Graft Failure on Fruit Trees?

General Fruit Growing
1

Hi guys,

I live in Southern California (zone 10), a place with very nice weather. I absolutely love growing plants! My family decided to concrete-and-fake-grass our entire backyards, so my garden is primarily container-based. tl;dr I have several berry bushes (including a blackberry tangle that produced 5 lbs. of berries last year!), shishito peppers, bell peppers, a variety of tomatoes, some herbs, a gigantic but barren loquat tree (that bad boy is a question/problem for another day), and my absolute favorites, my dwarf fruit trees.

I have made several purchases of bare-root fruit trees over the years from Stark Brothers. My earliest was a two-in-one pear tree in March of 2015. Since then, I’ve purchased several others from the same company. Each of the trees in my purchases were planted promptly, in the same manner, in the same container types (large resin whiskey barrels), with the same soil/mulch composition. So basically, all of my trees get the same treatment/sun/etc.

In August of 2016, I purchased two peach trees (an “Early White Giant Peach Dwarf Supreme” and a “Blushingstar Peach Dwarf Supreme”). In September of 2017, I purchased two plum trees (a “Bubblegum Plum Dwarf Supreme” and a “Custom Graft 2-N-1 Shiro/Redheart”).

As of this writing, the Bubblegum Dwarf Supreme plum tree and the two peach trees have never sprouted a single leaf. They have, however, put up many, many suckers and watersprouts (especially the plum tree), which I promptly remove as soon as I notice them. But no leaves/shoots/growths have ever appeared above the graft line on these three trees.

As a comparison, all of the other bare-root trees in these two separate orders (including an apple, a cherry, a fig, and the other plum tree) have all put out copious leaves/growth. The apple tree is even producing apples right now, even though I’m in the “wrong” hardiness zone for apples!

But the two peach tree seedlings and the Bubblegum plum tree seedling have never produced anything except watersprouts and suckers below the graft line. I have fertilized all my trees regularly and care for all of them in the same manner; nothing I do seems to encourage these three trees to grow. They’re still sitting in their pots looking as bare and leafless as the day I got them. I can attach some photos if it would help.

Is this evidence of graft failure? Is there anything I can try doing for these three trees, or should I remove them and start over?

2

I don’t know if it’s graft failure, but the part of the trees above the grafts is dead, for whatever reason. The suckers and such below the graft line are great to graft to, and that’s the course I would suggest you take. Plums are straightforward to graft to, so start with those.

I imagine Starks will replace the plums that you bought last year, but the peach trees I don’t know. It’s surely worth asking. Email your photos to them and ask.

If/when you’re ready to graft there will be plenty of people here happy to chat you through it, and there is a veritable plethora of good videos on youtube on the subject. And somebody here can send you scions if need be.

But be careful- once you get a graft to take you’ll be hooked!