Hi everyone. Thanks again for all the advice and guidance. I have potted the trees on and put them outside. Though temperatures just below freezing are expected for an evening in the coming days, would i be better bringing them inside until the forst passes?
I will post some pictures. Of the 21 trees i grafted it looks like 18 are showing signs of life. The buds on the scion are going green and some have the beginnings of some leaves coming out. What would be a great help is knowing what i do next. If the scion has 3 buds on it, the apical and another two, then do i allow all 3 to grow out together or do i select only one and try and train it vertically to form the new trunk?
As to the 3 buds
I usually let them all grow, removing the growing point on the lower two after they are a few inches long allowing a few leaves to remain on them , kind of keeping them for backup.,and forcing the top one ( or most vigorous one)
Sometimes , I rub the lower ones off. Just leaving one to grow.
Ether way is ok as long as you keep one dominate one to do the growing
They are just coming out with leaves now. So i should let them develop for a little while longer than select the strongest bud/scion growth. If this is a lateral do i tie it to the main stem of the scion to try and bring it back to vertical ?
Assuming you’re grafting a central leader, I let it leaf out. As soon as it’s clear that the scion has taken and that there is decent growth coming, I usually start snipping off my rootstock foliage. I want to make sure that the tree has plenty of photosynthesis to keep growing fast, but I don’t want the new central leader to have competition.
Once I have a clear central leader candidate, I snip the ends off of all the other shoots. If any of them challenge the new central leader heightwise or come anywhere near shading it, I cut them down until they’re subordinate. By dormant pruning after the first growing season, I’ve usually pruned off all of the rootstock foliage and most/all of the scion aside from the central leader. If I’m training to open center, I start that in year 2 at the earliest.
If it’s a lateral… I dunno. Not my thing, I’ve thought about it but ultimately just grafted a new tree instead.
Thanks uygi, that is great advice. I have stupidly removed a lot of the foilage on the rootstocks and it seems i have did that way too early. I will leave anymore that develops at least to give thr chance for the stock to photosynthesise as you say.
Do you know of any good resources out there that could give me some advice on formative pruning of a tree at this early stage? Most of the books ive got seem to show pruning on older and larger trees.
I really don’t! I don’t know of a book or resource with a real guide to pruning benchgrafts the first year. So much depends on the stock and scion cultivar, the size/health of the stock and the growing season, so I think it would be hard to generalize. My Bellflower grafts always wake up quickly and immediately grow like crazy and bloom first year, but so far of my Dabinett and Harrison grafts 5 out of 7 are still totally dormant (and hopefully not dead). It just varies so much.
Most of my rootstocks always seem to want to make a bush, and that bush usually wants to overgrow my scion, so I do a lot of snipping to keep it in check as soon as I know the scion is alive. Once I know the scion has taken I can bury the rootstock and cut it back, but in the meantime I try to walk the line between letting the rootstock grow out (in case I’ll be re-grafting next year) and chopping it back to let the scion get all the energy.
Thanks that is great info. I am letting the foilage on the rootstocks grow out slightly. I guess that’ll give the rootstock benefit incase i need to re graft and itll strengthen the roostock (as you say).
If the buds swell, then open and the foilage appears, does it mean the graft is successful? Or could they open up but the graft union break in the first year say?
Iam not an advocate of letting shoots grow on the rootstock.
I remove them,
I try to make it clear to the plant,
To grow here ( at the graft ) or else ,!
If after a month or so , the graft does not grow…
It may be assumed the graft failed,…and to save the rootstock
It can then be allowed to grow, so as to keep it alive for next year.
I feel like the scion/rootstock is one individual all sharing the same nutrients, water and sugar. I let the rootstock leaf (within reason) to make sure there’s enough photosynthesis to drive growth. Don’t forget that you want it to grow roots too, which also takes energy.
Congrats! They look exciting.