I know some of us, myself included have already started with their grafting this year. Actually, my first graft was on my Kieffer pear back in January, but I’ve since done a number of apple grafts, pictures will follow.
Anyway, figured I’d start a thread to keep track of what people are grafting. Mods, if there is another thread that already covers the topics feel free to delete.
Thanks.
I have a peach that my dog turned one of the scaffolds into a chewtoy. Im going to graft a piece of itself back on. Ive never grafted so I figure it will be good practice for me.
These are my grafts from last year. First attempt at grafting. Out of the 10 or so I did these were the only 3 that made it. All of these are whip and tongue.
2 Red Fuji and a Roxbury Russet on my Dorsett…I expect I’ll start seeing some leaves in the next week or two…
The a few grafts I’ve already started this year.
This is a pear graft I did as an experiment from my Leconte to my Flordahome back in January. looks to be doing ok.
Pink lady graft to my Dorsett
Graft from my Big River apple that failed. I cut off some scions when I took it out to see whether I could save it…
This last one is a mystery within a mystery. The scion is from one of the ancient apple trees on our homestead in W.VA. I collected it when we went up there over the summer. Of all the wood I got this was the only one that didn’t completely dry out on the way back. Still not sure if it will make it. Anyway, the tree I grafted to is an unknown variety that I bought from a local nursery. Unlike all my other trees it kept almost all of it’s leaves this winter.
This seems like as good a place as any to seek out the wisdom of the community.
I have to do several peach nectarine and apricot graft to finish up my grafting this year. I have been waiting for good temps but weve had unusually cool weather spell 50’s and 60’s. It looks like we will have 4 days in the mid 70’s followed by rain and mid to high 60’s.
Is this a long enough window to set up my graft for success?
Hi @Goyo, I’m not a expert in peach/nectarine or apricot grafts…In fact I’m still a rookie when it comes to the subject, but I do know they’re not the easiest to graft. As far as the timing goes, I think those temps would be fine for you to start. perhaps some people with better knowledge will chime in… what hardiness zone are you in?
This is my first year grafting too. We have literally ran out of space for me to plant more trees, so grafting will be the next step for my gardening journey!
Here are some of the grafts that I did last month.
Hood pear grafted onto Flordahome pear.
White Pakistan mulberry grafted onto the regular Pakistan mulberry.
Pink Pearl apple and Pettingill apple grafted onto an NOID apple (lost label and was given to me as a gift)
I am still learning so much on how to match the grafts properly and make sure everything is bound up tight. But overall, grafts seem to be pretty forgiving. It is the wait that is tough I think.
Very nice tree tags! How did you make them?
I can’t really take credit for the tags. They were purchased on Amazon.
so I’m buried under a foot of snow, but starting to think about this grafting season…I have a question. Last year was my first time grafting. I had pretty good success rate considering that. I even had about 90% success rate for peaches which everybody says is harder. One thing that I had 0% success with was nectarines. I can’t figure out why I didn’t do better with them. I did the exact same thing as for peaches. Grafted same day, same temps, mostly cleft etc.
Any guesses as to what went wrong?
If everything else is the same, the technique, the temp, etc, my guess re. what made a difference would be the quality of your nectarine scionwood.
That might explain it. Some of my wood molded and some flowered in the refrigerator.
Since peaches and nectarines are tough to graft (IMO), as soon as I receive scionwood in the mail, I wrap the whole scion with stretched parafilm before storing it in ziplock bag in a fridge. So far, the method gives me no issue at all.
A couple days ago, I did my first ever grafts from material that I got at the apple workshop last weekend. I had three varieties to pick from and ended up with Goldrush and Suncrisp (of which we have already, and have really liked samples from a local orchard, so we wanted more!), and Snapp Stayman, which is a red sport of Stayman discovered in Virginia. All of them are on M7 rootstock. I did whip and tongue and think I did OK on them, it took me a while and a lot of whittling!
I wrapped the grafts tight with black electrical tape, put a wet paper towel around the roots and put them in a clear plastic bag, totally enclosed by the bag. I was told to let them sit indoors at room temp (50-70 degrees) for maybe a couple of weeks to help the joint meld (callus) up better. Then they should be OK to set outside in a garden, or maybe even their final location. Does this sound like the right way to go? If they sprout while indoors, should I immediately plant them outside? Any other suggestions? Thanks.
I think that once the leaves sprout they should then be put into the light. Whether that means in the ground or in pots.
These are recent pear grafts(whip and tongue), all 3 were done early to mid February… I’ve got Ayers, Orient and Moonglow grafted to this Leconte. They’re all pushing new growth which is encouraging…
That is one cool machine
When the scion is thicker than the rootstock, is it going to be an ok graft long term? Can the branch take the weight of larger scion?
Itching to do some grafting. Last year around this time I did most of my peach grafting. But this year peach tree is still dormant, exception is a small branch of flavor supreme getting ready to flower.
Hopefully the warm weather next few days will get things going.
