I looked back through some of this thread and obviously have missed something in regards to USDA sending out diseased sour cherry wood.
I received Pandy 48 and Korei Pippacs Meggy from Geneva this spring and grafted it. It appears to be doing fine. Do I have anything to worry about?
I had good success last spring with my early mulberry grafts. 4 takes in 6 when grafting in late April and early May (4 in 5 if you only count dormant scions). Right now, (365 days later) mulberries are just starting to show tiny leaves, so it was probably in roughly the same state last year- at least starting to wake up. I checked Weather Underground and the temps were in the high 50’s and low 60’s.
One of the two failures was a not-entirely-dormant Nigra, which I decided to try moving directly from one tree to another.
I also made a bunch of grafts in late May with much less success (~30%, though I don’t have the final status on all of them). The weather at that time was in the mid-80’s. So, it looks like waiting too long can also be a problem.
Edit: Most of my mulberry grafts were cleft, with a few double cleft thrown in. All, except as mentioned above, were using dormant wood.
Carot,
I had the same problems grafting mulbs last year.
Red rubra and white alba mulbs are readily compatible and interchangeable. Some white alba/ black nigra hybrids are also readily compatible (for example, I just got the alba/nigra hybrid Geraldi to take on a wild volunteer which must be a red rubra or white alba or a combination of both.
I have found clefts work the best for me. Yes-- Grafting earlier rather than later is best… at least in my experience. Last summer, I executed a PERFECT graft while the sap was running. It failed anyway.
This spring, I grafted just as the trees were waking up from dormancy and budding out. It appears I have at least one take for each variety… finally.
I have one scion that appears to be trying to flower. Is this normal? Is it ok to let it do so and just enjoy the flowers?
I think they know. If you look at the pictures of cherry descriptions on their website, many cherries on the pictures have that characteristic wilted leaves all over the trees.
I had Pandy and Korai Pipac Meggy scions last year and they did not survive the disease. I think Korai Pippac (and Meteor Korai) was the worst. Last year they started to leaf out OK and some of them even had flowers, but then I noticed wilted leaves right under the grafts on the main tree. It looked like the water dropped down from the grafts and infected the lower branches. However some of my scions struggled and survived, they were Studencheskaya and Kelleris 16. Montmorency, Sumadinka and Carmine Jewel came from the other sources.
Since you aware of this problem now I would recommend to spray the tree and the scions at least once a week, before they flowered (even if everything looks fine) and during bloom and probably some time after. I used wettable sulfur (Bonide) and it seems to help and did not hurt the flowers. Last year I used liquid Copper (Bonide) and it seemed to work too. I think the main point is to do it consistently during the time when Monilinia Laxa make spores. And remove all wilted leaves and flowers when you notice them.
By the way this bacteria also can cause cankers and I noticed several of them on the large and small branches. And I had no cankers before. I cleaned them, put the dry sulfur and the toilet wax on the wound. So far it seems to work.
That’s fairly common. A few people have even let the new graft fruit. I think even that’s OK as long as the fruit is supported. Usually a graft has plenty of vigor from a big root. So allowing the graft to fruit probably won’t slow it down. I’ve never fruited a graft but need to check my Fairtime. It had two fruit last I checked.
So is it possible to disinfect any grafting wood prior to place it on a tree?
Thank you!
I didn’t know it was ok for trees that young to bear fruit! I’d probably be too nervous under ordinary circumstances that I would be tinting the tree out to actually do it. In this specific case, though, I probably would let it get a fruit or two, because the tag fell off and I’m not entirely sure which variety this one is. ::sad trombone::
Alas, I am in Georgia, so the other apple tree blossoms have been and gone a month + ago, but I’ll feel no guilt at enjoying the unexpected blossoms for the scion.
Thank you again for the timely response.
That’s very disappointing and disheartening that they’d send out diseased wood. I know some other forum members on here said Corvallis did not even send out pear scions for a while because of fear of disease.
I would hope for that same response here. I would understand a company doing this-albeit it would be wrong-to earn a quick buck, but cannot fathom what the reasoning would be here not to address the issue.
I do not know about this disease enough, but the pathogen is surviving inside the buds and it is mostly active during flowering time, so probably the answer is no.
Here is the link to the one of their accessions with the pictures clearly showing the disease.
https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?1507024
I was able to sneak up there this afternoon and reverse my backwards grafts. Thanks all!
I learned a couple things.
It’s much quicker and easier to have the scions already wrapped in parafilm before you head out to graft. I used to think it’d be harder to get a good edge cut if the wood was wrapped, but I had no trouble at all and I saved a ton of time by not having to wrap each piece before grafting.
When making the cut in the root stock/tree to do a bark graft I had trouble pealing the bark back like the guy did it the video Brady posted yesterday. I’d usually end up mangling the bark as I tried to lift it. Today I had a lot more success in making the cut and leaving the knife in the wood and sort of rocking it or wiggling it back and forth as it was a post that was hammered into the ground that you were trying to pull up. After I did the back and forth motion a few times, the bark seemed to loosen a little and it was very easy to get the knife under it and flip it up without mangling it.
I don’t know if that description makes sense so I’ll try it a different way. You know how you grab a metal post near the top and pull it towards you and push it away as you try to loosen it from the ground? That’s the kind of motion I did with the knife to loosen the bark
Hopefully I’ll a great success story in a few weeks.
Yesterday it appeared I might have my first successful nectarine graft-- a John Rivers.
Today, I noticed I might have my first successful peach graft-- Oldmixon Free donated by another generous forum member. The tip of this cleft graft is greening and swelling up:
Noticing a lot of bird crap under my newly-topworked apple tree with a lot of the buds pecked off and bark torn away.
At least the birds fertilized the base of your tree. Aren’t you glad they stopped by?
At what point can I be confident that my graft took (ignoring long term compatibility issues)? All of mine are pushing significant leaves at this point. Did I really get that lucky, or can scions sometimes do that on their own power?
It’s a good sign, but nothing is guaranteed. Yes; the scions can push a last gasp of growth before dying if they don’t form a viable attachment to the host plant. Just leave them alone for at least another few weeks and hope for continued success.
I’ve evolved in my thinking on this. Nowadays, I leave the graft wrapped at least until fall… unless it appears that a rapidly expanding branch is in real jeopardy of getting strangled by the tape, but I have found this risk to be rare. I often wait to remove the tape until fall to reduce the chances of jostling a fragile graft union or of peeling off the bark with the tape when the bark is still slipping in the warm season. This also gives the newly exposed surface a little time to toughen up and harden off for winter in the open air.
I agree Matt I often wait until the following year to remove grafting tape from bench grafts after winter has hardened the graft. I’ve lost some good grafts learning that lesson. The large trees would get girdled if I did not pull them sooner but I put it off as long as I can. I cut the tape loose half per week when in doubt because I’ve found the half I expose hardens up.
