I graft fairly high. Some I just want a nurse root to make them own root in time. Unless it is a disease resistant rootstock I paid extra for.
When I do an apple bench graft on bare root rootstock, I graft wherever I need to in order to match the width of the rootstock to the width of the scion. I almost always use W&T. I plant at the same depth at which they appeared to grow but a little deeper is probably ok.
I’m not an expert grafter. I’ve done one batch of 50 apples 4-5 years ago and another batch of 16 this year. I’ve had one failure, involving a very thin scion. This year I’m 16 for 16.
Bottom line – match the diameters then success is pretty much guaranteed.
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I graft as high or low as the scion dictates. I try to match root stock and scion diameter where ever possible. This makes whip and tongue graft all that much easier.
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What did you do about the leaves coming of the rootstocks? I did some scion grafting the April this year. Out of 8 tree grafting attempts I have 5 that actually took off. I still have the electrical tape around the grafting tape holding the scion on. Trying to make sure the scion is calloused up so it does not break off. I had one scion break off, I think a bird landed on it and the flew off.
Plus I am worried about the winter time, I have all the freshly grafted trees in one big bucket full of soil. I am wondering if I should leave them in the big bucket all winter , in a weather and direct sun protected area, or plant them in a temporary weather protected location until next spring. I would hate to lose these grafted tress because of doing a dumb first timer thing.
I would very carefully, on a not too hot day, in the shade, repot those baby trees on their own pots. Then water and mulch them and put them in the shade or rig up a shade cloth. Check the soil more every few days since disturbing roots in the summer is a stress. Make sure it stays moist.
Give them at least wind protection over the winter, and watch for rodents, deer, and rabbits, which may try out your little trees when food is scarce.
You said a bucket? With holes drilled in the bottom, right?
I use 5 gallon buckets with holes drilled in the bottom for all my benchgrafts, then mulch them, place them in shade, and water them weekly until the weather is right and I have the time between January and April to plant them out. It’s too hot too early here, and we don’t get summer rain, so I don’t plant them all right away.
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Yes, the bucket does have holes drilled in the bottom. It is closer to a 5 gallon bucket size. The rootstocks are smaller so I can put them all in that bucket and they do not seem crowded. Perhaps I need to separate them and put each of them in their own separate bucket. What type of soil or other type materials do you put in those buckets?
I will keep them in the bucket and make sure to water them regularly. They are in a shaded area and they do get some sunlight but not a huge amount of direct sunlight for hours and hours like a tree in my orchard does.
I am sort of leery of planting them in the fall. I am afraid their grafts are not calloused enough and are not strong enough to take being planted in the orchard. Perhaps I am wrong and worrying needlessly about this.
You know the size of your rootstocks, your weather, and your soil better than we do. If your gut is telling you to wait, there’s probably a reason. And if your rootstocks are small you might be ok to wait for a stretch of cloudy and cool weather to separate the little trees.
I don’t plant out little trees until about 8 months or more after grafting, although I do like to plant in both spring and fall.
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