Looks really good!!
Well one of my 7 Cherry Plum grafts is breaking buds through the grafting tape. So I guess it is possible. Nothing yet on my other 6.
@snowflake Want to have some fun?
Get a jar with a wide mouth. Like a peanut butter jar.
Fill it with about 3" water and a couple drops of DAWN. The blue stuff.
(any dish detergent will work, tho)
Then sneak up on the stinkin’ beetles - (early evening they are drowsy and easy to get).
Bop them from the top - with your jar under the leaves they are on . . .
My husband and I go ‘beetle bopping’ every night. We get 100s of the things.
I admit - we are a little nuts - but we think it’s fun.
And now we have 6 chickens following us around - that dart after the beetles that fall to the ground. They love the game, too!
I have damage on persimmon and pawpaw but not bad yet… We’ll see.
This late February graft of @Marta’s “Long South Gate” is doing very well on a Zutano seedling from Fruitwood Nursery:
It’s a strong contender for the fourth and final in-ground multi-graft tree in the greenhouse, especially if the recently added veneer graft of “Duke” that’s further down the rootstock takes.
One of the earliest grafts I did this year was this “Teague” graft in early January in the greenhouse. It took forever to start pushing, not until a couple weeks ago when I grafted “Jade” on the new shoot the rootstock had sent up:
it’s also got a few flower buds that look ready to open:
Funny you should mention that Instead of japanese beetles, we have something called clay colored leaf beetles (sometimes called persimmon beetles). They don’t do the same level of damage but on small (especially grafted trees), they can eat quite a bit of leaf surface here. I add about a half inch of water to a plastic ice cream bucket and walk around with it. Put it under the leaves and barely touch the leaves, and they fall straight down into the water. It’s easiest early morning before they get moving too fast, but I usually go out midday too because more will swarm in. The guineas haven’t quite figured out the game yet. They are busy chasing grasshoppers.
If it’s any like our place you guineas will get fat on the hoppers!!!
They are very spoiled! They want a little corn each morning. They haven’t attacked me, but they go nuts! It’s really funny. I almost got one to drink out of a hose yesterday, but it decided it wasn’t quite that tame So far they spend more time in the pasture than the orchard. I try to give them homework, and they just don’t listen.
Can anyone share advice on taking care of a top worked graft? I am converting this worthless spring snow crabapple to local disease resistant varieties. Had a storm few weeks ago break off a couple of the grafts even though they had taken and grown quite a bit.
I am familiar with training whips but what do I do with all the grafted branches? Pick a few to train? Trim them now or brace them up and trim next spring when they’re bigger?
This graft is supposedly Nikita’s gift. I took the bandage off to take a peek and the whip and tongue healed except the top part. It’s a good foot or more tall and growing good. Have you guys encountered this and do you think it will heal over eventually?
@BluegrassEats keep it staked and after several years, you’ll probably have a strong union. It’s just gonna take more time than usual. Maybe even 3-years. You gotta stake it or it’ll break.
She’s staked thanks Dax. What do you think on the leaf type? To me it looks like American.
Hybrids do for the main/most part. I cannot tell the difference most of the time.
Thanks.
My keeper apple grafts… I gave 2 away and kept these 2
Early McIntosh on M7 and Novamac on M7.
3 ft tall now… and looking very happy.
I took the rubber electrical tape off about a month ago and replaced it with a double wrap of parafilm. The graft unions looked really good.
Now the graft union area has grown enough to split that double wrap of parafilm.
Should I worry about that at this point ? wrap the graft union again with 2 or 3 layers of parafilm ?
Or just let them be…
Also… they are growing nicely and looking healthy… in that 2 gal pot. It has a nice mix of garden dirt and compost in it.
Ok to just leave them in the 2 gal pots… and then plant them out later this fall… when it cools off some ? Late Sept or Oct ?
Thanks
I would leave it off but tie it to stakes. Wind sometimes does discouraging things.
@snowflake … yes glad you mentioned that. Got them both steaked and tied… that looks better… and did my fig cutting shoot as well… it is 2.5 ft tall and has 10 figs on it already.
My two persimmon seedlings I steaked last week they were leaning out some but very upright now and separated some so both get good sun.
Thanks
I guess I could have asked what type of graft as not all grafts are created equal, but if you are getting a good increase in diameter, I would sure assume you will be perfectly fine with them staked well. I removed everything from some similar sized field grafted and staked apples about three weeks ago… and then try to remember to tie the new growth occasionally.