I had some dormant apple scion wood that I harvested from one of my own trees that I was hoping to add to another tree, so I have plenty more.
I kept it in the fridge and forgot that it was there. I now found it at the bottom and it has, in fact, frozen in its wet papertowel wrapping. I am wondering if it is still viable. Although it froze in the fridge, the temps never got close to being as low as they hit over winter outside.
I have plenty more on the tree and I am going to try and defrost and graft anyway (just to see) but does anyone here know if the wood could still be viable.
I’d be surprised if it didn’t work. Like you said, it got a lot colder before your brought it in.
I’m not going to argue that it’s a good thing to do, but I suspect that mild freezing would be less of a problem than repeated freeze-thaw cycles. I wouldn’t want for the scion to be frozen very hard after it started to break dormancy, either. But I read once in some random guide to grafting that “back in the day” scions would sometimes be stored in a snowbank against a shed wall.
I would say there is a good chance it is still viable. I left my apple pruning on the ground one year. We had several freezes but in spring several had rooted into the soil just laying on top so I had to pull it up to prevent growing
I love this question. I’ve long wondered why we don’t just freeze our scion wood. Obviously it must not be a dependable thing to do, but I’m not sure I know why not. As others have said, the wood got much colder than yours did when it was outside. In fact, I often collect my wood when its below freezing outside. So why can’t I bring it inside and put it back in a “warm” freezer (ie i 15-30 degrees F)?
This would prevent the scion and its wrapping (if you use damp paper or paper towels) from molding and ruining, would prevent the wood from waking up and sprouting/swelling buds, and probably help store it for a longer period of time. Seems like a great thing. But again, I’m sure it would be standard practice if it worked as well as it seems, so I am curious why it doesn’t if it doesn’t.
Isn’t it kinda late in the season to be doing this sort of grafting? I have heard of chip and bud grafting late in the season but not branch grafts. It is my understanding that once the strong sap flow of early spring is over and with the tree in a different developmental cycle that branch grafting is not as successful.