I am in zone 9-ab. I have been given a great opportunity. I have been invited to an old 18th century chateau the 10th of Nov. The current owner in his late 80’s has dementia. He lives with his daughter. They own the oldest orchard in Occitanie (south of France) where I live. I have been invited over to collect scionwood from all of their heirloom, heritage antique varieties of apple. I am very excited about this opportunity.
I have four apple trees waiting to be grafted. How long can I keep the scion wood and how? The chateau is being sold so this is a one time opportunity. I cannot wait to get the names and research the varieties.
I know I cannot graft in the fall/winter, or can I? We never get a freeze. There might be a freak snow flurry but its lasts for two hours and then disappears. I need your expertise on what to do. Please help. I would love to help preserve these varieties.
That is a wonderful and unique opportunity, Mrs G! I would be more than willing to help you save as much scionwood from that orchard as you can. You can send me a personal message any time in the process if you have further questions - or just post them in this thread.
In my experience you can already graft apple scions in December, but if the scionwood is healthy, it keeps really well (easily over six months) in a ziplock bag in the fridge. You just don’t want to put them in while they are too wet, because moisture in the bag can cause rots. The trick is to have the scions themselves nicely swollen with moisture on the inside, but dry on the outside (you scan set them in a glass of water for 24 hrs before putting them in the fridge). I usually graft from the end of January throughout February and March. That way most grafts have healed and are ready for the first big push of growth in spring.
Since you and I don’t get severe frosts and most weeks in winter the temperatures are well above frost level, the trees begin to heal already a bit.
Still, I would graft at around the beginning of March. It just shortens the time that anything can bump into your grafts while they are just sitting there waiting for spring.
When you cut the scionwood, it is best to take the pencil-thick vigorous straight water shoots that grew this year. But other wood - even with fruiting spurs on them will work if that straight wood is not available or hard to find.
I would say, go there, cut a royal portion of the best scionwood from each tree you are interested in and make a picture of that tree and a little map of the orchard. And mark your scionwood in batches from the same tree. Just give them a number if you don’t know the original name of the variety. You never know when and how you are going to be able to find out more about their collection of receive a list of the varieties they have. To be able to puzzle back what is what it is important to mark clearly for yourself what is what. (Something that I did not always do in these cases, trust me - you’ll regret that)
Imagine that one of the scions fails or doesn’t take in spring, than you know from which batch of backup-scions in your fridge you can replace it and try again. If you start grafting early, you usually have three tries in a year to replace a scion if that did not take.
Thank you so much for your answers and help. This is a great opportunity. I am a guest, so even though I would love to ask people to go with me. I cannot. I will try and get triplicate scions so I can share.
I generally start grafting outdoors in February in zone 6 Kentucky. Grafting to a tree already planted either in pot or in ground. (Rootstocks for grafting generally shipped in March.)
I bought some 7 foot tall crab apple trees discounted 88% at Tractor Supply…so I’d be able to get an early start on some more “Frankentrees”. Sounds like that’s something for you to consider.
As long as the scions you are collecting are hardened and not still tender and flexible soft…they should keep at least 90 days double bagged in a refrigerator using a damp tissue to keep them from drying out. Some survive up to a year, but the less time in storage the higher the success rate in my experience.
(And if some are still green/have leaves, and you collect a surfeit of scion, trying some chip budding might even be a fun experiment in November.)
And if the varieties happen to be so rare you cannot find any other reference for them…
some preservation orchard might like to have a stick?
Are apple trees in your region already dormant? I’ve never cut scionwood before deep dormancy in coldest part of winter. Disregard- I see Blueberry covered this above.
The new owners are removing the orchard. The leaves are still on the trees. They are just beginning to drop. My Granny Smith has dropped all of its leaves, but not my Reine des Reinettes and Gris du Canada.
