Never had that issue. I guess results vary on what you’re using it on.
Thinking of trying to graft multiple apples onto one rootstock. How would you all recommend i go about this? I admit i am a litrle confused. Do you graft only one or two a year? Do you wait until its larger?
It’s very doable, but the devil is in the details. I’ll start the discussion with a few questions.
How large a tree do you ultimately hope to end up with? Do you have a deer problem? How many varieties are you thinking of sticking on one tree? What varieties? And where are you located and what is your growing situation like?
I have a 12’ high apple that probably spreads about 20’, and deer predation is a problem. I’ve got about 20 varieties on it, but I’m gradually reducing that number -10 or 12 should be plenty, I think. I have to wrap the tree with netting to keep deer from grazing off all the new growth lower down. I’d rather have a single leader tree that doesn’t have any branches below six feet, but then I’d have to accept a much smaller harvest.
Some varieties need a longer season than Montana provides most years. (I have some Gold Rush anyway. That’s a crap shoot I usually lose.) I don’t have severe insect pressure (codling moth is about it) and I don’t have to worry much about spraying for fungal infections or for fireblight. Sometimes I get some powdery mildew that a handful of micronized sulfur in my insecticide spray deals with.
We have 0 deer here at all. I live on an island free of deer. Ideal height is probably in that 12 foot range. Number of varieites i am unsure of but i think i could easily do 3 teees, 4 if i really plan well. 2 of the trees will have plenty of space, but the 3rd one might need to be espallier (but idk how hard that is to do) since its next to mt porch in about a 6 foot corridor before the fence.
I only have a verh short list of varieties i am considering as i just started looking intonit but right noe looking at
Ashmeads kernel, ananas reinette, d’arcy spice or cinnamon spice, sweet sixteen, coxs orange pippin or kidds orange red, mother, ergemont russet,muscat de venus. And then i have lucy glo and lucy gem.
The like physical way youd arrange it confuses me to be honest
Located on long island (which yes has deer but not where i am on it)
Sandy loam, slightly acidic, suburban lot
Graft the most FB resistant one onto a rootstock as usual (best practice)
Establish scaffold branch structure as usual
Once you have your scaffold branches designated you graft them over to other varieties
It’s rather important to balance your scions according to vigor, if you have all lower vigor varieties except one on the tree that one variety will get much bigger and take most of the tree’s resources (to grow branches you’ll have to cut off anyway)
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Ok ok. So i will have to investigate the relative vigor of every cutting im looking at 
and then you do wait for it to grow for scaffolds to begin.
Is there reputable sourcss or just going to have to dig theough this forum to figure that out?
It’s mostly reliable
Hmm missing out on muscat de venus, and of ciurse the lucy which sre not well known. For what its worth honey crisp is t2 which makes all of them except the unknowns medium vigor that i have current interest in.
For those wondering the link that works is thsi from further in that linked thread. Thanks for that source!
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I agree with everything @Phlogopite says.
I’ve also considered an alternative approach, but haven’t tried it:
Onto a young rootstock graft a vigorous fireblight resistant variety close to the ground. When it reaches about five feet in height graft a second variety of more moderate vigor to its central leader. After about three more feet in growth add another moderate-vigor variety, again in line. You now have three varieties growing one on top of the other.
As they grow allow each variety to grow out three well-placed scaffold branches. Graft a new variety to two of them. That way you end up with 9 varieties on one tree, a fairly manageable number I think.
But like I said, I haven’t tried it.
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So since most of the ones im interested are t2, medium vigor, do you recommend looking for 3 high vigor ones and use that as the base?
Not necessarily- it’s most important to not stack very vigorous varieties on more moderate ones. It just makes the tree hard to manage.
I also wonder about an “interstem effect” - how much influence does the variety to which you graft have on the ultimate vigor of the grafted variety, and I don’t know the answer. I’ve seen grafts where the new variety overgrew the rootstock and that doesn’t look sustainable. On the other hand I have a prune plum grafted to Nanking cherry and they balance out nicely: the root holds the plum back in size, and the plum doesn’t feed the root so much that the base of the tree gets very large. Requires almost no pruning to maintain a six foot tree.
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Interesting. It seems like an espallier will be pretty reasonable to make a multi graft. Will be quite the challenge for a novice like me though. Just thinking logisitcally for keeping each graft identified.
In a similar vein:
I grafted Liberty onto G-935 with the idea that I would let it grow and feather, then use a few of those feather branches as scaffolds on a modified central leader tree, grafting new varieties off the newer/higher branches the following year. In that way, the central leader would be relatively disease free, while the side branches would give more interesting apples (I think Liberty is an ok apple, but there are many I like more). I have also done this with a Warren pear- grafting Ayer’s and Harrow Delight on lower branches. I want to keep lots of Warren, but also want other pear varieties in case Warren lives up to its reputation as a shy bearer. I should know in a few years whether either of these experiments were successful.
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Ive been hearing from another source that this is balogna and instead vigorous should be “north and west” which sounds like not right.
Can i hear more of the theory here
As I understand it “north and west” matter too.
What I was saying is that there can be an issue if a scion overgrows its rootstock. I’m thinking particularly of a Flemish Beauty pear I grafted to a Bartlett which grew to about twice the diameter of the Bartlett, which makes for a weak union.
Others may inform us better!
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