Hi Mark - thank you for your reply and info! One follow up question please…you say you only do whip grafts now. Why not W&T and how to you hold the graft in place instead?
Br, derwag
i also only do the whip graft when i do those types of grafts, i mostly do clefts now but when i do use W&T (- the T) i use a spring type clothes pin to help keep them in place.
I adopted Alan’s approach, where you simply cut the long bevel on both the rootstock and the scion with your nippers. Stick a piece of tape on the rootstock below the cut. Hold the scion in place with one hand, commence to wrapping with the other. Easier to do than to describe! I overwrap with parafilm. Don’t forget the label.
I do like W&T; there’s the extra hand factor, and all that cambium contact to help ensure a take - and you get to feel a little extra satisfaction for pulling it off. But I don’t know that it makes the graft any stronger in the long run, and, it takes longer and you’re more likely to cut yourself for sure.
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Hi everybody, I grafted 14 scions onto some Bud-9 root-stock, “Cox’s Orange Pippin, Pink Lady, Sweet 16, Canadian Strawberry, Wolf River and Honeycrisp” on 4-8-19.(over 2 months ago). I noticed bud swelling on a few of them within about 2 weeks and all of them seem healthy (not drying out), so far. However, “none” of them has even come close to actually “leafing- out” yet. Our weather has been cold and rainy for most of the spring. Am I just waiting for hotter weather to get them going??
Secondly I “assume” that I should be rubbing off any Bud 9 growth as it occurs to force any growth into the scion wood instead. Is that a correct assumption?
I did W&T grafts and I have to brag a little that they seemed to be very good grafts at the time, (accurate sizing and cambium contact). I have not unwrapped any of them to look at the progress of the graft, but they don’t seem to be swollen in any way.
On a side note, I cut off a 3 year old Bud 9 tree near the ground level and covered it with sawdust to encourage shoots to grow out around the trunk which I can then separate from the base and use as new rootstock. So far I haven’t seen any indication that it is still alive. Am I just impatient again? Everything else in the garden has leafed out and flowered and fruit is forming.
Thanks for any assistance.
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I think the hot weather will bring them out pretty quickly now. The time frame sounds a lot like mine. Yes, do rub out competing growth. And if you felt good about your W&T then you’re likely to have good takes.
I don’t know anything about getting the Bud9 to stool for you, but again, if it has only been a couple of weeks I think it’s too soon to be worried.
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Thanks. I only have 1 Cox’s Orange Pippin tree that I bought as scion wood in 2014 grafted onto B9. I “really” want the cuttings from that one to be a successfully grafted again just to show myself that I have some consistency in my abilities. Making a couple of “Franken trees” will be pretty cool too.
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Hello. New to this forum and grafting. I cleft grafted 70 apple trees early April and transplanted to my vegeatble garden. Currently 40 have leaves on the scions. Should I regraft the remaining or let the Anna rootstock revert back? Thanks for any advice!
Assuming your scions are still dormant you should do fine regrafting. Good luck!
(You can use scions that have started to break dormancy, but they are less likely to succeed.)
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I field grafted several varieties in early April and almost all were swelling or leafing out by early May. I just noticed last night my Marin Enfroy finally started pushing out leaves. I assumed it was a dud. Doux Normandel is my last hold out, though the cambium is still green on a scratch test. I imagine both varieties are just super late by nature (both from the same area in France too).
I bought baccata root stock for grafting, which has purple leaves. The guy also had cherry root stock. Well one of my apple grafts is sprouting green leaves on the root stock side which leads me to believe that it was cherry… I’m not holding my breath on that one.
Thanks for the advice. Several of the regrafted apples have taken (53/70 total). Maybe a couple more will ‘wake’ up but the 99F weather should probably finish off the rest.
Stupid question… So rootstock throttles the top half of the trees (dwarf rootstock → dwarf trees). But what about the other way around? I have dwarf centennial crab apples. If it is grafted to Anna Antonovka rootstock will it make a standard tree?