Got scionwood, now what?

With apple, with the parafilm, with ANY KIND OF CARE, I bet you’ll have a tree out of there! Apples are tolerant of cooler temperatures when callousing, and because the rootstock is dormant, it doesn’t need any sunlight. If your garage doesn’t get a lot of sun and heat up a ton during the day, I’d do whatever is more convenient for me, either stick it in the garage until it shows signs of bud break, or plant it in the final spot and just make sure to shade it until bud break if it’s going to be especially sunny.

Good luck!

Thanks, I then probably keep it inside near the entrance - it is cooler there than in the rest of the house and has some window light in case root stock decide to wake up. It is my first baby, I want to keep it closer for couple of weeks :slight_smile:)

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Galina,

I usually stretch my parafilm thinly before I wrap scionwood.

My experience is that with a good take, buds have no issue pushing through thick layers of parafilm. A weaker take (or not-so- good scionwood) buds have struggled if I wrap it too thick.

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seconding mamuang, I usually wrap a single tight layer (parafilm stretches a lot, and before grafting I had been using it for over ten years sealing petri dishes, so I accept there may be a slight learning curve, but you should be able to stretch the film about 2-4x original length)

that said when I’ve ended up getting buds under thick film (your top looks thick to me, the bottom looks ok) sometimes when I see the swelling I CAREFULLY slit part of the film just above the bud-tip to allow easier escape.

Top is so thik because I didn’t know how to seal the flat top of the scion wood. Do I need to seal it at all? Or may be just wrap beyond the ending and use something to close the top above the wood?

Galina,
Parafilm is stretchy and self- sticking. You can stretch parafilm, wrap it over the top and wrap the end on the side of the scion. It will stick.

Stretching parafilm make it stick to itself easier than non- stretched.

Yes, I got it, I fixed the top. Thanks!

Another question came up. Tree I grafted is so tiny, I’d rather plant it in a pot. If I do so, when should I transplant it to the garden, fall or next spring? I understand that spring is better time, but I will have problem to save the tree over winter in pot. My garage is too warm. and shed has no contact with soil, so it is too cold.

Fall is a great time to plant trees.

Why then most of the nurseries only send them in spring?

Because they send them bare-root, which means they have to be totally dormant before they dig them, which doesn’t, They Say, leave enough time to plant

That makes sense, thanks! I can plant it very late, somewhere end of November, soil is still workable at that time and the tree should be already dormant. But anyway, root stock has good root system, I hope to be able to replants without disturbing the root ball.

Galina,
In your and my zone, planting in Nov. is risky. If you get a mild winter, that is good. If it is not, you run the risk of your young tree not having time to establish and get killed by severe cold.

If you want to plant this fall, get it in by Oct and mulch thickly.

I’ve planted in fall without problems, but the nurseries are increasingly uncooperative

I have a question relating to grafting, if @anon89542713 doesn’t mind me piggybacking on her thread.

My wife brought home some wild plum seedlings from a neighbor who didn’t mind, one is about 5ft and the other 6ft. She dug them up with some good roots on them, and I transplanted them in our yard a few days ago. Whether they survive the transplant, that’s to be determined.

Anyways, I understand that peach scions can be grafted to wild plums? We got a Contender peach from ACN this week with some sizeable branches, some at least a foot long. I know these branches will need to be pruned off, so I thought, hey, why not graft these onto our wild plums? I was thinking, why not make another Contender for the yard? Or at least half-plum, half-peach.

Do y’all think it’d work? The main trunks are about an inch thick, and the peach cutting is maybe a little thicker than pencil width.

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For a dug up, transplanted tree like that, it is likely to suffer a transplant shock.

If I were you, I would not graft anything on that tree. I’d let the tree spend time and energy getting established. On a transplanted tree, I would not be hopeful that a graft would take.

I could be wrong but that is my take on it.

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Thanks, that’s probably the best idea. Perhaps let them get established this year, and make sure they can survive the transplant and the next winter. It would be a waste to put a graft on a tree and it not survive. The trees didn’t have many leaves on them, but were blooming, do you think we transplanted them too late to survive?

But, saying all that, and it does survive, do you still think it would work? Hopefully I’ll have plenty of peach scions next year to use.

I am hoping to transplant the tree from the pot without disturbing roots. So it will be already “established”. Last October my only apple tree was not dormant yet.

Galina, you have a nice vegetable garden with good soil. I would plant your tree directly in the garden under dripline. It will grow faster with larger root system this way and you actually spend less time caring about it. I would leave it to overwinter in the garden and plant it out in the spring. This is what I do with the young trees that I graft.

Galina,

Since you will pot this tree up for the next several month. By the fall, your tree would be considered potted tree. A potted tree can be planted at any time. Just like when you buy a potted tree from a nursery. No need to wait for leaves to drop.

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