First year grafting so I don’t know much. So I grafted many apples this year and of all them this one is flowering. I’m trying to just Id what type of apple it is, so I want it to fruit as soon as possible. I bought a property with dying neglected apple trees so I’m trying to save by them making new trees and find out what I have.
I have 15 other grafts of this type of tree growing so i plan on leaving it and seeing what happens
Nice work grafting! It’s not likely to set fruit anyways. If it does, it should be removed. There is now way that thing is going to produce quality fruit the first year it needs the energy for vegetative growth.
even if it did i doubt the graft union would fare very well. cutting them off is the best bet.
She made 15 copies of the same tree…I’d say, if it will, let it have one apple. The worst that can happen is it breaks off the graft, and you have to start over next year.
I have found removing these blooms on new grafts serve a purpose…in removing them, I collect their pollen…for hand pollinating in the future.
If that were a top-worked branch on a well established tree it might mature fruit from that graft. But on a little bench grafted rootstock , the roots, the graft, and the scion are all trying to get established. That’s a lot to manage already.
You probably could have seen, from looking at the scion, that you were grafting a fruit bud. I avoid doing that with pome fruit unless there is a compelling reason - like its the only scion available.
my experience is that if a bench graft sets fruit, they are pea sized. Top working a established tree is a different matter.
Yes, it can.
No, you shouldn’t let it.
Don’t get me wrong, early fruiting can be a great vigor reducer, but first year is just a scion reducer… at best your scion will lose vigor you really need, and at worse (and more likely) it’ll just tear apart the graft union.
