2017 Grafting Thread

That variety fruits like crazy. Give it another year and you’ll be up to your eyeballs in them. I was cutting mine back last year because the branches were growing so much…along with holding a bunch of fruit.

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If you eat the fruit, take a photo so we can enjoy it with you vicariously.

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here is one of the harrow delight grafts that I put on my leconte. For some reason this tree has been slow to leaf out this year, you can see in the first pic how far along it is. Overall the tree is healthy. Anyway, the graft is only 10 days old and it’s already pushing leaves. Hoping that’s a good sign and not just caused by residual moisture that was already in the scion wood.

I’d say 10 days is a reasonable period- those false starts can show up pretty quickly- even just a day or two

Here are a few pics of my early grafts.

Magness on ohxf87, should have fruit in no time…,

This is a fragrant honeydew pear. On a root sucker on my old franken tree.

Altoona on the franken tree, I have another one on ohxf87 but it is not growing this much yet, does look like it took though.

This is kind of a special one, it is a seedling I planted and grafted for my grandson, I hope to try a fruit off of it in a few years. Should be out of a green d anjou.

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Here is my first success at spreading the joy of multi-grafted apple trees.

I mentioned my hobby to my boss, and her husband was interested in adding some better eating apples to a tree he had recently cut down.

I T-budded several varieties for them last fall. This is the first to start growing.

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The “shoulder” is not needed for a successful graft. It helps closing the wound since the contact between the cambium of the stock and the scion is high up to the very end of the stock. If you push the scion deeper there will be no cambium contact at the very end of the stock and this last part then tends to dry back. But thats not a serious issue. After some years you won’t see a difference. That said, when doing bark grafts the shoulder is more important cause it really helps closing those bigger wounds.

I’m having great success with peach grafts so far. About 70% take! I’m guessing it’ll go up . It’s only been two weeks since grafting.
With Apple not too great success. So far about 20% take. Hopefully I’ll have more takes. I thought it would be the other way around.
Still waiting on my pear trees to wake up. Losing hope for everyday.

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I had perfect peach grafting weather this year and I at least have some movement on all varieties so hopefully they will all work. Several varieties were on weak roots and I am moving them to new stocks, for those wimpy scions they need extra good conditions to get takes on. I did up to 6 grafts of a single variety to improve the overall odds.

Don’t count those peaches successful just yet. They are notorious for burning through the scions stored energy and giving you a false impression that they took only to end up dying a month later.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m pulling for you. Just want you to have realistic expectations.

Speedster you bearer of bad news! Don’t pop my bubble :smiley:
I did start seeing growth only after 5 days so I’m a little suspicious too.
But I too had great weather after grafting just like Scott said. I pretty much did my grafts since he said he was going to too that weekend, we pretty much have the same weather.

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My bench-grafted apples took a month before I started seeing anything. I still think I could have a few more take and it’s aboot a month and a half now. You may still have success with your apples. Don’t feel discouraged yet.

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What VSOP said.

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Yes, apple often seem the slowest to start popping up. Pears the quickest.

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About 2 weeks ago I did a big round of apple grafting but didn’t wrap the scions in anything. I sealed the ends with tree sealant if they were cut, but the other than the graft union, the wood was unsealed.

Is there anything I can do about that now?

I’m worried that if I try to wrap them in parafilm I’ll damage the graft and do more harm than good.

Should I paint them with sealing compound? Should I coat them with Vaseline?!?! (I just thought of that whacky idea. That’s not a real thing is it?!?)

Also, I’m looking and cool (lows in the mid 40s and highs in the mid 50s) and rainy weather for the next four days. Can you graft in the rain or in dry spells between showers? Should I hold off grafting apples and plums until the cool weather had passed?

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If your extremely concerned and there is no real need to be you can take plastic bags and slip them over your grafts and seek the bottom down good. I grafted with no parafilm for years in similar temperatures with few problems. If they are one of a kind grafts do use parafilm in the future. Common scions are not something I would use parafilm or wax dips on myself because worse case scenario you graft them over again. If a close friend sends you two inches of scion wood from. A variety you never heard of that calls for parafilm. If it’s rare varieties from the USDA that calls for parafilm. If you have a tree that does not graft easily (not rootstock but wild etc.) you might use parafilm to increase your chances. That’s just my opinions but not necessarily the opinions of others.

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Thanks Clark!

I actually do have a weird variety that may be rare or uncommon(?), Api Etoille, so maybe I’ll try to bag that one. We’re looking at four straight days of rain and temps in the low 80s. Can the bag cause the wood to get “cooked”? Not even sure that’s a thing

Thanks!

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Yes a bag would be like a magnifying glass so if it’s 85 degrees you would not want one on there. If it was 85 degrees of course you would be tbud grafting and not traditional grafting. Grafters use tinfoil to shield grafts in the heat if it turns off hot suddenly.

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When the graft sprouts and your preparing to remove the plastic bag cut a small hole in the plastic prior to removing the bag. Search the forum and you will see posts from members such as @tonyOmahaz5 Who use the method frequently which is where I learned.