Here is a stick of bud 9 on a seedling apple I will let it grow this year then add desired varieties on top
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Congrats! You need to remove the non-scion growth there though or it will out-compete the scion and the scion will wilt and die.
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I’ve been noticing a lot of trees where I did single grafts with both white and black electric tape to hold the splice grafts together. There is absolutely no difference in take percentage or growth between the two colors.
Last year was wet and cool, so one would think black would help them heal sooner and grow more. The fact that it didn’t happen makes me question if the temperature of the healing grafts matter as long as things don’t get hot enough to cook them.
Overall, all grafts gave me relatively sluggish growth in that cool grey season. This all suggests that the main issue is how vigorously the trees are growing after grafts are made. As I’ve mentioned earlier, peach grafts didn’t take with a good percentage. However, ultimately the trees tended to grow well- the rain caused that. Hmmm…
It’s all so mysterious.
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I doubt it was a poor job. And I’m not sure that budding would have worked any better, though it might have. I suspect that the grafts haven’t taken yet because they’re being held back by hormones from the higher part of the tree.
If that’s true than something that could help would be to cut a notch in the bark just above the point where the branch you are grafting to attaches to the trunk. Cut completely through the bark and remove a strip about 1/8" wide. Make sure the cut overlaps the branch diameter on each side- the cut you make should be about three times the diameter of the branch. So a 1/2" diameter branch needs a 1 1/2" cut.
Budding is often done in the summer, and in that case you wait until the next season to force the bud. But if you bud (or chip) early enough in the summer you can try to force the bud the same year. (Unless I’m confused- I’ve not done much spring budding at all, so that could be. I do like chipping in the spring though, and sometimes do it as a backup to a cleft or whip or such.)
It is. It’s a heritage chickasaw variety from this area. It is referenced in this thread:
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More of my peaches have takes! Doing really well on peach grafts this year! Thank you, Brady!
More of my bought wood shipment has grafts going downhill 
I did get a couple of pears to take of those. One pear was very budded-out when I got it, so I’m a little surprised.
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Thanks, that makes sense… There’s always more to learn about both the art, and the science, of grafting… It’s fun to learn and experiment though… Thanks again.
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I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings, but I bought some scionwood from one member here at $4 a stick (undersized sticks), and some from another at $3 a stick(large beautiful sticks)….
and at this point the ones I’ve traded for or just paid postage for, I’m having the greatest success with this year. (Over 100 grafts made.) (5 different rootstocks).
.
Maybe some of the others will come around…most of em are about 4 weeks now…I am thinking time between scion wood collection and actual grafting was greater with the purchased scions.
Anyhow, no matter if I end up with 65 or 95 new trees, I’ll have my hands full taking care of them! And it’s so good to see Spring and things growing!
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This article has some good terminology for those learning to graft or for the pro who talks grafting with others Plant grafting: insights into tissue regeneration
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I found the note about quince interesting:
" One instance of graft failure where mechanistic insight exists is between some incompatible pear and quince grafts. The quince rootstock produces a compound, prunasin, that moves into the pear scion where enzymes break it down to release cyanide. The cyanide causes tissue necrosis and the graft fails (Gur, Samish, & Lifshitz, 1968)."
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Here are all of my bench grafts, they are all Limbertwigs.
I still have 7 limbertwigs to graft but I have to do that in the orchard to some rootstocks I have in the ground from last year. I’m hoping that it is not to late to do that?
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You should be fine. The only issue is leaving enough time for new growth to harden off before fall and up to 2-4 weeks after blossom is common for bark grafts.
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Up date on my multi grafted Apple from last year.
Sadly most of the tree has die back.
I cut the top off May 7th last year, which was late and not kind at all to the tree.
It had leaves on it and I cut all off and put 40 some grafts on there, all but 5 grew well. Several ft of growth on many
As stated in the original post I just did this to store varietys,
The tree was to be removed, so not worried about that.
But since it was mostly done on a step ladder ,it did take some effort.
All the varietys have been saved, chip budded on to other rootstock, so my goal has been met.
I was just surprised to see it die back.
There is one branch yet still alive with many leaves.
It will likely get the chainsaw this year.
I think the reasons for this are:
Removing all the leaves after it had leave on it
Not leaving nurse branches.
Doing this late in the season.
A hard winter with little reserves.
And maybe it knew I just was planing to kill it anyway,and it just did not like being "
used"
So for the same effort I could have had 40+ new grafted seedlings.
I just did not have them at the time to work with.
I do now.
So just wanted to share what “did not work.”
Sort of ?
This was last spring, you can see what I removed in the pile.
And here it is now.![image|690x515]
Sadly most of the tree has die back.
I cut the top off May 7th last year, which was late and not kind at all to the tree.
It had leaves on it and I cut all off and put 40 some grafts on there, all but 5 grew well. Several ft of growth on many
As stated in the original post I just did this to store varietys,
The tree was to be removed, so not worried about that.
But since it was mostly done on a step ladder ,it did take some effort.
All the varietys have been saved, chip budded on to other rootstock, so my goal has been met.
I was just surprised to see it die back.
There is one branch yet still alive with many leaves.
It will likely get the chainsaw this year.
I think the reasons for this are:
Removing all the leaves after it had leave on it
Not leaving nurse branches.
Doing this late in the season.
A hard winter with little reserves.
And maybe it knew I just was planing to kill it anyway,and it just did not like being "
used"
So for the same effort I could have had 40+ new grafted seedlings.
I just did not have them at the time to work with.
I do now.
So just wanted to share what “did not work.”
Sort of ?
This was last spring, you can see what I removed in the pile.
And here it is now.![image|690x515]
Sorry my pics are confused ! Top pic from this year
And same in post below
(upload://ii0E6ICjNVpVjHqWL7nK4ULd5jy.jpeg)
It may be hard to see but the only part that looks ok is that main trunk. Also bark peeling , from sun burn,
Should have white washed ,or left some branches uncut ?
The good news is , I have a good spot close to the house to plant something else. ,!
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Yes, you’ll be fine, just need your scion to be dormant at the time of grafting, rootstock can be in leaf.
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Here are my apple grafts, 3 from last year, and 3 this year. All of them took. I know, not many, but hey, I’m perfect so far!
These first 3 were done two months ago.
Mollie’s Delicious
Enterprise
Honeycrisp
These 3 were done last year, in March. They have really taken off since waking up.
Snapp Stayman
Goldrush
Suncrisp
Need to get these 3 planted soon.
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Nice looking new trees! I’ve got 71 new ones, so far, out of about 110 grafts made. I think I can re-use any rootstock, next year, if not this year, on the ones that fail. Only about 8 to 10 actually have dead scionwood, so a few more may yet push green and take.
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Thanks, now just have to find a place for them. I guess they’ll be ok to plant in the ground since they’re leafing out? I’m talking about the year old trees, but would the newly grafted ones be ok to plant also?
What will you do with those 71 trees?? Sell them? What were the rootstocks you used?
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