Grafters beware - 40 to 60 mph winds constant in Kansas today

When I hear of normal wind speeds in this range and cold rainy weather it makes me wonder how fast are the gusts going to be? Fortunately I only added a few grafts so far.

I’ve been out this morning and it is windy! I was kind of surprised that we didn’t have any trees down in the driveway.

High winds are not so bad if the scion hasn’t leafed out yet. It’s when they start getting leaves that act as a sail.

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Any try superglue on the heartwood while grafting? I’ve read about this where people said it improved strength with no negative impact on final union.

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I guess an advantage of a splice graft done with electric tape is that it is as strong as the wood even before healing.

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Wind map…

http://hint.fm/wind/

Winds are very light here this morning.

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In ND, once my apple grafts are growing, they WILL be broken if I dont support the graft with something. Usually I just use bamboo skewers taped on each side to support it. These must stay on for 2 years here or they will end up broken, but 50mph winds arent at all uncommon here.

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No wonder we get so many tornadoes in Kansas! I’m not sure I wanted that visual of the cold and hot air mixing together lol! Great map for wind. Thank you!

I hope all of you in impacted areas are faring well- I know we have a lot of members in the threatened area. Haven’t been able to keep track today.

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So our winds ranged 60-80 mph over the weekend breaking off many grafts and snapping trees off. This has happened many times this year, 60 mph is not unusual here. Wanted to show a couple of pictures of broken off grafts. It’s discouraging but normal in Kansas. Fortunately frequent pruning of my new grafts kept many of my grafts from being broken off. I’ve lost a lot of grafts this year to wind, animals, fireblight and mostly other factors outside my control. I’m not posting this update for any reason other than to remind everyone who lives in windy areas like this to prune grafts frequently! This could have been much worse! The wind always takes out my best grafts that mean the most to me.

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Bark grafts are always susceptible to our gentle plains breezes until they have several months of growth. I have found cleft grafts to be a bit stronger.

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I agree clefts are a much stronger graft in my experience as well. Sometimes with larger trees rind aka bark grafts are the only option. What kind of damage did you see?

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Sorry to hear of the damage Clark. Those are terrible winds. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen 80 mph and certainly not 100 like others have seen lately.

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No damage recently, just experiences from the past. We had straight line winds I believe it was 2 years ago the night before fathers day in excess of 80 mph. Spent fathers day cleaning up downed trees and limbs for myself and others.

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