Homemade grafting waxes? Yes. We shall tell you how to make them

Grafting waxes are necessary and every gardener who has fruit trees (or any trees for that matter) must have them. However, the availability of high-quality grafting waxes is quite limited, or they are sold for rather unfriendly purchase prices. Below we give you instructions how to prepare an excellent grafting wax from the comfort of your home. Don’t worry, all recipes have already been tested by many gardeners. However, since the original raw materials may have changed a little (for example, linseed oil is now synthetic), the recipes had been “modernized”.

Family Recipes

Families and gardeners who have been growing fruit trees for ages used their own recipes. However, these recipes were complicated yet fine-tuned and worked flawlessly. Recipes like that were kept secret – passed down from father to son. Each family had their own special recipe, but the basic ingredients were the same Raw materials could be of different origin (for example, resin), and other components may differ too… So, the trend now is to modify these family recipes to achieve consistent results.

Photo: Pixabay

Recipe No.1

Here comes the first recipe. You will need:

• 700 g of rosin (Colophony),
• 100 g tallow (sheep’s tallow for example),
• 100 g of beeswax,
• 100 g denatured alcohol.

First, crush the main ingredient – rosin. Mix it with the tallow and beeswax and melt it over low heat while stirring constantly. Do not use open flame, it is dangerous. When done, set it aside and slowly stir in the last ingredient – alcohol. After cooling, you can rub it on tree grafts, cuts or to protect and cover various trees injuries.

Recipe No.2

The second recipe:

• 500 g of spruce resin,
• 250 g of beeswax,
• 150 g of rosin,
• 50 g of mutton tallow or linseed oil,
• 50 g pure alcohol.

Melt all the ingredients again, except for the alcohol, which you will stir into to the cooling mixture. Use it in the same way.

Preview photo: Pixabay