[nafex] storing scions the rabbit way

The fluffy one stores scions:

Gang, I thought I would share my new scion storing system.

I have been very dissatisfied with attempts to use a refrigerator to store scion wood. In fact last year I acquired a small dedicated refrigerator for storing scionwood alone. Unfortunately I found out the temperature seemed to fluctuate significantly and tended to average 44-52 degrees. The only way to stabilize the temperature was to add bottles of frozen water.

This year I tried a different approach and I am extremely happy with the results. I purchased a standard picnic cooler for my endeavor. Next I set aside 16 20 oz soda bottles and filled them 4/5 of the way with water and frozen them. Once frozen I put five in the bottom of the cooler along with a damp towel and then added my wrapped and sealed scion wood, and then placed 6 bottles on top (the cooler is tapered slightly. I placed some cardboard beneath the cooler and draped two old rag rugs across the top. I then place 5 bottles of water in the freezer. I was amazed by the results. The cooler held the wood at very close to freezing, 29-35 degrees very consistently. My intention was to rotate 5 of the bottles each day, but found unless it was 65-70 plus and I was going in and out the cooler all day, it was unnecessary, and merely rotated 5 bottles every 3 days or so (I did not experiment with going longer, I simply rotated the bottle when then were about 1/5 to 1/4
liquid). Even while grafting, with the cooler outside, I found all I had to do was rotate 5 of the bottles a day, and sure enough the temperature stayed in the low range. Every 3 days (while grafting) I rotated the bottle bottles, which were almost always 4/5 frozen (as the cold sinks downward. Interestingly it got cold enough that some of the toweling froze stiff.

I found this system beyond satisfactory. It is cooler, more humid, with a far more stable temperature than a refrigerator, plus there was no issues with worrying about what else was in the cooler that might abort the scion wood. In all the years I have kept scion wood, it never looked in better shape.

I intend to improve the system for next year by creating a wrap around cardboard insulator, to increase the R value of the cooler. The rugs work well, but I just wanted something a bit tidier.

tfb

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