Apples are slower than stone fruits can be. My apples are only now showing micro signs of movement and they were done before yours.
On the other hand peaches I grafted last Saturday already have a few starting to move! There were only a couple days of good weather but it was absolutely perfect with relatively warm nights due to clouds moving in.
One of the problems with peach wood is it goes bad quicker than other wood. So if there is nothing after two weeks it is time to get concerned.
So if the stock directly below the scion is pushing green buds (on apple), I should remove those?
Yes. If the stock is huge you can leave a few of those on but on a smaller stock I remove them all. And keep removing them after the graft gets going!
Bryan,
Be patient. Sooner or later you will find out.
You also will find out, too, that after a graft leafs out, it could wilt and die a few weeks later. And after it grow swell one year, it could die the next year. And after, it grows, flowers and fruits, it could still die a year or two after that due to delayed grafting compatibility.
How do I know this? I have firsthand experience of them all. Relax and see how things go and grow.
The main concern I have is that the one of the Apple grafts is on the central leader of the tree. Iām trying to make a multi-variety tree.
I have been plopping off any buds below the scionā¦so if it fails, I may not have a leader.
Apples grafts are easy takes as long as you wrap a graft union tightly. Lots of time grafts fail because new grafters are afraid to wrap the union tightly.
In about a week if you still see no movement I would let one bud grow out on the stock as your insurance policy.
I looked at my apples this evening and maybe 1/3 of them are going. Its only micro movement and the kind of thing I would not have realized was a take when I started. Now I know exactly where the first growth will start and how it will distort the Doc Farwells etc.
Yup! Not definite yet but nearly so there.
My apples really took off today with the warm weather, the vast majority of the grafts are moving. Peaches are maybe 1/4th moving now.
On the peaches I can see the effect of wood quality, I grafted different varieties together to give me lots of options and the same varieties are taking first in the different placesā¦ its not the location, its the scionwood. The wood also looked better on these when I started. Harvesting vigorous scoinwood is important on peach and not as much on other things except perhaps persimmon.
The recent cold spell caused the peach grafts to stall. That is not a good thing as they canāt be stalled for too long before they give up. Some look like they have resumed growth but I would not be surprised if it did in a bunch of things.
Started grafting about 4 weeks ago as my trees were leafing out and the weather still a little cool, so perhaps I was too early. Nonetheless, my four grafts on an Asian pear are all leafing out. The peach and nectarine grafts donāt look promising. One toothpick sized graft pushed two blossoms which I removed thinking they would sap energy from the graft, but nothing more happened. I did a few side grafts that I knew were challenging and one has taken an looks healthy. The rest of my bark and whip and tongue grafts are not doing anything. Perhaps the price I pay for not waiting for warmer weather. I still have scions in the fridge and hopefully I can get something going.
As I recall from past years I started grafting early and had 90-95% success with apples and at least 50% on plums/pluots. Grafting Peaches and Nectarines have always been frustrating for me. I hope grafting in warmer weather does the trick.
My early peaches and Nectarines have finished blooming and I have started thinning fruit.
Two-week update:
Peaches: 10 takes out of 12
Apricots: 9 out of 18 (4 are showing blooms opening, so I am not counting them as takes yet)
I will not consider anything a failure till a month passes by.
Very high peach take rate. Did you do cleft, WnT, or else?
All cleft grafts, but I modify it cutting the scion to a T shape rather than an āinverted triangleā. The second modification is that I make the part of the scion to be inserted in the understockās cleft about 2-4ā long and 1-3 mm thick, so as to maximize the chances of cambium contact. Other than that, I followed Scottās recommendation to do it when the temperature is in high sixties to high seventies.
Warning 
: Making the T shape involves moving the blade with one hand towards the other hand that is holding the scion, which is very dangerous, requiring ultimate care and attention. I also strongly recommend cut resistant gloves.
Late last spring I grafted peaches.
100% failed
May have been to hot.?
In late summer I put chip buds in some,
They all appear to have taken, most are pushing growth
So I made an interesting observation. I made two grafts from the same scionwood on the Apple.
The one thatās pushing it is from the bottom half of the piece of scionwood, the āthickerā piece. The other one isnāt pushing at all. Even the one that is pushing, it only seems to be the buds on the lower half that are actually swelling.
Which makes me wonder if the scionwood maybe got a touch too dry, or had tip dieback for some other reason, and thatās why the one didnāt take at all. Thinking maybe it happened in transit, or maybe had already happened on the tree before he cut the wood.
Congratulations, those are very good results! 80% is about the best I have ever done. We had a strong cold snap here which delayed the grafts so I donāt think I will know how the ones I did two weeks ago for a few more days. Most of them are moving except there are two varieties with weak or partially budded out scions and those are looking like most didnāt make it.
One thing I did on the ones I knew the scions were weak on is I did a great many grafts, some of them with very short pieces of wood so I could get more grafts out of the wood I had. I am wondering if that is not the best idea as the reserves of energy in the scion are lower if the scion is shorter.
Your 2-4" of scion inserted could very well be making a difference for you, thats a lot of surface area. I usually do bark grafts but I could also make them longer than I am doing now and it could improve the odds on hard to graft things. I used to do mainly cleft grafts on peaches and cleft vs bark odds were always similar for me.
Have you ever heard of grafts failing, then growing the next spring? A couple of my failed apple grafts from last May look to have supple, green wood, even though they didnāt leaf out last year. Iāll keep an eye on them and let you know if they actually grow, which would be quite a surprise for me. I actually had some blueberry bushes I planted in spring that didnāt leaf out, then the following year they grew normally. So never give up.
As of today it looks like I have 75% take rate on peach/plum/apricot grafted onto peach. assuming anything that breaks through parafilm as a success no matter how little growth so far. Here are a few pics:
I probably should pinch off these flowers on Satsuma graft. But these are my only plum flowers and I canāt get myself to get rid of them.
