Can someone please help a novice? I grafted some apple scions to m106 this past March. The grafts that took are now sprouting new growth from the buds. Do I break off the lowest buds and just leave the top one so there’s only one growing? Thank you. Can’t find any info on this but it seems like the proper technique.
Yes you can, but in most instances this early in the growing season we just the pinch the tips off the growth we arent planning on keeping. This way those buds stall out to some degree but yet the remaining leaves on the scion keep producing energy for the scion.
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I second what @TurkeyCreekTrees said. Plus, if you leave a few leaf nodes, it will provide backup buds should something happen to the other shoot.
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That’s correct. I allow on 1-year grafts a second bud to grow to 3 or 5 leaves and then pinch that back or cut it off so 3 or so leaves remain. A bud will set there and between the other leaves of 3 or so you kept. This is your back-up. Those buds that set will grow if you need them next year. If they grow this year, just allow them to grow 2-3 leaves and clip off the last leaf. Then you got a bud location to form, again.
Choose the most vigorous and/or most behaved bud. Put a stake in place to tie that vigorous growth to.
Anything else that shows up on the scion and/or rootstock, rub it off. That could be buds or if you missed the buds it’ll be leaves. Most important are keeping your rootstocks free of growth. Should growth on the rootstock occur below and under the soil, get your hand down in there and try to find where it started and pull it off.
You want all the energy to go into the most vigorous or bud growing in a manner as to easily & directly grow up your stake. 1x a week you should check the growth and if necessary, tie the growth to the stake.
The stake stops birds from breaking your graft and allows you to grow a single stem tree from a single bud. Keep it growing as a single stem until whether you’re messing with getting to above deer browse height, or, until you got a trunk to a height you prefer.
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Great info. Thanks you guys! Learned a lot here.
Sometimes a lower bud grows more strongly for me for some reason. Then I cut above it and let it fly.
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