Sometimes you get a few grafts that are not compatible with the rootstock. Easy come easy go. Only had a few like this. I have others of the same types of apples that took on other trees. How are your grafts doing? Got a lot of grafts that put on to much growth with the rain and were snapping off so I had to prune them today to 20% their size while the graft heals properly.
I have an apple I grafted onto hawthorn this spring. I really expected it to have problems and fail but so far it’s still growing strong. Does incompatibility in grafts always show up the first year?
2 Likes
No the grafts don’t fail always right away. The grafts can sometimes last several years. Sounds like a fun project working with Hawthorn!
1 Like
For sure it’s an interesting experiment! I had read that apple and hawthorn could be grafted together, but didn’t really believe it. I stuck a cleft graft on one of the branches this spring just to see if it worked. If it looks OK maybe next year I will cut down the whole tree and bark graft to the stump.
1 Like
I had a donut peach graft fail when grafted to my apricot… That has been the only one so far. I think one needs to wait a few years just in case. Sometimes i think this stuff doesn’t show up right away.
2 Likes
Just as an update, I went to check on the hawthorn today and all the apple scions had shriveled up and died. They all callused well and grew a few inches before failing, so I think it’s truly incompatibility and not that the graft didn’t take.
The good news is that I also did a couple grafts of Sekel pear and they are doing well, so I may get some use out of this tree yet!
4 Likes
I have a peach growing on pluot…all looks good. The pluot is on apricot.
1 Like
Here’s an article about grafting Winter Banana apple onto hawthorn in Mexico.
The article is in Spanish but it’s pretty positive about the first year’s growth results.
No longterm data here.
Pears do seem more compatible, but I would like to graft onto the hillside hawthorn at my parents’ place sometime and the pears I tried are not compatible, I would like to try:
Arnold Hawthorn (delicious 1" fruit)
Clara Frijs European pear,
Winter Banana apple
And ESPECIALLY Medlar!
1 Like
That’s a very interesting article.
Just to close the loop for anyone reading this. My apple grafts on hawthorn all failed the first year. I also tried sekel pear which put on about 3 feet of growth that first year and almost as much the next year. The graft union was extremely ugly though, looked like a big tumor. The whole tree died after that third winter, both above and below the graft. It was a fun experiment but not something I would rely on. .
4 Likes
I have a graft of either Hoskins or Mooers pear on cockspur hawthorn, graft made in 2001.
Very dwarfing, with narrow growth habit, and no fruiting (or, I’ve forgotten to look)
3 Likes
I guess that’s a reason I’m going to focus on Arnold Hawthorn (amazing, almost like big blueberries except the big seeds) and medlar, which is sold on hawthorn rootstock usually and very close genetically.
I do have a hawthorn that seems to have great compatibility with Asian pears, but it suckers so much, above and below the ground, and sends out runners, that my recommendation for this particular thornless blooming (perhaps English) hawthorn is a living fence, but a thornless one so not as effective as the thorny hedges.
2 Likes
I seldom consider incompatibility as a possibility when grafting to the same species. Maybe I should sometimes.
1 Like
A thornless and runnering hawthorn? I feel like I need to see pictures of this.
1 Like
Also when it flowers it smells as good as it looks, almost like Jasmine!
It probably is a decorative that birds dropped as seed, I saw one in a city that looked very similar.
It can flower somewhat pink and the fruit is from rednto yellow depending on the individual bushe/tree.
It is not single seed Hawthorn or English hawthorn though.
1 Like
I’m not reading anything in the description or seeing anything in the pictures that make me think hawthorn regarding your tree. From the pictures it looks like a crabapple of some sort.
All the apple grafts on them have failed.
Asian pear grafts are quite successful, but with all the suckering not highly recommended.
The fruits are smooth on the bottom, not at all like apples or crabapples.
So my apps are saying that it is probably an Oregon crabapple, which is Thorny, so probably not that, and Siberian crabapple is probably also a no, and Chinese Haw which has very different fruit.
And it seems to reject all apple grafts, so again, no.
1 Like
Those fruits look VERY crabapple like to me. You’re used to seeing crabapples with persistent sepals, but actually there are plenty of species and hybrids where they fall off leaving a smooth end with just a dot. I’ve got a crabapple that makes fruits which look just like that.
2 Likes
