Hi Scott,
I need a quick lesson on how to grow a peach pit into a seedling. I’ve dried some pits out for about 2 weeks now and would like to turn them into replacement(s) for my peach tree currently dying back more ech year of old age. Do I plant them now and let them freeze when the ground does in november or put them in the fridge now and plant them in the spring?
I don’t plant any peaches anymore, I just dig up volunteers - they are incredibly fertile fruits. I would just bury pits a few inches and you should be good next spring with new seedlings sprouting. I used to do the fridge way and it works fine, but its easier to just plant pits directly.
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Shortly after I posted about the graft the whole tree started to die. It completely died last month. It has a new shoot coming up so not a total loss.
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Hi Scott, I am looking for some Asian variety peaches.may I buy some scion wood from you? Thanks!
I went out today and removed the electric tape on my peach seedlings that I grafted over to my unknown peach or to contender. I only had a fifty percent take I think or less maybe but I only lost one rootstock so those can all be grafted again next spring. The trees are planted very close together so I will have to transplant out the grafted trees . Not sure how it will work.
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Peach grafts seem to be impervious to girdling or constriction via vinyl electric tape- the tape stretches with their growth. If I remove it I usually wait for a warm day in spring the following year. I have to be more attentive to apples.
Where I girdle peaches is with the wire labels I use. I have to attach them directly to the trunk with small whips I get from the nursery when setting into soil and if I forget to remove them and reattach to a temporary branch during the first growing season, a rapid growing tree may be killed above the wire from girdling.
Interestingly, apples are less likely to be killed above a thin piece of girdling wire. They can usually heal over it.
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Indeed,none of the trees showed signs of girdling. They did not grow much this summer as it was very dry most of the summer
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Hmmm, maybe more rapid growth exerts more actual pressure. I haven’t experienced serious drought here since I began grafting peaches a few years ago.
Certainly, vigorous growth on the rest of the tree at least helps increase the percentage of graft takes, but I got no better results than you last year. I am not sure why, but suspect the high number of cloudy and wet days after grafts were made probably contributed. However, overall peach growth was exceptionally strong.
I’m a dry farmer so ample rain really helps promote vigorous tree growth.
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Just wanted to give an update on my 2018 peach grating. I grafted on to two seedlings and one big tree. Big tree no takes the tree died later. Both seedlings 100% take but one of the seedlings died later.this is the second seedling.first picture is from May this year. Second pic is from today. Crazy amount of growth this year.
May 2018:
November 2018:
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Wow, where did you get that last picture? I have never seen that before. It shows pretty clearly how the ranges differ. I also never saw the callus damage number (86F or so) and death (91?). These numbers are not completely accurate from my experience, I had many scions get above 90F and they didn’t die. But the general trend is still true, any temps in the upper 80s and higher are not good for any graft.
Ah, I didn’t realize that you did it. While I have quibbles about it, overall its awesome! It makes very clear that there is a “window” you are shooting for.
The cherry and plum should have a window, it looks like they only work at one temp which is not accurate. They both have bigger windows than peach in fact, I would say 55-75 for plum and 60-80 for cherry just guessing (there are probably some published numbers here).
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I have been grafting apples for several years, but this will be my first year grafting peaches. Reading advice here over the years, I am hearing that several days of consistent temperatures in the range from 65 to 75º F is key, but here in the Finger Lakes of NY, that could be late May or early June. I was wondering what folks here think of this as an alternate: graft the peaches early but keep them in pots in our back room until the temperatures outdoors reach the 70s and then plant them in the orchard. Rootstock is Lovell. A friend who is skilled in grafting apple trees suggested it, but she has not grafted peaches.
Thats how I grafted peaches the first year I did grafts. Half of them took so it can’t be too bad a method.
Hi John. I’ve also done most of my peach/nectarine and apricot grafts that way the past few years and it works well. Like you, I get my scion far earlier than appropriate outside temps for grafting, and I prefer to graft indoors with fresher scion.
Thanks. If I even approach 50%, I will be happy.
Is there a secret to peach/nectarine grafting? I tried perhaps 8 grafts, and at least 6 were abject failures–just brown tissue, no sign of callus. With Apple/Pear I get around 95% with cleft. Temps for grafts were high 80’s to low 60s, no rain. Rootstock is citation.
There are many threads here with lots of tips. Maybe @Ahmad you could post your tips list? It has some great suggestions on it.
For me I was recently moving the rootstocks in spring when they were dormant before grafting and I learned that is a mistake. You need to plant them one year and graft the next year. I had nearly perfect results this year on rootstocks planted the previous year. But don’t move the tree after the graft is pushing, I tried that and most failed.
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Here is my best practice guide for grafting peaches/nectarines:
1-For highest chance of success, graft on a day where temperature will be in the seventies or high sixties for at least 5 days, and no chance of dropping below 60 for the next 10 days or so.
2-Graft on a vigorous growing branch, a main or secondary scaffold or something that will be so.
3-After the graft shows signs of success, remove all vigorous growth from the branch you grafted on, but leave non vigorous growth (this is to avoid self pruning).
4-My preferred grafting style is whip and tongue (provides the highest extent of cambium overlap and good structural support), followed by cleft (good structural support), followed by bark (bark grafts often times will need to be supported till the end of the season, but not always).
5-Cut the grafting surface to be 1-2” long to maximize cambium overlap.
6-After inserting the scion in the understock, and ensuring cambium overlap, wrap the junction with parafilm (to guard against dehydration), followed by electric tape (for structural support). Before grafting, I wrap the whole scion in parafilm, and then expose the section that will be cut.
7-Cover the whole graft with brown paper lunch bag, and cut tiny slits in it for aeration (this is to protect from sun).
8-In average, I see new growth in 2 weeks, but can be as soon as 4-5 days and as long as a month.
9-If you are going to topwork a whole tree, I recommend doing it on stages, 1-2 scaffolds at a time (the whole tree will be topworked in the same season). Alternatively you can graft in all main scaffolds simultaneously as follows: Graft on a vigorous branch that is still young, and after the graft takes, do a bench pruning cut to remove the old growth and keep your graft allowing it to grow to be the new scaffold. This point is to avoid death of the whole tree from over pruning shock and to avoid self pruning of the slower growing grafts.
Later Edit: I should have mentioned that I also don’t graft till buds break, and leaves are at least a quarter inch long.
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That’s probably why most of mine don’t take.Even during Summer,in western Washington,the nights are in the 50’s.
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