The good looking photos are from about a week ago. The sad looking ones are what they’ve deteriorated to up to today. After battling a litany of problems this season, my newly grafted apples are in pretty rough shape. The initial pot soil held too much water so I repotted with better soil. I’ve seen powdery mildew on a couple. I’ve pulled a few out to check the roots and they’re not pretty. The leaves are wilting to paper-thin limpness. I’m assuming it’s a combination of having the roots too wet for a while and transplant shock. Does anyone see any glaring symptoms that point to something I’m not aware off? Some of the bud bases are still green, should I perhaps T bud them onto an established tree to try to save the varieties or do they look too far gone?
Poor things
I feel worse than they look. I’m gutted!
Awwww damn 
I lose a percentage every year just like that. when it gets hot, the heard thins a bit. Good scion with nice big vegitative bud, Good grafts with maximum cambium contact and starting them early helps.
Could possibly be waterlogged soil, though.
I feel for you.
I grafted 3 plums, 1 peach and 1 pawpaw (multiple grafts of each, at least 2 each).
2 plums quickly pushed growth. 2 of one variety and 1 of the other.
Then our weather got weird…
1 pawpaw graft pushed its terminal bud this week. All the plum graft’s growth has died.
Its nice seeing the graft push growth, its a real kick to the gut when it dies…
Scott
That is what happened to several of mine as well. They were looking so good and then all of a sudden they wilted and died! I feel for you and hope that the rest of them survive. The ones of mine that made it past that point seem to all be flourishing 
I think I had 90 out of 100 apple grafts this spring grow. But, about 3 have done what yours have after having an inch or more of growth. And a couple others don’t look happy.
Agree it’s a bit of mystery why the failure after they seemed to be doing fine.
I am no expert, but I’d bet on the soil being too wet. I had 19 of 20 grafts take last year, but watched 12 of those wither and die in their pots. When transplanting the remaining 7 this year into the garden, last week, most showed signs of rot–which I assume was because I used a “moisture controlling” type of potting soil. This year, all my rootstocks are planted in the garden bed.
Sorry to see that. It’s an endless learning curve. After decades of grafting experience this year I had the bright idea to do one-bud bench grafts of a very rare scion to make it go farther. I’d heard of others doing this. Problem- very skinny scion, skinniest I’ve ever seen. Not enough energy stored in a one-bud graft of super skinny scion. All one bud grafts failed even though on inspection after 10 weeks they had knitted fine to rootstock. Thankfully I did a couple two- bud bark grafts on top of established leaders as insurance and they’re doing well. My lesson- if scion is rare but iffy, bark graft two buds in a dominant position.
You might try using smaller scions. I graft with only 2 buds per scion and usually have very good success. It requires too much of the plant’s energy to try and push out more than 2 buds per stick.
Some time ago, I grafted 80ish trees. 40 got planted and the other 40 made it to pots. The graft success rate was higher in the pots, but I started to see the same damage you have. I transplanted them to the garden where a few recovered, but most died. I don’t remember what happened to the rootstock. At the end of the day, I decided to always plant in the ground from then on.
It was my first time grafting and in hindsight made a lot of mistakes. I’ll defintely be heeding this advice next time as it seems to be a common (and therefore valuable) recommendation. Thanks!
As a last ditch effort you might try a foliar spray. In a gallon use 2 tableapoon of alsaka kelp and alaska fish and spray evening or early mormings. Also southern ag sells a garden friendly fungicide that should fix any fungus attacks on the roots.