I haven’t done a lot of that. What I have done didn’t work out very well. The only issue would be marring the rootstock trunk if the graft fails. If you can work around, then there’s not much to lose by trying. I think that is done commercially to some degree. But I’m not sure about that. Commercially most fruit trees are budded in the spring or early summer and forced soon after.
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Well I just noticed something new happening on one of my recent chip bud grafts that I did a few weeks back. I transplanted a Prune plum seedling rootstock sucker I harvested last falll into a 15 Gallon Grow bag about 2-3 weeks ago, and T budded three plum chips onto it at about the same time.
I walked by the tree today and noticed that the buddy tape had broken through and it looked like there was some green growth at the top. Upon closer inspection and opening the tape a little more I realized that the bud on the bottom chip I’d grafted was actually starting to grow out this season.
Sorry for the lousy picture, but that’s the best I can get with my phones camera on close up shots.
I’d actually topped the rootstock before I ever intended to graft to it, as it was getting too tall and spindly for my liking. I wanted to get it more girthy for a cleft graft next spring as the rootstock was actually all second growth this season. I’d grafted a cleft onto it early this spring, but it died on me. I cut it to the ground and this was all new growth that came up after I’d cut it to near the ground.
Instead I changed my mind and decided to tbud onto the new growth on this rootstock before this season was over.
Is this new bud growth going to continue without completely removing all top growth?
Should I rewrap the bud graft to keep it from desicating as it is nowhere near fully healed?
Is this new graft destined to fail breaking bud so late in the season?
Is this totally out of the norm for an Aug tbud graft to break on its own in the same summer?
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I haven’t had much experience with chip budding but I did a splice graft in early October that was successful so a successful union is possible very late in the season. Probably not the best time but possible.
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I would cut off all the stock there to get some buds set on the graft by dormancy. I had an apple that did that last year and it only grew a few inches that fall but came back strong in the spring.
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Thanks for your advice Scott.
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Well I had some more pleasant surprises from my recent bud grafts. The plum tree that had an Aug bud graft start growing had another bud graft above it pop as well this week. With 2 of the bud grafts on this tree now putting on growth I decided to take your advice @scottfsmith and I removed the rest of the top of the plum tree. Hopefully the graft’s will put on a decent amount of growth before the winter. As it is only in a 5 gal container I can move it inside during the winter for protection if needed.
I also had another surprise today with several Dapple Dandy bud grafts on a Moorpark Apricot starting to come to life. I usually double up or even triple up my chip buds to make sure at least one takes. I’ve always been a belt and suspenders kind of guy, and I hate having no takes when I’ve grafted over a tree.
Are others still bud grafting now that we are into Sept. I am still very busy bud grafting as I’m trying to turn most of my 60 or so fruit trees into multi graft trees. The majority of my trees already have been given grafts of extra varieties. I’m beginning to think it has become some kind of sickness.
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Your crafty with a “g”. 
I’ve only just started grafting this past spring and I completely understand the addiction. There is nothing surprising about the science of why it works (within compatibility parameters), but still it feels quite magical doesn’t it.
I’m just a 1/4 acre residential lot gardener with a handful of mostly young trees in a more difficult spot of the world to easily grow and be successful with stone and pome fruit, but I love it.
Keeping expectations low and just doing it are the only way to learn. I over ask (my version of over sharing when it comes to questions) to get some information and perhaps false confidence about trying it all out, and watch a few too many YouTube videos.
Do you do T-budding or chip budding? I have tried a few T-bud grafts but found the bark is so thin on the tree I tried it on it was difficult and didn’t take.
It would seem to me that chip budding would be better as long as you can cut the same profile. It seems more secure once taped and no bark flap hanging out to perhaps collect moisture or invite insects.
Though it’s now September I think I can put on a few chip buds. It’s still in the 90’s for highs here and we typically don’t get out first freeze until November. I even have severally trees putting on new growth from some rains we got last week
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Persimmon 1: Two t-bud grafts have swollen and look good so far.
Persimmon 2: Two t-bud grafts. One looks promising while the other I’m not sure about.
Mulberry 1: I’m very surprised how well the cleft graft looks. This is current year growth (late summer) from a bark graft that snapped in the wind. The second graft leaf pedicle has dried up but I think its still ok at this stage.
Mulberry 2: The first t-bud graft might be ok. The second is a goner
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I have been mostly doing chip budding lately, but I do use the “inverted T-bud” method sometimes as well.
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Did anyone have success with avocado graft in late season?
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Is it too late in the season to do any apple grafting onto already existing apple trees? I found a couple of scions my neighbor gave me early in the season. The scions are still showing green.
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So one month total has passed since attempting grafts for the first time ever. For better or for worse I took every thing off about 10 days ago… all 5 had varying degrees of callus tissue on this one crabapple. All scions still were green when scratched but none leafed out. However one scion i did not remove the apical meristem and roughly cut the leaves off and the leaf is still green and pliable… should I consider this a take? And by pushing a graft I assume that means cutting off growth around/above the graft?
My T bud and inverted T bud plum grafts failed but I think due to too thin new growth.
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Yes, I did a bunch of grafts last September on potted rootstocks in my greenhouse, and many of them did take, though a lower percentage than spring grafts. We had an unusually warm September and October last year, though, so I’m not sure if they would’ve worked out otherwise. I did my last avocado grafts about a month ago this year.
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I may try a few bud chips this week.
The recipient trees are still pushing new growth that was started from the rains the last few weeks after such a dry summer, so I know the tree is still moving sap.
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Next spring when it leafs out you’ll know it was successful. Best to just keep it wrapped now.
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I usually graft into mid August here when using green scions. This summer I had a lot of last years scions growing very long so as I noticed the axil buds maturing I started on 7/22 with SM Rosa plum, this one is just now breaking out. We went thru a very hot and dry July-August 60 day period. Last week I removed all of my sun reflector covers as temps began to moderate back into 80s. To gain a stronger graft I often use modified cleft which I did here making the vertical cut enough off center to match cambium on both sides of the graft union
This later one is also just breaking out a Burgandy top working graft on an Adara interstem on a sweet cherry tree. W&T graft done on 7/22
Dennis
Kent, wa
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This year many of the last grafts failed due to lack of moisture unfortunately. The grafts took initially and failed later. Many trees began losing leaves very early due to lack of moisture. May get some tree die back.
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We have had the same issues here. Horrible lack of rain. Then the temps in the 100’s for a few weeks in a row did not help anything either.
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