I just tried my hand at grafting some Cherry scion wood (Black Gold, and White Gold) onto an old cherry tree in my yard. I mainly grafted to some watersprouts coming out of the trunk. I used cleft grafts for all of them except one, (tried a t-bark graft). I used trowbridge grafting wax to cover all exposed wood and then wrapped it with parafilm tape. I was originally going to cut the trunks at about 2-3feet off the ground, wait a year, and graft to the watersprouts, but I decided to try this first. if these grafts take should I cut the tree down above the grafts? Any Advice?

" I've heard that bud grafting is best with peaches but I have had zero success." Milehigh, I can't remember if I told you in an email, I had dismal results budding peaches this spring. The wood was to close to breaking bud, so that even though the bud grafts callused in, the buds themselves were dead by the time the grafts callused in. I think I had three peach takes from the budding I did this spring. As an afterthought I decided to scion graft some peaches late this spring. The scion provides a little more energy to the buds, so that they can start growing immediately, rather than die. The take percentage was still low (about 50%) but much better than the budding. I've had good luck budding peaches in the fall, and plan to continue to do that. BTW, the Wisconsin Balmer graft on the roostock is still growing. The three Balmer grafts on top of the Bounty are also growing like gangbusters, so I may actually get some fruit from them next year.

sidpost, did you make up your mind? We got our 30-inch Capital Culinarian manual clean a couple weeks ago and it's awesome. We also live in a condo without a properly vented hood but we got a recirculating hood and pointed the vent "toward" the window -- it's better than nothing, and it's certainly better than the under-the-microwave hood we used to have. To answer some of your questions: "The new model has 3x23k burners and 1x8k burner" - correct, but that 8k burner still boils water really quickly. We haven't tried to simmer on it yet. -"The new model has stainless center grate, while the old model has cast iron center grates" Not sure about this: ours arrived with the old cast iron grates which we were relieved about. -"The new model comes standard with no vertical back trim piece/vent." Not true: ours came with a 4-inch vertical back trim which we installed and it takes up no depth whatsoever. -"They removed the glass cover on the broiler (the distributer told me this makes more space in the oven)" Apparently this is true, but the broiler on the manual clean is gas and has some kind of diffuser plate that makes the cooking very even. -"The igniter seems to be mounted differently -- apparently this is true, too -- it's tucked on the inside rim of the burner rather than outside." Also, you didn't ask but you can get these stoves in any RAL color for an upcharge. We got a dark green.

I will antiquesilver. We are concentrating on the kitchen right now. I am hoping to have it mostly done by end of summer at which point we hope the rest of the house moves along a little quicker.