters," and I described the process in this post.

The tree has grown well over the summer, and the graft appears to have done well, too. Well enough that,
yesterday, I was confident I could take the nylon ties off for a close inspection. I did take them off one at a time, just in case and contrary to expectation, anything shifted; but nothing did.

Graft appears to be doing well. Dark material is dried cut paste.

 I'm encouraged by three things:

• The scion has been growing well.
• As I said, when I took off the ties, nothing shifted; nothing even budged.
• Most significant, the scion is a bit thicker where it comes out of the graft site (upper pair of yellow arrows) than where it goes in (lower yellow arrows.) This tells me that it has begun to draw nourishment at the graft point, in addition to what it still gets from its parent branch.

There's still a gap on one side of the scion (blue arrow.) But I'm sure that will close up with time. Given the positive factors, I'm not worried about it.

After checking the graft I put on one new tie, for insurance, and snugged it down lightly.

Now in the Bonsai Crate for the winter.

I expected to wait as much as a year before I cut the scion off below the graft site (at the green line.) As well as things are going, tho, I may be able to do that by spring. ☺ Stay tuned.

:-)  :-)  :-)