2023 Grafting Thread

@TNHunter
Oh I’m so jealous that you are able to do such great W&Ts. I’m a Cleft girl - ‘hands down’. Sigh.
P.S. - Your apple scions that you sent last year are doing super. Thanks. And they managed to dodge the fireblight outbreak I have had (so far). I was surprised, because they are the Early Mac. So far - so good. :crossed_fingers:t2:

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Hi PomGranny, since you’re on here at the moment, is there a good/preferred method to obtaining a second or third plant from a pomegranate plant?

(I like ‘backups’ to my plants).

Hey, BlueBerry! Do you mean starting a cutting? They are not difficult to start. Just takes patience.
I have had luck taking ‘this year’s growth’ and cutting a piece about 8-12" long. Pinch or trim off the ‘branches’.
Wet the cutting. Dip it in RootTone and plunge it into some loose, light potting soil. I bury at least 2 ‘tiers’ of the pinched branches. Keep it lightly moist.
I use clear plastic cups. A Slurpee cup or Solo cup is great. Cut holes in the bottom. You’ll be able to see the roots form! (I probably don’t have to tell you all this . . .)
It’s like watching an AntFarm! LOL

I’ve had the best results transplanting this little plant at the end of a season, once it roots and leafs out . . . Just put it in a nursery pot and keep it somewhere with filtered light. Take it in in the winter or protect it.
THEN the second year you can put it in the ground. I’ve waited another year, too. And that works even better. :grin:

I have a couple of very successful Granadas, started this way. One has been bearing for 2 years. I also started Nikitski Rannis and Hotuni Zigar . . . Afganski and Salavatski. - - - Same old story for me - Granada does the best.

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Thanks for the advice. I usually just use black pots, but being able to see roots develop might be nice. I’ve done that using tomatoes, and several things.

Ever try a root cutting? Or rooting a dormant pruning of them?

@PomGranny … Early Mc survived FB free here when several other pear and apple trees within 30 ft of it died of FB.

Last year my gold rush had 5 or 6 FB hits and Early Mc had something similar that affected one shoot… i cut it back and all was well.

This year no FB here at all … so far anyway. My trees are past bloom now.

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Dormant. That worked too. Same way. Have never tried the root method.

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One of the grafts that I thought was a failure is now flowering. Thankfully there is no chance of it bearing fruit this late in the game. I thought the complete 180 was pretty cool though.

(Red Giant Crab on Chestnut Crab)
Red Giant Crab

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Hi Regina,
I usually prepare my labels when I prepare each scion just before grafting. When I have the green tape from Home Depot I use it, if I run out of it I cut small tags out of milk jugs and use them. The AOB tag which stands for Oblinaya on an Adara interstem is two years old. This winter I will create more permanent aluminum tags to replace them.
Dennis


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Nice grafts
Good job, really looks good for first attempts! When I need to use a more constrictive tape or add rubber bands to bring the pieces together, I remove the rubber after 2-3 weeks or as soon as the buds break out and grow. The more stretchy tapes like yours should wait until next spring. They help stabilize your graft from winds and bird landings. If a new graft starts fruiting I usually remove the tape and apply a splint for support during the first fruiting season.
Dennis
Kent, wa

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thank you! Im really excited with how these turned out. I cant wait to do more grafts next year.

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BLT grafted to…

My backyard crab … bark graft.
Akane… whip graft
Hudson Golden Gem … modified cleft

@KSprairie … best i remember you sent me those BLT scions and you mentioned that they were a little small. Well… i grafted 3 of them and all are looking promising.

Thanks

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I’ll call this my most surprising successful looking graft of 2023. This graft was from scion wood that I took from a bare root arrival at the end of April. The tree came from back east in Ontario where they were just coming out of winter. Here in southern BC this winter some fruit trees were starting to swell buds in January. So I was rather shocked when 5 fruit trees showed up from Whiffletree that were completely dormant when it was almost May.

I quickly planted the bare root trees then decided it might be worth trying some grafts from these trees. I took a couple of bud sticks off the newly arrived Euro plum variety called Pearl and grafted it straight onto a Euro seedling that hadn’t been particulaly productive. The entire tree has been successfully grafted over to new varieties.

Here is a pic of the pearl plum graft that came off a bare root tree that arrived only weeks ago:

I was rather shocked that this graft actually worked. A very pleasant surprise indeed.

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my peach seeds have started germinating (after 25 days). I had them tagged as spring 2023, summer 2022 and spring 2022 (when I saved the seeds). only spring 2023 seeds have come up so far. I didn’t fully cold stratify the 2023 seeds because I assumed they spent a few weeks to a month+ in cold storage (they were from south america) and that looks to have been correct

How do these Apple cleft grafts look for 32 days old?
They are skinny scions from a excellent unknown variety I found. The rootstock is G890 size ¼"





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Tbg9b, I had a similar experience with Wiffletree this year. I was looking for Dapple Dandy pluot scions to graft on to my plum tree but couldn’t find any local source in the Vancouver area; so, I bought a bare root tree from Wiffletree. But it didn’t arrive until April 26, still dormant, as expected. I planted it the same day and grafted 3 scions on to Beauty and Shiro branches of the plum tree on the next day. Two of the three scions have now sprouted leaves and appear to be growing properly.

It appears that late grafting works as well as early, at least when the scions are still dormant. However, I’ve read somewhere on this site that you can even successfully graft when both scion and stock have already leafed out.

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I also ordered a daple dandy from them as well. I grafted it onto a hybrid plum tree. It seemed to take at first, but it seems to be fading off the last few days. The dapple dandy wasn’t quite as dormant as the Euro plum as they break buds much later than plumcot/pluots. This was my second order from Whiffletree in the last year. I have been very impressed with the quality of their trees. Several of my plums from my fall and spring orders already have fruit on them. Every one of their trees had great root systems and they all had tons of blossoms this spring. Considering the distance from Ontario to the West Coast their trees all arrive in top notch condition. AAA marks for Whifletree, I wish all others were on par with them.

I did more grafting today, as I still have some viable scions in the fridge.

They were small diameter. Good job on the grafting! I am so glad they are working for you.

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I made 15 pear grafts this year and had 15 takes. Ayers has 2 feet of new growth. The others range from a few inches to a foot of growth.

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Question for you expert grafters. Is it possible to remove a failed chip bud graft (about 2 months old) and graft over it?

@Marco
I would just place a new chip bud a few inches below the failed one .

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