Wonder what apples they are switching over here, and to what. From Red Delicious to Cosmic Crisp perhaps? I gather that’s a common switch in eastern WA at the moment.
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I have seen this to be true almost without exception.
Agree about the intact terminal bud. Also had a few branched scions that I would not have thought would be particularly good specimens, but they are also waking up early.
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Now THAT is an omega tool.
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LATE NOTICE at University of Wisconsin Oshkosh:
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I grafted some Callery at the office today. Clark’s Small Yellow and Harrow Sweet as a chip bud, zenport v cut, and my first barn door graft attempt. It was easy, not sure how pretty but pretty doesn’t matter if it works.
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You guys are all so ahead of me. My rootstocks are only arriving in the mail.
Some Betulifolia and Lovell from Burnt Ridge came today. Plenty of roots on Lovell, but the Betulifolia looked a bit hacked up. It’ll likely only slow them down a tiny bit.
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To revisit the topic of scions pushing buds in refrigeration: I noticed that some of the pear scions I collected in late dormancy (early March, I think) were coming awake. I put a thermometer in the crisper drawer, where I’m storing them, and found it was 8-9 degrees warmer than the main refrigerator; I try to keep the fridge around 33-35F, but found that the crisper drawer was running around 42! I did some Internet searching and it turns out that crisper drawers can run warmer than the rest of the fridge! Did not know that. I immediately moved all scions to the main refrigerator. Plums and 'simmons looked okay, but apparently pears are very sensitive—and maybe more so if they’ve met or nearly met their chilling requirements.
Anyway, those of you who store cuttings in the crisper might want to check your temps in there.
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Trev,
Let me know how your grafts turn out. I plan to graft some mulberry next spring if I can get some Morus Alba starts to root this year. I have never grafted mulberry, but this spring I grafted several figs using whip & tongue back on 2/10/22 well ahead of sap rising, then I placed the potted fig in my greenhouse and covered it with a dark blanket to get as much callousing as I could before sap began to rise. This week I noticed that the majority of the grafts have taken with buds emerging thru parafilm. I am picking off all the lower buds that try to grow below my grafts of Black Jack. I also did some seedless grape grafts back on 2/17/22 again well before sap rising. Most are now growing.
Dennis
Kent, wa
First attempt at grafting today. 10 pears on OHFx97. Trying to reproduce my grandfather’s 50+ year old tree for myself and family.
Good grief those tongues were incredibly difficult!
I have 50 M7 rootstocks and 10 varieties of apples to graft now.
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I haven’t made the foray to whip and tongue. @alan is a fan of beginning with a splice (w&t without the tongue from what I can tell) but I personally have just done cleft grafts for most of the scenarios where my zenport wasn’t able to benchgraft. That was mostly too small of scions. That said it’s good to try a bunch of methods and see what you are most comfortable with. I really liked the “mega chip” /“barn door” on the pear I did above, it was super easy and seemed like it will work. The bark has to be slipping for high success on that one I think.
I like putting a couple very tiny scions in a cleft. At least one usually takes, mostly both…and in a year or so I snip one. This is for tiny scion. I don’t like cleft for equal-sized root and scion. Results not quite as good. (But it is indeed easier.)
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I have 30 bench grafted apples in cococoir callusing in the unheated garage since 3/29. It’s going to get cold for a week - overnight lows outside possibly down to 20. My garage will probably keep them 30 or above. Anything to worry about?
What about outdoor grafts on the trees? Will they survive?
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Cococoir isn’t a planting medium I’d have chosen, but I don’t think you have anything to be concerned about unless you have rootstocks that aren’t hardy once they break dormancy (M111 comes to mind).
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The coir is just temporary while they callus. Keep them moist without any fertilizer.
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I agree with this. And not just specific to the climate, but also growing technique. For example, excess sap flow bleeding into grafts causing them to fail is a much bigger problem with my potted figs than my in-ground figs.
I have had one (of dozens) of mulberry grafts fail due to excess sap flow and insufficient “relief” cuts. The rest with excess sap flow still took, they just leak sap for months.
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I am now a compulsive grafter, having done close to 1,000 grafts over the last several years, on every possible tree in my little yard, creating multiple “Franken-Trees”, and I completely agree with @thecityman – just try it. Don’t be intimidated. It seems impossible that such a barbaric technique would work, but grafting is generally super easy and forgiving. And completely rewarding! Don’t worry about optimal grafting temps, etc. If you have healthy scions and rootstock this is growing or just about to put out new growth, you’re good to go!
I’d advocate starting with a simple cleft graft. I think it is the easiest of all and is remarkably effective across a wide range of species and situations.
Watching new buds push and then take off is so gratifying. And eating fruit off your grafted trees is, too. For example, I had my first home grown Sumo mandarin yesterday and it was fantastic!
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I did some practice over the winter, but I’m yet to get the hang of it. (My brother saw me at said practice, and told me to cut it out lest I cut something off! lol.) I went with mostly clefts on my first ones. Also did an @Alan -style splice (“Seuri” on OHXF 97) that looks to be a take and is doing really well. If I’d tried w-and-t I probably would’ve just whittled away all of my scionwood—maybe a finger or two!
At present, I’ve got 5/9 fairly definite takes on pears, 1/3 on apple; some are still maybes, a couple are almost certainly cooked.
That’s why I never do them. Clef grafts work fine. They don’t look nice at first but after a few years it’s hard to find where the graft was made.
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I just go a bunch of rootstocks in for myself and teaching some folks to graft. They are really thick and nicely rooted (from Copenhaven), but probably too thick from most people to do a good whip and tongue, so I’ll stick to mostly clefts when showing folkst to graft.
I was wondering about the value of grafting higher vs. lower on a root stock. Some of these are around 18" and while I have previously cut that down to a foot or less I’m wondering if I should just leave these mostly long since they are so thick and probably have a good bit of energy in them to drive the grafts. What are the downside of grafting higher?
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@DennisD … I will post details good or bad on my mulberry graft attempt.
We spent a few days in Cookeille TN … a long weekend with our Daughter and SIL and when we got back home yesterday eve… I checked the mulberry… no significant change yet. Perhaps some bud swell.
No visible signs of sap flow issues.
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