Beginner Grafting Guide

[markshancock]

@murky

1. Are peaches compatible with this plum variety?

I have found that is not an easy question to find and answer to. From a Botanical view, there is not much research on Prunus Cerasifera (the Purple Leaf Plum). I have found some information online.
The topic Rootstock Graft Compatibility
does list some think compatibilities but the Scions I have are not on that list. It did have a reference to an article Adara, A Plum Rootstock for Cherries and Other Stone Fruit Species which says “Adara was selected from an open-pollinated population of Myrobalan (P. cerasifera Ehrh.), although its genetic identity has not been defined.” (Purple Leaf plum is also P. Cerasifera) and it does say that “, according to the criteria of Herrero (1951) and Mosse (1962). Peaches and nectarines grafted on Adara display different compatibilities depending on the cultivar, but a high proportion appears to
be compatible with this rootstock” but it does not list the specific varieties I have. It does list two of the cherries I have Scion (Bing and Rainier) as being compatible.

@murky

2. Is the scion wood in good condition, and can you keep it that way until you graft?

Yes, I believe it is (now). As you mentioned I am in process on preparing it for storage in the fridge. Hopefully it will be fine in March when I need it.

@murky

3. My understanding is that peaches need warm weather for scions to take. That may be June. A long time to store scions. (peach are more difficult than most, the buds protrude, are fleshy, break bud early, and in our region appropriate healthy growth may be difficult to find, although your source must have a good spray regime, so you may have a leg up there).

I will do my best to save some of the Peach Scions until June. If nothing takes from March, maybe I will try again in June.

@murky

4 The area has severe leaf curl pressure. If the scions take, and start to grow - how will you protect them from curl?

I am going to do my best to use the disinfection techniques discussed in Good system for preparing winter dormancy graft cuttings to prevent that, but if I do get one of those to start to grow, at least I will have leaned something. My first step is just to get one of the grafts to take.

@murky

5. Grafts will need to fight apical dominance to take and grow. (The tree growth wants to occur at tips of branches at the extremity of tree, especially high in the crown. It is suppressed elsewhere)

As you can see from the photo, “high in the crown” is not an option for me. There is some growth on the lower limbs and I am going to try to leverage into that when possible.
Do you have any other recommendations - other then Top Working the tree which is also not an option?

@murky

6. You are learning how to graft and will have a learning curve for completing the elements correctly. (normally for a first time, this is the obstacle to overcome, I would want to optimize all the other conditions above this as much as possible. Meaning, replace entire top of healthy tree with the new variety, easy to graft species like apple that can be grafted in cool weather, disease resistant scion variety, known compatible combination, etc)

This is primarily an ornamental tree. Replacing the top is not an option and I don’t have an apple tree so that is not an option for me right now - maybe in the future. At least some of what I am grafting seems to be a “known compatible combination” so maybe I can avoid epic failure on my first attempt.