I do believe I’m finally done grafting this year.
I was counting up the trees and other grafts, and got to about 145 cleft and whip and tongue.
Hubby and I also grafted a crab apple over to Winesap for a guy, and that was 40 thin scions set, at two or three per limb.
I have about 110 new trees growing in my garden, and thanks to everyone who traded scions with me, I have almost 60 new varieties to look forward to tasting someday.
Here is a picture of the grafted over Winesap. Tomorrow I’ll get a picture of the bridge grafting project we did on a Gala that the goats got to. (BBQ is scheduled)
This is the bridge grafting. There are two long ones, and further to the right are the two short ones (relatively speaking), that are in the next picture.
This is a picture of the little trees in the garden. The two rows on the left are new this year, as well as some others planted in the other rows. Many of them are growing already, but you can’t see it from here.
I just want to say many thanks to all the people who have traded scions, or let me get them for postage. It would be quite a list, and I really appreciate it.
If anyone here has suggestions relating especially to that grafted over tree, I would love to hear them. We are rather new to all this, and I know there is a wealth of wisdom here on the board.
Maybe a bit like beef…it’s kinds stringy like beef, good flavor though.
The offenders were all sold, we kept some young ones for the BBQ.
They make really tasty ground meat. I like the flavor of the fat better then lamb.
I have a hunch eating that last goat will be very satisfying. nods
I had goats most of my life, but they are too hard on trees.
Thanks Tippy! Those blasted goats only left a strip of bark maybe 20 to 25% the circumference of the tree.
Everything I read said the tree would die if we didn’t do something, and it’s one of the largest and nicest looking trees in our orchard. We had nothing to lose.
We grafted it on the 20th of March, and it looks like there are buds pushing out all the way up those scions. It will sure have a character trunk if it works!
I’m afraid the bridge-grafted tree is toast; it will bud out OK, but when the heat comes it will stress really bad. You may want to remove most of the canopy and paint it all white. You will lose over three years of productivity on it.
If it were me I would build a hill of dirt around it ASAP and root the top portion. I’ve never done it but that’s a nice tree and it would be a shame to lose it. That would take a lot of dirt to get that done.
I already have other trees grafted and growing, and a Celestia and a Kidd’s Orange Red coming from Southmeadow this year.
If the tree does poorly it can be replaced.
I have a box around my Calville Blanc trying to get roots to grow above a high graft that the tree was really outgrowing, but the damage on the Gala is way too high to try and get dirt around it.
The Gala we did the bridge grating on was damaged last summer. It has already leafed out. Like I said, we had nothing to lose trying it. We’ll probably see how it does this year, and decide it’s ultimate fate this fall/winter. It is a nice big tree, but there are 44 others out there in that orchard, and I have a bunch of young trees in the garden too. We’re planning for long term, so having sound healthy trees may be better in the long run.
I had one that half of it got stripped by rabbits and it healed back over on it’s own about 5 years ago. You can still see the wound but the tree is ok. That year was bad and they were so hungry they were girdling full grown trees because of the snow.
Here is an off topic post showing what my young apple trees would have to compete with, if I didn’t pull the weeds.
These weeds are (I will dig them tomorrow) about six feet from the last row of Apple trees, out in the garden. I’m 5’7" by the way.
According to hubby, they are over eight feet.
I’m looking at the pictures and can hardly believe the difference four months has made. Here is a picture of the same plants, shot from the same direction.
Then there is the stool bed, which has been boxed to allow hilling up the soil a bit.
And finally there is one of me standing among the trees I grafted just last year.
It is really fun to see trees grow like this!
Thanks Mamuang!
Given that they are on larger rootstocks (mm106 and Bud 118) and the fact that we’re going to have to move them this fall, I doubt we will get fruit on those that soon. Some of those are triploids, and that contributes the the rapid growth rate. It’s still fun though, and we will have fruit one of these years.
Ate a Strawberry Parfait apple yesterday, and it was really tasty. Only one the blasted game chickens didn’t knock off the tree! The replacement chickens that we’re raising now won’t be able to fly into the trees that way. nods
Those blasted goats only left a strip of bark maybe 20 to 25% the circumference of the tree.
