I purchased a Bramley’s Seedling and after several weeks I received a fresh benchgraft. After about 3 weeks it finally broke bud. That was June 6 (5 weeks ago). It was already hot here. I’ve kept it in the shade. When I moved it to partial shade it wilted a bit but stays okay in shade. It just doesn’t seem to be growing very much and maybe I’m expecting too much of it. Is it doing okay or should it be growing better? Any suggestions on care?
.Katy
That looks pretty good. In that black pot the roots may be getting too hot. Shade the pot, fertilize, and water. Maybe you can keep it growing. If it sets terminal buds it’s probably done growing for this summer.
Katy, it looks like it’s doing pretty well to me. It is not unusual for grafts to take three weeks to break bud, and your Bramley’s has shown healthy growth. Remember, it had to get its feet under it (i.e., replace the tiny root hairs damaged by transplanting) before it could share much energy for the top.
I think I would probably remove the shoot closest to the viewer, in order to direct more energy to the main shoot, but I’d want to look closer first.
Sometimes some varieties will immediately throw off three feet in fresh growth, but a few inches is also OK, and can be easier to manage. I think your tree looks healthy. I imagine you plan to move your it out of the pot this fall, and that would help next year.
Good luck and have fun,
Mark
Thanks. It’s in complete shade under a tree. What fertilizer and how much do you recommend?
Thanks Mark, I’ve seen pictures of grafts that really shoot up and wondered if this one was really slow. The top shoot was the last to break and now seems to be growing fairly well. I wondered about breaking off the lower growth and didn’t know whether to or not. It hurts me to break off growth 
But I’m getting better at it. I thought it’s roots when I received it were pretty minimal and I think I screwed up the way I potted it…I used a mix of potting soil and topsoil and it was probably a little heavy for the roots. Yes, I plan to plant it in the fall. Would it help to pot it up to larger pot…it’s in what they call a gallon pot which is Not very big.
I would be very happy with that new tree. Baby it for a year. I see that it is still in a pot so extra attention is needed.
Feed it some high nitrogen fertilizer say once a week.
Keep an eye on the moisture level. I have potted trees at home and they dry out fast enough I have to water once daily.
Osmocote is a great fertilizer I use with all my trees that doesn’t burn your trees. Also if it been in that pot for several weeks I would move it up to a 3 or 5 gallon pot.
I’m not good on potted plants so I’ll pass on that one. Fruitnut and Ben have good answers above, I would think.
As for nipping off the lower shoot: you don’t have to yet, but I would do it before it leafed out in the spring, because you want the tree growing taller right now, and that lower branch is just too low to be a good scaffold branch on a central leader or in an open center (vase) tree. It may be contributing to the root growth right now, but come spring it’ll be competing with your main shoot for nutrients.
It’s hard for me to remove growth of any kind, be it branches or thinning the tree to let in light and air or removing excess fruit. I don’t like to thin plants in the garden either. But it all has to be done or everything gets compromised.
Is straight N too much? I have some calcium nitrate but it’s kinda scary to me. I use it on my muscadines by Ison’s instructions but wouldn’t want play around with that.
Is that a time release fert? Any certain strength?
It is time released, it will tell you how much to use on the label. I typically just sprinkle some all the way around the top of the pot and it has never hurt my trees.
It looks good. What is the rootstock?
Supposed to be MM111.
Your tree is doing fine, but I would recommend you plant it in the ground, or substantially up-pot it by this fall.
It’s going in the ground this fall but it way too hot here to transplant out at present. We’ve got others ordered for this fall and we will plant them together at that time. I’ll up pot it soon. Thanks for your input!
Okay…3 months later and the little apple tree has grown a bit. I repotted it into a better soil mix. The roots had not grown much at all but it’s now in a good mix in a larger pot and has shown some growth
The masking tape covering the graft site has come off and this is what the graft site looks like.
Because I know very little about grafting what do you guys think about this. Will this grow into a productive tree or should I order a replacement? I’m not young… I don’t have years to wait and see… 
I am afraid that it will break down the road. You you have any apple tree at all. If so, grafting on to a branch of an existing apple tree will likely get you apples in two years.
I accidentally let 3 of this year’s grafts fruit. The fourth one was done intentionally.
I have a few rough looking grafts similar to yours. I’m not sure if they will be a problem down the road or not but I assume that eventually it will smooth out somewhat and not cause a problem. As mentioned by @mamuang grafting a couple of backups is a good idea.
