Apple Scions - Choices

General Fruit Growing
#1

What a terrible problem to have… I have 22 rootstocks, and 32 scion varieties. :slight_smile:

Picked up the rootstocks from local extension office and they had a fantastic variety of scions available… I was the metaphorical “kid in a candy store”.

I had ordered some from Kellys Old Timey Apples and they arrived today as well.

Choices, choices… Which to graft and which to let go… If anyone is willing to scan this list and make any suggestions, would appreciate it!

Myers Royal Limbertwig, Hawkeye Red Delicious, Rusty Coat, Wine Crisp, Milam, Honey Crisp, Monte Carlo, Chenango Strawberry, Kinsei, Red Summer Rambo, Crimson Crisp, Mountain Boomer, Pinova, Smokehouse, Northern Spy, Winter Banana, Roxbury Russet, Old Fashioned Sheepnose Red Delicious, Newtown Pippin, Black Limbertwig, Red Royal Limbertwig, Baldwin, Grimes Golden, Blenheim Orange, Honey Cider, Winter Sweet Paradise, Red Astrachan, Sunrise
Carter’s Blue, Ashmead’s Kernel, Weaver’s Red Sweet Limbertwig, Captain Davis

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#2

what do you know about the Captain Davis apple?

#3

Use chip budding to graft multi-varieties trees.

#4

Not a bad idea… I’ve never tried a multi before, might be time to give it a try… Thanks.

#5

Nothing until a few minutes ago… Interesting history… Old Southern Apples: A Comprehensive History and Description of Varieties ... - Creighton Lee Calhoun - Google Books

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#6

Buy more rootstock. :laughing: I would definitely graft the Limbertwig varieties, but then I’m a Limbertwig fanatic. :heart_eyes: I enjoyed some very tasty Myers Royal Limbertwigs last fall.

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#7

Yeah, definitely… I don’t currently have any Limbertwigs growing, so a “yes” on those…

#8

I have 3 of those on your list. I wouldn’t throw any of them away if I were you.
Either buy more rootstock…or…buy a tree that has branches already from a ‘big box’ store…and graft a bunch onto one tree!

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#9

Yeah, I may try my hand at a “multi-variety tree” or two. Some of the scion wood is very small, too small for me to successfully whip/tongue graft I suspect. So chip/bud grafting onto an established tree sounds like an interesting new thing to try…

#10

It doesn’t even have to be your own tree. If you have a neighbor with a tree, or perhaps a feral crab or seedling apple in some no-man’s land, you can park your scions on it, grow them out, and try again.

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#11

Good idea… Believe I can come up with some candidates for that. Thanks.

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#12

Does anyone root graft anymore? Just a thought since you are short on rootstocks. 30 years ago when I worked at a wholesale nursery in Minnesota they grafted their apples using rootgrafts. I would order the rootstocks in and the crew would cut most of the top off to just a stub. They then cut the root in half and grafted a scion to each piece of root.
Remember the polarity of the root!

I thought this was an odd way to graft and mentioned it to the crew. They told me that was how it had to be done and they thought I was crazy when I told them most graft the scion to the stem tissue above the root!

My old propagator’s manual from too many years ago mentions rootgrafting but ends with a sentence stating it was not much done anymore.

It does work! I must mention these apples were grafted onto M. prunifolia, M. Ranetka and M. Antonovka. Not sure it would work well on dwarfing rootstocks as the scion being under the soil line might root out on its own.

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#13

That’s the key. Too much chance of scion rooting with root grafts. That doesn’t work with dwarfing, disease/pest resistant stocks. Too much chance of losing the rootstock advantages.