Hello everyone. Long time lurker, but the time has come to pose a question.
A 7 year old Pumpkin Sweet of Orland/Sweet Delicious apple tree on M7 partially split at the graft during an unexpected storm today. I propped the tree back up with stakes for now, but am unsure how to proceed. Should I nail the trunk, then seal with grafting wax, and wrap with grafting tape?
The first solution that comes to mind for me is to take a piece of wire and a 5" wide strip of paper for a cushion and roll the peice of paper around the middle of the wire and wrap it around the break spot and twist the ends up extremely tight with some pliers so it won’t move or flex any so it can heal and put wax on it. Then move the wire every couple weeks by half an inch so it doesn’t strangle it.
Are you sure the graft otherwise healthy? May be it is just a picture, but it looks like affected by fire blight to me. Though M7 should be resistant. Incompatibility may be?
I think pushing it back in place and tacking it with a few small nails then wrapping it with tape would work. Just remove the tape in a month or so so as not to girdle the tree
I think the appearance is deceiving because the trunk was pretty wet when I pulled the weeds back, but I agree after looking at the pictures again that the union looks ugly as presented. The weeds and suckers are next on the agenda to tend to.
I would try to remove stuff from around the base and keep the trunk drier. You might allow some of those suckers to grow a little taller and inarch graft them above the graft line. That may be a faster path to cambium continuity on that side of the tree, and maybe some insurance.
Well, it’s all a moot point now. I got home today to find the tree snapped right off. My weather station indicates there was a 26mph SSW peak today, but there’s been a lot worse than that over the 7 years the tree was there. There were several large trees in the area down from the storm that took my apple out.
In 24 years this is my first fruit tree loss to wind. My 80 +/- year old mother tree the scionwood came from is still alive and well, so I can start over again. I think i’m done with M7 though. They don’t seem to be well anchored, though this is the only one I’ve ever had break off. All my other M7 trees want to lean to the east.
I have to wonder if the crop on the tree contributed towards its demise. Those apples are the size of softballs when they ripen in September (Northern Pennsylvania, 1800’ elevation) and were already not far off from their mature size. This year was its first serious crop.
