New to grafting stone fruit - want to graft pluots- need guidance

General Fruit Growing
#1

Please help guide me if you can
I have read the related posts in General Fruit Growing but have not yet found answers to my questions. I hope some of you will be able to help. I am new to grafting and very new to grafting stone fruit. Previously I grafted via top working a Gala Apple to add Fuji and Braeburn varieties. This initial experiment was about 60% successful resulting in one Braeburn and two Fugi grafts taking and holding after two years. With Stone fruit I have been 100% unsuccessful.

Initially I tried the same method as with the apple, bark grafting. The that failed I tried bud and shield grafting, again without success. All efforts were made in the spring. The primary drive for grafting is that I have limited land available in my home garden and am looking to graft to increase variety but also improve cross pollination. My pluots are relatively you being in there third year. I was hopeful to have some fruit this year but a freak storm about two weeks after bloom set resulted in all the flowers being blown away.
I have one pluot (Flavor Grenade) but it is planted about 100 ft from the other. The other is a 3 in 1 with Dapple Dandy, Flavor Supreme and Flavor King. My plan was to take sion for the 3 in 1 and graft it to the FG to improve cross pollination. My bud grafts healed or callused but the buds never developed.

So here are my initial questions:

  1. Should sion wood be cut when the trees are dormant or can it be taken from August pruning? If from August pruning can I graft directly (cut from one tree and graft to the other)?
  2. Should sion buds be vegetative (leaves) or from fruiting buds?
  3. Is it best to graft in the spring , prior to budding or in the late summer to early fall?
  4. Must sion cuttings be refrigerated prior grafting and if so for how long?

I also have three older peach trees. Two were mislabeled at the nursery and require greater chill than is reasonable in this area. Rather than pulling them out I would like to top work them in hopes of quicker production of fruit. Can I graft Pluot, Plum or Nectarine to these or should I stick with peach? Are there recommended sources of sion for 100 to 400 chill hour varieties?

#2

Hello Loel,
This is what I do in reference to your questions.
Collect scions in late Winter or early Spring when still dormant.
Use around pencil thick(can be bigger or smaller)vegetative and near the middle of a branch.
Graft in the Spring,when trees are leafing out.
Keep wood inside a baggie,with a touch of water in a refrigerator until ready to graft.
Peach works well for all those mentioned.
Sources may be able to be found from people on this forum and elsewhere. Brady

#3

I have read bud grafting can be done in the fall. Is it too late in the year to try this? here in Louisiana the leave are still quite green and no sign of fall yet. We will likely not see a cold snap until some time in late November.

#4

As long as you still have some warm weather to callous the bud then it is OK to chip bud.

Tony

#5

Thanks Tony. We are still looking at at least 60 days of warm weather so with your guidance I will give t a try this week.

#6

If you have not read this thread, it contains very good info about grafting. A long thread but is worth it for beginners.

#7

Thanks. Will give it a read.