looks like the plum on peach are a bust. the scions look desiccated at this point, with the exception of blue damson, which still looks alive but is not developing. The same scions (2 euros, BD and green gage, and one Japanese, Methley) are just starting to develop grafted onto Santa Rosa. The peach on peach (contender over reliance) is 50/50, the scions from thicker stick seem still plump and the buds swollen, the very thin scions seem desiccated. All in all I find stone fruit grafting more challenging than apple, I have grafted apples over several random crabs I have in my house and most of them took. Apples had over inflated my confidence I guess.
@Ana@lizzy@gosaspursm Early May I Cleft grafted Stanley near bottom of 3 yr self started peach…
Scion grew 5’ then branched at top, as shown in pic
Total length so far Abt 6’.
lizzy:
I’m curious if I’ll have the same results as you -a few plums and then die.
When did you get the plums from scion?
Second year?
I must have missed this. I have had good Seneca, if you like prunes like Italian and Brooks. I had it on a 4 in 1 grafted tree, and yes, they were sparse, got only a few fruit.
Hi Fran. I just did the grafting this spring, so too early to tell but f I will get incompatibility between rootstock and scion. The only update is that despite of being severely damaged by the cicadas, the green gage, damson and methley grafts on Santa Rosa pulled through and started growing again. We will see next spring.
Hi Fran, sorry I missed this. Yes, I got a few plums the next year, and then some of the scions petered out. One factor may have been that the pluot grafts grew really fast and huge, and may have taken up all the energy of the tree. Five or six years later, for various reasons, including that the whole tree seemed to be wearing out, I took the tree out. It was definitely a learning experience! How are your grafts doing?
@Ana@Lizzy@gosaspursm
To summarize what I wrote July 25th above, I had 2 Stanley scion cleft grafts on separate peach 3 year old seedlings this spring, grafted near bottom of tree.
in first year ( this year)
One grew 3’ .
The other 7’-6. ( I think that’s quite a bit)
In addition to Stanley cleft grafts a
several inches above peach tree base the peach grew robust side branches from base so now like a peach Stanley bush.
Based on your results I hope to get some Stanley’s as early as next spring and if not then the following year.
I’m hoping for similar results next spring when I try Stanley graft to Santa Rosa plums by bark graft
I’m less optimistic but I will try hale haven
peach also grafted to Santa Rosa.
I’m tried both Japanese and euros plums on Santa Rosa. Both kinds seemed to take. But after the initial growth it looks like the European scions (green gage and blue damson) ran out of steam and are just hanging there. The Japanese scion (methley) grew vigorously and is now 3 time the size of the Europeans. This checks with that old publication that said European scion is not compatible with Japanese rootstock. So you maybe right not to be too hopeful with the Stanley on Santa Rosa. But we can always experiment!
I think that spring heat isn’t as much of a problem in the humid region as where the air tends to be dry- heat waves have never seemed to damage my grafts, even though they are often connected with black vinyl tape (I’ve experiments with white as a comparison). I’ve noticed that very humid conditions in greenhouses really help grafts to take so why wouldn’t it be an issue out of doors even though it won’t sustain a high a humidity there?
I also believe that vigorous growth of the mother tree is the main issue for grafts to take, especially outside a greenhouse. Why wouldn’t the success of a graft be strongly related to the daily growth of the mother tree. This is a bit tricky but for peaches- if you graft too early, they often fail and if you graft too late in the spring they also often fail. For me, the sweet spot tends to be right around petal fall for peaches.
When I graft at this right time, regardless of approaching rain or cool weather, I tend to have about an 80% success rate using a simple splice graft with peaches. I completely wrap the exposed scion wood with Buddy tape. I also start with as close to as perfect a diameter match as possible.
