I’ve only done maybe 30-40 apple grafts in my lifetime. possibly a thousand grafts total of all fruits.
I’ve had numerous failures with others particularly peaches and nectarines. Almost 80% failure in those.
By comparison with apples I feel almost certain the graft will take. Despite that I do 2 of each and usually end up with 2.
Apple wood I feel is especially suited to grafting. It is straight, cuts easily and one can make very smooth cuts.
However I don’t know if my numbers are that great if I had say 2 failures out of approx 35. That is roughly the same as your rate of 90%. Any small differences could easily be due to my climate ( moist and cool so grafts don’t dry out?)
Might be worth mentioning that apples and pears seem to be less picky about callousing temps than some of the others, too. I like to think that cool temperatures when I have attempted apricot grafts caused my failures.
What’s your success with citrus? I’ve had so many fail, now I’m questioning my technique and process (when to graft, how to wrap, etc). Do you think buddy tape will improve my chances? I tried both cleft and t-buds. Almost 100% failure on the latter. I just followed fruitmentor’s youtube video.
Over a year later–how are they doing? I’ve added Pink Pearl this year, and grafted extras of some of my other red fleshed.
Have my first crop on Redfield, and Niedzwetzkyana is bent over from the fruits. (Niedzwetzkyana is such a lovely apple to deal with…too bad it’s dry, sour and tannic…easy to create dried apples from it.)
Didn’t get anything else but one apple left on Odysso.
Added a number of ‘regular’ non-red apples.
About 145 grafts this year for apples…about 135 took;
but I think 3 or 4 are in process of dying…possibly from too much moisture.
I finally got around to doing a ‘backup’ copy of Hampshire Red onto B-9 this spring…it’s somewhere among the 135 or so new bench grafts I’m sure, hope it’s still alive. But my original Hampshire Red has finally done OK, and I removed one side of the cleft graft this spring so the other could become a central leader.
The Giant Russian finally did good too…and I passed on some scions as I trimmed some hoping to improve it’s vigor.
My Geneva crab is doing fair…haven’t cut on it to make a backup of it.
Red Devil, Red Merylinn are not very vigorous…but finally did a backup graft of both this spring.
Almata is hanging in there. winter Red Flesh and Bill’s Red Flesh looked promising, but did not bloom yet.
A number of others are doing good, but have not fruited except for one called Bakran.
I’ll have to try and save pollen next year from early-flowering red fleshed varieties for hand pollination of later blooming apples I want to try crossing them with.
I have 3 red fleshed apples I grafted last season. Red Love Calpyso, Odysso, and Era and They grew a lot so far but no spurs yet. They all have beautiful red hued leaves.
I can say the RedLove apples are easy to get a graft to take.
In time I’ll know if I like them for other reasons…such as taste.
They certainly are lovely in bloom.
Ram, I grafted them this year. One of the grafts bloomed right after taking. It didn’t have spurs, it was 1 year growth. I don’t think they need spurs to fruit.
I agree with Blueberry, I got 100% takes, with a couple to wimpy, just transplanted M26 without much roots. I did a backup of each onto my Crunch-A-Bun and added one to an espalier.
I think I’m going to pick my one lone Odysso apple today.
If you had a tree of red delicious…say on standard root…and picked the smallest one from the inner branches … that’s kind of the appearance of the Odysso.
I don’t think it is ripe, but I’m through gambling as squirrels and raccoons and other critters could get it…especially if it begins to smell good.
My other late apples are ripe or about ripe, including Fuji and Braeburn.
It is heavy and dense. Maybe it can finish ripening indoors.
I was reviewing some of the older posts–am looking forward to the Hampshire Red … can’t seem to find other references besides your
comment on it’s red flesh.
(I have it on G890 and B-9…possibly I’ll complete my inventory today if it doesn’t rain all day…rain hasn’t gotten here yet tonight).
I do know this cultivar hasn’t flowered.
In fact none have that I got from you, but Geneva looks like it may this coming spring.
{I had my best Niedzwetzkyana apples yet in '21. Redfield and Odysso didn’t quite live up to expectations…but maybe they get better in time.}
Last Spring, I grafted Otterson to make the top tier of my Redlove™ Calypso™. It took just fine and grew about a foot. The scion was from Fedco. It was probably the thinnest scion I have ever grafted. Probably about a mm diameter. I did a cleft graft and could only align cambium on one side. I looked at the graft today. It sealed and grew completely across the cleft.
I doubt it will bloom this year. All I hope for is good growth so I can train it to form the tier. Otterson is considered among the deepest red flesh apples, dark red almost throughout the flesh. Reference. It may be disease resistant. I haven’t seen info about flavor or size. My guess is they are small and sour, possibly astringent. I’m growing it to add to other cooked apple recipes, such as pie, jam, apple sauce, for color and maybe a little flavor boost. If it blooms, I might (probably) do some mad scientist breeding experiments.
I concur with your comments.
I have OTTERSON which I grafted onto Antonovka about 3 years ago, and it is in-ground now. Has not grown fast, and no blooms in 2022. And I have a new graft onto B-9 from last spring…again, a terribly thin scion put in a cleft graft…and it is doing ‘fair’.
Michigan State has the patent I think. Selected as a Cider apple. I’m sure it’s red inside, but I have a number of others that are too.
Anyhow, it’ll bloom someday. Then I’ll find out if it is the darkest I suppose…at this point I’m not agreeing it is the darkest juiced.
And I also am up to some playing cupid with the apple blossoms.
Thanks, guess my age is showing, as I didn’t remember having that conversation! I think I’ll end up trying to fruit all 3 of my Bud roots…
but it takes time.
