Bird dislodged apple graft

:sob:

One of the grafts on my newly created multi-variety tree was recently dislodged by a bird. The graft had taken and was growing very well with 2 out of 4 buds having sprouted.
I have pushed the graft back in and tied in extra tight with new grafting rubber in the hope that the other 2 buds are still dormant and atleast one may sprout.

But I figure I lost this graft. It doesn’t appear to be wilting or drying out but that could also be because the weather is so cloudy and cool here.

I do have extra scionwood (though of a different variety). Should I just go ahead and do a regraft? Or wait to see if it makes it?

I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve had the same thing happen and it’s very frustrating. Birds only seem to enjoy perching on grafts that are successful, never on the ones that don’t take and you wouldn’t care about. ha. You may know this, but some people intentionally provide a perching limb or stake or something above a graft . I take it from your question that this is a small tree with only one good grafting location? Otherwise I’m sure you’d just graft at another location and leave the damage one in place?

Anyway, just wanted you to know I feel your pain and hate it for ya. Good luck!

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Birds as I was taught the hard way years ago roost on the highest perch so the idea is give them a higher roost. They will likely use the taller roosts.

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I’d probably leave the repaired graft in place now just to see what it does. But if the wood behind it is not too large You might take some of your left-over scions and place a chip behind it for back up.

Good luck!

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if you’re attached to that graft I would probably take the branch and scion and shave a bit off to expose new, clean-cut tissue, re-graft (I do mostly whip and tongue, this is not always as easy w/ other grafts I suppose), and either cut back to the 2 dormant buds or if I was stubborn maybe bag the whole thing. Problem is the bag can act as a sail in wind, also moving your graft, so I’d probably re-do the graft w/ only 2 buds and try to baby it through

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Hi cityman!
this is a small tree with 3 branches. I’ve grafted on the other branches but they were not as vigorous as this one.

I will provide a perching limb as this is the second time I lost a graft to the birds after they had taken.

I did a cleft graft on this one since the branch is a lot thicker than the scion.
It is a fairly common apple variety (Enterprise) and I have a duplicate on a much smaller rootstock so there isnt much of a loss really other than the time and feeling of frustration.

I just needed a productive branch there since I have limited room overall in the backyard. I will graft a different scion there to make sure I get something growing on that stump!