For a rather unusual use:-
(OK, I cannot deny your curiosity. I want to graft selected
seedling alders onto "Adult" trees. There is no problem
about the woodwork, but they just don't "take". Some people
graft alder cultivars onto potted trees which they lay
across a hot pipe (How hot? I don't know yet), and then the
graft "takes". But you can't do that with rooted trees in
the outdoors. So I used 24 volt AC from a transformer,
feeding 2 KOhm 2 watt resistors (about the same diameter as
the alder twigs) taped to the twig, wrapped round with 10
cms of bubblewrap (which can't get waterlogged, about 3
turns) which gives a temperature about 10°C above ambient.
That seems just cosy. But it didn't work! The grafts died!
Why not? 2 possibilities have been suggested to me:-
1) The heat is too localised.
2) Voltage gradients are set up on the twigs which kill them.
I am doubtful about both, but I must try them. One of the problems is
weight; these twigs are 2-3mm in diameter at the end of long branches
and there is limit to what they will bear.
One possibility is to tape the resistor to one side of a sachet of
some liquid, any liquid, so long as it's not too expensive, and tape
the other side to the graft. Possible!
But rather better it seems to me, is to use that kind of soft sheet
metal that toothpaste tubes used to be made of. I would simply wrap
one turn round the resistor and the second turn the other way round
round the twig, making a kind of figure of eight (8). That would both
supply uniform heat to the graft and shield it from electrical fields.
But where do you get such soft sheet metal? Does any kind of
toothpaste still come in it? Where can I get it? What is it CALLED?
You can't ask for something which you don't know the name of!
Shooting in the dark!
Michael Bell