It seems that Maine is way behind most folks on this list; still about 50% snow cover in the woods and the peepers haven’t started yet. But this week is forecast warm and we are aiming to plant out three weeks from now, so I figured it was high time to do my benchgrafting. I made about 30 trees, mostly various cider varieties, and about half of them interstems, using the skillcult-recommended all-at-once method, as discussed here on a previous thread a couple months back. This is my first attempt at interstems; I made B118/B9s and M111/G935s according to the vigor of the scion as best I could estimate from online sources pointed out by the helpful folks here. I used parafilm on the entire stems for the first time; in the past I have just dabbed the tips with tree-kote. I also tried a couple of them as clefts where the diameter mismatch was severe - haven’t used that technique before but seemed straightforward. I am interested to try wedge grafting out in the woods because the rind grafts I’ve been doing often get ripped off by ice or porcupines.
Using the leftover roots from the interstems I grafted a bunch of new varieties I picked up at the MOFGA swap, including two my friends picked for the names: Newt Grindle and Zabergau Reinette. The rootstocks were kind of short as I was trying to get at least 10" of interstem for the dwarfing effect. I suppose I should grow out a couple of the dwarf rootstocks as trees, so as to be able to harvest interstems from them instead of having to buy a bundle of rootstock - assuming that the interstem thing works out. ’
When I was done I had a pile of foot-long B118 and M111 sticks sitting there, and for giggles I dug out some old rooting hormone, dipped the butts, and stuck them in damp sawdust. The whole mess is in the basement under our mudroom where it’s around 50F; I’ll leave them there for a couple of weeks and see how they look, unless folks here suggest treating them otherwise?
Here’s what the kitchen floor looked like when I was done:
