I would wait a month after the rootstock is waking up to do anything at all. Ideal chip budding is done when the rootstock is awake at the time of chipping. It’s even better to have growth on the rootstock so you know the bark is slipping. That’s how things heal is when the rootstock is active.
There’s no rush to do anything ever. You can unwrap the grafts after another month if they haven’t broken bud and see how they look and then wrap them back up again. You want to see callous material before you completely unwrap something. And from there as Sophia said there’s no rush to cut the rootstock off above the taken chip. You can wait until summer to do that or when it’s significantly warmer than early spring temps.
If a bud doesn’t push this year it likely will next year. Sometimes they stay actively dormant. But, you’re correct that if you graft in Spring you will want to push the bud this year and stake the best growing shoot if there are more than one buds per chip. Pinch the other one off after you know the best growing one is growing strong. Give the plant fertilizer and tie it to a stake to keep a single leader upright and to have a perch for birds.
I have to say Sophia is 100% right with everything she said. I’ve just elaborated from her post.
Dax
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Thanks guys! That’s exactly the info I’ve been looking for; from experience! I’ll just leave them be, and check back in in a month!
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this is great to have such helpful information, thank you all.
I have just chip budded some apples, but I’m confused about when to cut off the rootstock above the chip bud. (These are onto Geneva 969 rootstock just received in the mail. The rootstock are about 18" in length above the roots.) I am not clear about when to cut…if I don’t cut the Geneva off above the bud, is the bud likely to grow, with maybe 12" of the rootstock still above it?
But if I cut, and the bud doesn’t end up growing, I won’t have much room left to try again. I probably placed my chip buds too low on the rootstock. Barkslip, I am especially wondering how to understand the part about definitely wanting to push that bud to grow if chip budded in the spring, but I’m interpreting some of the comments to mean that I don’t need to (or maybe even shouldn’t?) cut the Geneva off above the chip bud.
I’ve spent many hours reading this forum, but I have not investigated some of the actual How To instructions that I believe are on the website. I just open the forum and type in terms or questions as a search, and I suspect my answer could be found there–I just haven’t found it yet, so any clarification will be much appreciated!
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@SW-Oregon: I have done dormant chip-bud grafts only one year & summer leaf chips a couple times. I believe the answer to your question is to observe if the graft shows callus, as Barkslip says above. That means some swelling of white growth at the edges of your graft. The bud will also look as plump or full as it did when you cut it.
No pale somewhat lumpy growth around the chip? Bud looks shriveled & black? No go. Don’t be in a hurry to assume it is dead until you are certain; give it some weeks at least.
Once you know it has life & is incorporated with the rest of the stock, consider notching an inch above it if it hasn’t already pushed growth. That might kick start growth by interrupting the hormone flow from above.
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Thanks so much! That helps me a lot. I had been confused about the timing of the various pieces of advice, and I understand much better now. Thank you again, all of you helpful forum people too, and happy springtime!
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