Grafting scion wood from a recently girdled tree

Hello everyone, I am new here, I’ll get right to my question, recently I noticed my young ‘Honeycrisp’ tree was completely girdled by a vole. I have a bunch of G935 rootstocks coming in the spring from Cummins nursery in New York. Do you think the scion wood from that girdled tree, wood still be good for grafting in the spring? I am not sure exactly when the damage occurred, my guess is November or December. The cambium wood is still green at this point, what other things should I look for to indicate that the scion wood is still good? I don’t want to attempt grafting something that is destined for failure.

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Yes, you should be able to graft with last years growth from that tree. If you believe it has desiccated at all you can soak the scions in water for a few minutes and then pat them dry and let them air dry. Store them in a sealed plastic bag and graft in spring. Keep them refrigerated, not frozen. Some people place a damp paper towel in with them as a source of moisture, I personally feel that’s just a recipe for mold.
At the top of your screen you will see a magnifying glass. Click that and you can search the forum for specifics. Try searching “scion storage” and I think you’ll find some good info.

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I’d have no problem collecting scion wood now to keep for spring.

I just looked at that section in The Grafter’s Handbook and he says it can take 1 or 2 years after girdling for death to occur. I had a young (1 inch diameter) not quite girdled and just let it be. It had just enough bark connected though. I’d say go for it, would be a good learning exercise.

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You might be able to graft enough bark across the girdled part to enable the tree to recover.

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I had a Cox Orange Pippin that was girdled by a vole over the winter. That tree leafed out and bloomed in the spring and eventually withered away and died. There must have been enough energy stored in the trunk and limbs to allow it to break dormancy and make it all the way to July. It did not put on any new growth. I did collect scions from in in March and grafted a couple new trees from it, and they grew a couple feet.

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It’s close enough to mid winter to go ahead and take cuttings.
I usually do it late January though. As long as the wood inside is greenish under the skin instead of brown, then it’s not been girdled long enough to hinder successful grafting to new rootstock.

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I think Mark’s suggestion is a good one provided you can prevent further vole damage by screening off the trunk. There is a good utube video on bridge grafting to save a damaged tree. If you wait until the bark is slipping (usually about when your buds are swelling) this would be a good time to use some of your tree’s scions to repair the damage.
Dennis
Kent wa

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Vole damage at that time won’t affect the scion wood. The damage is to the part that supplies carbohydrates to the roots not water to the top. The tree will die when the roots run out of reserves. Not because the tree dries out. If water were cut off to the top in November the top would already be dried out and brown.

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I have seen that same phenomenon myself. I can remember seeing a magnolia tree at the Mt. Auburn cemetery in Boston (back in the 90’s) the groundskeeper told me it was surprisingly still alive a year after being completely girdled. It was kind of surprising. It went against my commonly accepted beliefs about nutrient and water transport in a tree.

Thanks, that makes sense.

The damage is pretty severe. It is completely girdled and is probably a 3" band around the trunk. Down deep right to the root flares. That little bugger even debarked the root flares.

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Everyone Thank you so much for all your help. I feel I have some direction now. Many of you have mentioned the idea of taking scion wood now. Do you feel that is my best option? or Wait a few more weeks and hope the cambium is still healthy?

If it makes you feel better take some now and some at the normal time. My feeling is you can wait for the reasons given above.

you can also do backup grafts by requesting honey crisp scions from others. Its a fairly well-known variety and should be easy to get.

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I had one Plum tree that was girdled , but they didnt get all the way through the Cambium, and it repaired itself that summer. Most others were all the way through all around the trunk, but sometimes you luck out. All trees now have 1/4 inch hardware cloth around the trunks now.

I can attest to this. The summer before last noticed one of the pear trees in my back yard has a pretty decent sized branch high on the tree that is completely girdeled. I kept waiting for the branch to die that summer but it never did. I even got the ladder out because I was convinced that there must have been a strip of bark that I couldn’t see on the top side that was keeping it alive. No strip, completely smooth wood all around. Then I was convinced that over the winter it would perish and I would have to trim it out this spring. Well, it budded out, flowered, and grew great and it even made some good clusters of pears this summer!

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I did see a grafting example that used branches from the same tree that were grafter as multiple bridges around the tree where it was girdled. It did work for them, but havent tried it. Might be worth it to try for fun.

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