Good for you.
We had a period of 70-80 F temp in early-mid April (90F one day), too, but I was not prepared to graft peaches at that time. Now I regretted the missed opportunity.
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I don’t have a lot to graft this year. It doesn’t take very long to get it done.
I started grafting jujubes in late March (24th), but it was April 4th before I grafted any Stonefruit. Grafting on 3 different days that week, I am 12/13 on nectarines and 2/2 on apricots. That covers 2 of the 3 sites, but I haven’t been back to the 3rd yet, where I made 5 more (4 of them apricots). I may get back to that location tomorrow, as I’ll be mowing a lawn down the street from it on my way to softball.
I’ve also had good success grafting plums/pluots onto suckers that I dug up and potted. I didn’t count, but I only saw 1 which wasn’t pushing growth, out of over a dozen grafts.
I’m not sure if the 3 days of 85F+ temps that we had about a week after I grafted helped or hurt, but they seem to be growing.
This was the pic from the other thread- maybe I’ll get an updated one tomorrow.
I had meant to do a few more grafts today, but ran out of daylight. I spent a lot of time pruning (overgrown rhododendron at a rental, not even fruit) and mowing, as well as planting potatoes and pruning kiwi at home. A lot to get done at this time of year…
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Bob,
Did you jujube trees wake up when you grafted them in March?
My in ground jujubes won’t wake up until May.
1/1 nectarine graft
3/4 apricot grafts
Nectarine:
Apricot:
Note the empty area in the background. There is too much mid-day shade here from the trees on the right (to the South in the neighbor’s yard). But I am planning to put in a small row of black currants.
One other thing I should mention is how long the scions are. Normally, I only use 2-3 buds (or 1-2 buds for jujubes, apples, pears, etc, as I feel they are sturdier and less likely for me to damage during grafting). This year, some of these stonefruit scions had a number of “blind” spots, where instead of a bud, there was a small branch which had been cut off. So, I ended up making the scions longer than I normally would. Too long can be bad, as there is more pressure at the graft union, especially when it starts to grow leaves, or when a bird lands on it.
Total (grafts done 4/4 through 4/8):
13/14 nectarine
5/6 apricots
Just like the other site, the Sugar Pearl had by far the most fruit. I’m not sure if it is just more precocious, or if it is generally more productive in our conditions (frost resistant, etc).
But, one of the 4 apricots (Ilonia) looks to be dying. This doesn’t bode well for the long-term in my apricot experiment at this site (@alan has pointed out that early apricot death is very site-specific for him). The Ilonia at the other site seems fine and was the first to produce a fruit last year (2nd year in ground). Early Blush and Orange Red both have 3-5 fruit, while Sugar Pearl has dozens.
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When I have wood with unevenly dispersed buds I often graft only one bud to a stick. I only learned that long sticks work because people I’ve taught to graft thought a longer stick would lead to a bigger new branch at the end of the season. I doubt that’s the case, but it would make an interesting experiment.
The thing is that I’ve had J. plums grafts that became well branched over 1’diameter scaffolds in a single season starting with only 2 buds. A J plum at peak production size on a vigorous rootstock can push some wood in a hurry. Vigorous, well established trees make better grafters of anyone.
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Normally, i use pieces of scion with two buds per stick. Sometimes, something knocks one bud off here. It is a little extra insurance. Like you i often wondered why people use a full stick of scion. I suppose it is because they bought a full stick and only had one tree or maybe they want a scion worth of hardened off growth. My thought is the longer the grafted scion is the more likely the scion is to fail because it takes more sap to feed it. When a rabbit chews on the trunk of a tree if it went 1/2 way around the trunk i would cut the top to a few inches above the chewed trunk to force growth. Feeding sap into a girdled tree will kill the tree.
It is way more fun to be the rabbit sometimes when you have problematic elm trees. The rabbits gave me the idea.
The way i graft is basically with a backup bud and a backup scion. Two sticks is better than one. Think about a cleft graft for a second. I do cleft when i can because it has surface on the front and back of the scion touching the cambium layer. Rind or whip and tongue grafts are 50% more likely to fail in the first place due to cambium contact. A cleft graft is stronger. A cleft heals quickly. Typically there are two sticks of scion per cleft, one on each side. Think how much greater the chances for a succesful grafted tree are. It takes more material to cleft graft and longer to graft which are things to be aware of. Clefts are not the only graft i do though they are a favorite for the reasons mentioned.
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@BobVance
I am impressed with your high success rate grafting stone fruit. I still would like to find out how your jujube grafts have done. You grafted them in March. We still had snow at that time.
@alan, I tend to use the whole scionwood when grafting. I know I don’t need a long scionwood and that long scionwood could be counter-productive.
@clarkinks - my go-to grafts for spring time are bark and cleft. Good for someone like me who don’t have good fine motor skills.
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No, I think they normally wake up in April. So I may have jumped things a bit this year. But I have a sense that earlier grafts may grow more than the later ones- I should do an audit of last year’s grafts and see how the stats shake out. By grafting early, I’m trying to get the graft to take part in the first flush of growth.
I don’t think that there are any years where I don’t have much grafting to do. There is always something. I’ve been keeping track and have 2777 grafts in the last 10 years (going back to April 2013), which is really 11 seasons, so I’m averaging a bit over 250 grafts per year. I’m at 208 now, so I’m on pace to at least hit my average.
I had been meaning to do it the other day, but I finally got around to making a few more (5) nectarine grafts (using up my scionwood).
I’ll probably do a few apricots soon as well, as I noticed that one rental has a single apricot branch which didn’t get pollinated this spring (I grafted 2 other apricots there in past years which didn’t make it). So I need to put a pollinator in…
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I have had good luck grafting apricots in all these years. I have grafted them early (cooler) , with plums and later (warmer) with peaches. They have almost all taken. Meanwhile, peaches are still less predictable.
My own conclusion is that, apricot grafting is almost as easy as plums.
Plum/pluot grafting is as easy as apples and pears.
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I don’t keep track of the number of grafts I have made. On a busy year, it was 100+, on the lean year, it was 20+.
This year, after all is said and done, it may be 40-45 grafts.
I got so mad today
my two most wanted trees both dead. all the others are in leaf so I thought I’d scratch and test- even the rootstock died.
the other apples nearby are all fine. just these two that I was really excited about, poof. I got so mad. yes I broke them to pieces in a little tantrum.
What were they? Are you sure they are really dead?
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a gravenstein and an Arkansas black. one was 3 years old one was 1 year old. yes they’re completely dead, brown to the center everywhere, the roots too. I’ve no idea why, I did nothing to them that I didn’t do to this
and he’s right between where they were.
roots:
dead dead. not a bit of green to be found
My spreadsheet isn’t (mostly) to keep track of counts. The main purpose is to tell me what is grafted where. I lost too many labels over the years (faded, came off, etc). And they always took me too long to put on, bad handwriting, etc. It was good that I had the records to fall back on. Now, I just use them.
I dictate into a recording on my phone (for example, “Jun onto the Li at Maple, 5.5’, NNW, 90 deg, 1 bud, L-VL scion”). Then later that night, from the comfort of my easy chair, I can create the spreadsheet entry.
Grafting them and getting an initial take isn’t that hard. Getting it to survive long enough to fruit is the bigger challenge.
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My apricots were grafted on peach or apricot trees. Those grafted survived and fruited well until I removed those trees that hosted them.
I have heard so many stories of apricot trees’ sudden deaths by uncertain cause.
My one and only apricot tree is only 3 years old. It was grafted on a Manchurian rootstock (thank you @jcguarneri ) which is supposed to be a good choice for apricots. So far, so good.
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Sorry for your loss. It is a mystery when trees died with no obvious cause. The death of your 3 yrs old apple was more puzzling as it did well the first two years.
My Arkansas Black was one of a couple apple grafts that were infected with fire blight and that branch was removed last year.
Gravenstein is a triploid so my did not set fruit well before I removed that multi-grafted tree. I did regraft it to an existing tree.
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I have all the pollinators for it! they’re budding now. if it hadn’t died I might have had apples in a year or two. maybe
I’m just sad now. I rarely lose a tree unless I want it gone.
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Hope you’ll find out what was the cause. If it is in the soil, it’d be bad news.
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yeah it is concerning. the other trees are all right- they had some drought or frost damage to smaller branches but are ok, that area of the plot gets good sun and the rest are doing well. that leafy apple was in between these two- each 5 feet apart or so