Looking for insights on grafting apple varieties

General Fruit Growing
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I have some apple trees that were planted in the last two years and I am wanting to graft a second (possibly third) variety onto each of them. I have limited space but want a wider harvest window and flavor palette than I can narrow down to 3 or 4 varieties. Currently in the ground: William’s Pride, Liberty, Crimson Topaz. These three are on semi-dwarf rootstock. If I look through my notes, I could tell you specific types for CT and WP if it makes any difference, but the Liberty is from Stark Bros and they don’t tell you which kind they use.

There is also an unidentified apple that was in the ground for 7+ years before I moved in. It’s been neglected and I’m in the process of rehabilitating it - the couple of fruits I’ve gotten from it are McIntosh-like in shape and flavor. It wouldn’t surprise me if it was a Liberty, both because of the flavor and the color/fuzz on the new growth. This unidentified apple is either on dwarfing or semi-dwarf rootstock as far as I can tell, since it’s not particularly large despite not being pruned for years. I’m leaning towards more dwarfing. I did have to prune some fireblight off of it last year, and trying to decide if I want to try and graft anything on to it this spring.

I’ve read some helpful discussions here on grafting and how it can be tricky to balance vigor among the different grafted varieties. Most of the varieties that I’m looking to graft on are described as “vigorous” in their descriptions except Akane and Golden Delicious. As per what I’ve read here, I’m planning to graft those scions with optimal sunlight exposure to help balance the relative vigor of the tree I’m putting them on.

My question is, would the harvest window of the apple have an effect on which scions I should graft onto a specific tree? For example, I want to graft Akane on to one of the trees. It’s an early apple, so would it be better to graft on William’s Pride which is also early? Or would it be better on a variety with a later harvest like Liberty or Crimson Topaz? In other words, would it be better to have the tree crop all varieties in approximately the same time window, or would it be better to have a staggered harvest on each tree? By “better” I mean the overall heath of the tree as well as my potential harvest.

For what it’s worth, I have Golden Delicious and Jonafree scion in my refrigerator right now, and I’m considering the following varieties: Spartan, Grimes Golden, Chieftain, and Akane. Maybe Pristine or Suncrisp? At the very least, I was planning to put Grimes Golden on Williams Pride or Liberty in the hopes that they will confer a little extra resistance to fireblight since I’ve read it can be susceptible.

In case it’s relevant to the discussion: I live in Utah, zone 6b/7a, clay soil. Fireblight can be an issue here, but most other diseases aren’t. Hot and dry summers, 95+ is not uncommon in July/August. I am told by neighbors we usually escape late frosts thanks a large lake nearby that moderates the temperatures just enough.

I’d appreciate any feedback or insights you may have to share.

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Great question really. So far I’ve tried to match top worked varieties to the season of the original tree.

What would a tree do if it was say: Anna. Red Rome Law and Pome De’Or? Ie…very early, mid season and Dec.-January?

I never thought about it. Of course Anna is darn near evergreen here. Seems like that could be a plus.

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The latest I can push my growing season in late October/early November, but being able to harvest apples in January sounds fantastic. In theory, the longer its got leaves, the more energy it can put into producing fruit.

My initial inclination was to match the scion/tree based on harvest windows. But then I started looking at growing habits and wondering if that would be a consideration, and then started thinking about what a tree would do if its branches fruited at different times. Would it put all its effort into the early crops? Would it decrease the tree’s overall heath to be producing fruit over an extended window? I’m probably overthinking this and should just match my scions to trees that will be cropping at roughly the same time, but was curious to know if anyone had actual experience with spread out harvests on the same tree.

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I would put similar blooming and harvest times together so you are doing any treatment (whether thinning, spraying, or harvesting) at once on the same tree. It would be difficult to spray 1/3 of the tree at green tip, for instance. Plus the tree would look better, more balanced.

If you live in a fire blight heavy area, I would not put any susceptible scions on the same tree as less disease prone varieties. Seems like that would be very counterproductive. Have you looked into Ginger Gold instead of Grimes Golden? I don’t have it so can’t give a recommendation, but heard it was more disease resistant.

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Grimes Golden is moderately blight and CAR resistant. It gets scab and mildew though.

Ginger Gold is rated lightly susceptible to Blight.

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I agree with Larisalee. I grafted scions onto trees with no thought of bloom time. Now I have sections blooming at different times and have learned I must spray with Spinosad right after t the petals fall and before bagging after June drop.

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Well it just gets down to the brass tack that Frankentrees are not good practice. But most of us have done it at some point.

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I like Franken-trees to audition new varieties before devoting an entire tree to unknowns.

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I mostly use them to park scions for a while.

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II do this, too, mostly on less preferred varieties.

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Thanks for the feedback. I’ll graft similarly blooming and harvest window scions accordingly. I recognize Franken-trees are a mixed bag, but like I said, I have limited space and want greater variety than 3 individual trees can give me. Maybe one day I’ll have an acre for just apples, but until then . . .