hm, well maybe they all failed. i dont plan on taking the tape off them till the sun breaks it down. we’ll find out then i suppose
Apples are very forgiving, so I’d say just be patient. If the apples fail, then I’d suggest working on your technique. FWIW, I’m no craftsman with a knife but I get almost 100% takes with bench grafts on bare root trees using whip and tongue; similarly 80% or better with field grafts on growing trees using bark grafts. So don’t give up, just try harder.
Mulberries (in my limited experience) can be more finicky, impacted by heavy sap flows and by cool ambient temperatures. My best experience with mulberries was bench grafts on bare root trees using whip and tongue and a hot callus pipe.
I agree that you shouldn’t remove the tape.
This year, it was much colder (on average) than in past years after I grafted and my grafts took much longer to wake up.
I am used to seeing apple and pear grafts growing quickly, but some this year took over a month to do anything. I wouldn’t give up on them till much later.
I’ll add my cents for some of these:
Both of these are dependent on your local conditions/disease pressure and issues. Also, if you’re grafting to trees that are already established or grafting, then planting the trees out.
I have to spray certain non-bearing trees (including newly grafted) or they would be destroyed by fungus or pests. My disease pressure is pretty high and it is humid here.
I also fertilize in spring for established plants (newly grafted or not). I wait a few weeks after planting to fertilize a new tree or plant. However, my soil is such that I really need to fertilize. People are nervous to fertilize apple and pear because of fireblight (I have no idea if that is a problem where you are). However, for my conditions most of my trees need some help.
I have grafted outside at some very non-optimal times.
I have heard persimmons are a bit fussy. So I’d look at the threads specific to grafting persimmon for info about them.
For apple and pear, I grafted in early June (2-2.5 months after it should have been optimal) with dormant scionwood to established trees outside. I was careful to wait for days that were not too hot (which prevents callusing - and there are a bunch of posts with callus temps). They were fine. The biggest problem was that they missed the big flush of growth. They didn’t grow much in the first year. I didn’t notice less success, just really slow growth.
I also tried some late peach grafts with dormant scionwood last year. I think they were doing well. In fact, I think I had a higher success rate than grafting at a “good” time this year. Unfortunately, a guy with a tractor ran over a couple of my trees. This year, I’m not yet sure of the outcome on some. So I don’t really know which was better.
After some period, it is better to switch to non-dormant wood. I can tell you that I kept using dormant wood and even chip budded a pear with some really old stuff in my fridge in Fall (But pears are really easy). I tried the same with pawpaw and failed. Never tried it with anything else.
Here are some threads on that: Technically there is no end to grafting season. I have done t-buds and chip buds in late summer and Fall to peach and pear with lots of success.
Clark tried some fun crazy stuff grafting in the middle of summer and really protecting the grafts from heat and it worked: Late season grafting experiments only. Using green wood cuttings, Plastilina, tbuds, chips, and other methods. Pears are super easy though.
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Thank you for your answers, @TNHunter and @benthegirl
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Is this mulberry?
We’ll see them sprout out around the yard with deep yellow roots…
Around the East Coast Philadelphia area, would this be Alba or Rubra?
sure is. they have that really spotted bark too.
what about if you graft on to a side branch? How much branches/leaves do you take away down the graft?
I’m trying to force growth - nothing has happened in 6 weeks lol
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Below the graft (i.e., between the graft and the trunk), I take away everything. I want the branch to be devoted to the grafted variety.
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When I’ve grafted outside to a watershoot or small branch, I remove all the leaves below the graft on the branch. I try to remove other branches that might be competing. I also try to pick a vigorous upwards facing branch as close to the top as reasonable.
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Yes, wild mulberry. They pop up in my yard all the time from neighborhood trees. Most seedlings are vigorous.
Since red and white hybridize there is no saying what % your mulberry is. But it looks like a white or hybrid type. It has some deep veins but it isn’t 100% ruffled looking like a red is. Non-hybridized red is rare in these places that have been cleared for farmland and urban development.
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I find plums and its hybrids to be so precocious. About a dozen grafts of different varieties I put on my 3 years old Santa Rosa tree last Spring are all fruiting, though I don’t know if it will hold its fruits until ripe…I’m bagging a few just in case. I also finally understand why long time forum members gripe about having to thin the fruitlets. This is a branch of the Candy Heart pluerry I grafted on last year.
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My Spice Zee Nectaplum on Nanking Cherry (one of the dormant ones that are like $6 from Tractor Supply).
Grafted it last Spring, and moved it to it’s forever home this Spring. Looks like it might be incompatible? I have another on Krymsk 1 that’s growing at a more similar rate between the Scion and rootstock.
It’s set one fruit the year. There were maybe a dozen or two flowers. Then the late frost happened and may have taken them out. Or it dropped them on its own. Doesn’t really matter.
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The 2 peaches that I grafted onto Wild Plum rootstocks last year looked like that most of the year. This year the scion and the Rostock are evening out. @evilpaul
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Pawpaws pushing fast. Its only been 2 weeks or so.
Shenandoah pushing here.
Also Maria’s joy awake as well.
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I grafted few Apple tree varieties that are growing on my wife’s fam homestead since it will be on the market this year.
One of the three was a Stayman that mutated into a special. Just as it was trying to leaf, I accidently stepped on the rootstock and scion. The union was no longer. I attempted a repair the second week of April, but nothing happened and the leaf bud looked diminished after a couple weeks. Disgusted, I ripped off the scion. found a bag of scions I gathered around Dec. It was about the 1st of May. I thought it was getting a bit late, but there were some cool nights in the forecast. The scions clearly were not fresh, but I had nothing to lose at the point.
Feeling victorious today.
The tree from which this was gathered is struggling due to herbicide damage. So relieved
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I grafted Santa Rosa, Dapple Dandy and Flavor Supreme on my red Nanking cherry last year and those branches are holding some fruitlets this year. Not sure if they’ll hold until ripe though, we’ll see. This pic is a Santa Rosa graft and its fruit. The bulge in the branch is the where it was grafted.
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Mahaleb Rootstock that failed last years graft. Now grafting the next year using the newly formed scaffolds. Black Gold, coral champagne, and Maika. I’m going to pot this thing up and either sell it or plant on another property. Should I wait until petal fall to pot it?
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zephyr peach and Honey drip nectarine taking pretty well on sand cherry besseyi. toka plum looked like it was taking then dried out, and didn’t.
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My grafting is going OK. The plum I field grafted in early spring was doing great then a storm came through a couple weeks ago with strong winds that broke the graft off. Bummer, but I’ll try again and I guess try to reinforce it next time.
I did two white sapote bench grafts. One appeared to be taking but after a bit of initial growth seemed to stall. Then I accidentally knocked the growth it had off while trying to move an umbrella, oops! Waiting to see if it tries to grow again. The other one never did anything and rotted when I checked on it yesterday. I suspect that scion was just not very healthy in the first place.
I have one carambola that I bench grafted that is doing amazing and growing quickly and another that I field grafted that is doing great as well.
Other than that I have one field grafted persimmon that I’m waiting to see any signs from and a bench grafted mango that may be starting to push. Should see if the mango is going to do anything by next week.
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