Thought I would describe my experience with mail order scion wood. I realize it’s too late to order from them this year. They only ship in a small window of time. This was the first time I ordered scion from anywhere. Fedco sells apple and plum scion. Of course, these are non-patented varieties, mostly very old, so it’s legal to propagate them.
The scion came in late March, I grafted them in 2 days, and now it’s 4 weeks later.
I ordered 6 varieties of apple, and 4 of plum. The scion are $5.00 each. They were 8 inches long with multiple buds.
Of plums, I ordered Hanska, La Crescent, Ember, and South Dakota. I chose these as old varieties adapted to Northern climates, unlike some of the modern Pluots, Apriums, etc. I’m interested in, not so much freeze tolerance, but I hope later flowering due to late frosts. I also wanted some with apricot flavor and heritage, because it’s so difficult for me to grow real apricots.
When I received the scion, I could not graft for a few days. I opened the package and moistened them, then stored in the fridge in a zipper lock bag.
The South Dakota looked dried out and possibly with some mildew. That might have been due to my treatment. The other plums looked fresh. Not wanting to use bad scion, I used only the 3 good looking ones, dividing each in half for 6 grafts. One Ember scion went onto a cutting-grown 2nd year cerasifera (Hollywood) plum rootstock. The others went for top-working an unknown plum variety tree. I did all as whip / tongue.
Most are growing. The Ember on Hollywood is the furthest along - I had that indoors for a while.
Ember on Hollywood
Hanska top-worked on unknown plum
The top-work scions all look about the same. After a 4 weeks on the under-stock, and now with bulging buds, I think they all took.
The apples all went onto a Jonared dwarf, bought from Stark’s last year. I don’t know the rootstock. My goal is to have something to sample from each, a taste, a bowl of apples, or a pie or two. I don’t expect a big crop. I tried to choose a diversity of types, and researched for, for the most part, disease resistant varieties. I chose Priscilla, Redfield, Keepsake, Porter, Granite Beauty and for tradition, McIntosh. For some reason, the McIntosh was substituted with something I didn’t want, so I did not keep that.
All but Granite Beauty are pushing buds, and that one looks OK, maybe just slower. The stems are further apart than they appear in the photo. I can spread them even more.
Keepsake graft, pushing buds.
I was very happy with these mail-order scions. The price was good - much better than an actual tree. Despite a couple of glitches, I now have a chance to grow 3 historic plum varieties and 5 historic apple varieties, that are mostly hard to find from other sources. There is still potential for them not to take, but so far, so good.
It takes some planning ahead and ordering ahead, and they only have one shipping date, but it still worked for me.
Despite it being a LONG time away - a year - I’m now looking at the list for what I might order next year. There are a few more I could add to the multi-graft trees, and I’m also growing some rootstocks that will need scion. Thinking of apples, Sweet Sixteen, Goldrush, and King David, for the interesting sounding flavors. I need to research the disease resistance, and prefer they be spur bearing, but ok if not. And for plums, add some Euros - Opal and Lombard, plus the hybrids Cocheco and Purple Heart. There is plenty of time to research them for qualities I want. A lot can happen before then, but I like to ponder each one before actually growing it.
