I enjoyed doing the apple tree so much that I thought I’d go ahead and try a pear tree. As you can see, I did many grafts hoping one or more will take. Each of the 4 main “stumps” are done with a different pear type (2-4 per stump). I also grafted some scion onto the nurse limbs of each stump, so surely out of all this something will take!
Oh…the most important thing about this effort is that the original tree is a Bradford pear! I’ve always disliked Bradfords for the reasons you all know so if what I’ve been told here is true and it is possible to graft fruiting pears onto Callery pears, I will have taken a useless tree and made it into a useful one! Very exciting.
OK, I’m trying not to count my chickens before they hatch, and I understand scion can grow from energy reserves or that it can also start of well and die at any time…BUT I CAN’T HELP BE A LITTLE EXCITED from what I see happening.
Today makes 12 days since I did the bark grafts to top work my old apple tree. Its a very important project for me, and I’m not good at grafting. But thanks to all the people here who have helped me, I think I may be in business! If look really close at every scion in the photo, you will see that several of them have buds that have swelled, several to the point of showing some green on the bud, and some even pushing some leaves. You have to look closely because this is the very, very earliest stages of what I hope will be successful grafts. Several people said they wanted to follow the project so I thought I’d keep it updated as things progress. Perhaps it will even help someone else interested in bark grafting. Remember, I am a total beginner and it looks like I may have pulled this off, so you should try too. Thanks for everyone’s help (and patience!)
As for the ropes not putting enough pressure on, I might recommend a staple gun. On the grafts I did on bigger trunks, I used a staple gun to make sure the scion was snug under the bark. I saw it on a couple of pro-grafting you tube clips. You need a high-pressure staple gun though. I first sealed with parafilm, then more tightly with electrical tape, and then used the staple gun. You can staple through the scion if it’s a bigger one, or just staple the bark all along the long cut. The staples can press the bark down in a specific place unlike tape (or rope) which give a more general pressure. If you staple first, it is problematic, as I found out, because if the staple doesn’t sink all the way into the wood, it forms a little tent under your para/e tape, and you don’t want little pockets of air. Tape first, then stapling, and then I did one more round of tape or wax in case the staple holes would let moisture out or pathogens in. I’M NOT AN EXPERIENCED GRAFTER and we’ll have to see how mine turn out, so others should correct me if I’ve got it wrong. But the ones I did on larger stumps are really leafing out.
I must have just picked some oddball videos, because I saw more than one using the rope so I didn’t know it was as unusual as people here seem to find it. As for pressure, I was very pleased with that. The rope I used had enough elasticity that I was able to get it incredibly tight, so much in fact that I could literally see it close the cuts in the bark and feel the scion become very solid and tight. I really worked great for me and I’m surprised its not more common. I may have used more of it but I made a mistake when I cut the tops off and didn’t leave enough of a “stump” to have room for several loops of rope. But again, it worked great. If the grafts don’t take I really don’t think I can blame the rope. That being said, thank-you, Lizzy, for sharing your method of using a high power staple and that does sound like a great idea. Again, it seems a little uncommon but I will give it a try sometime. Goodness knows I can stand some improvement!
Speedster1, your commend cracked me up. I am fully aware that I’ve gone a bit (ok, a lot) overboard and been a bit (lot) obsessive about this whole project! ha. I know most people here do dozens or more of these every year and its no big deal. And even though I stress this is important to me, the real truth of course is that in the big scheme of things, whether my little graft project works or I have to do it again next isn’t REALLY a big deal! Problem is that I’ve had terrible luck with previous grafts (doing just pencil sized scion/scaffolds) and I did want this to work, but as you said…surely ONE of these will take!
I’m super excited to get updates on basically the same grafting project I am doing, except with citrus for me. Good luck and I can’t wait for more updates!
Thanks for the interest. Brownmola, I have been following your own project myself! One thing I was curious about on yours is why you decided to it in the first place? Were you just not happy with the citrus that tree was producing, or you wanted some variety, or was it sick or what? In my case, for example, the tree just produced awful apples…sad little knotty, sour apples that just weren’t good! I also did a Bradford pear for purposes of replacing a tree most people dislike with some varieties that actually produce fruit.
Also, Brownmola, I noticed you used the same toilet bowl wax that I did. I wonder if you’ve been happy with it? I have not. In my case, the weather turned quite cool the last few days (upper 40’s) and when it did the wax got hard and contracted, and when it did so it left a lot of cracks and air holes that I worry will result in too much drying out. Of course its much warmer where you are so hopefully that hasn’t been an issue for you. I really liked the asphalt-type sealer, though. BTW…one thing I did not do but probably should have is covered my projects with paper bags. Didn’t look like you did either? I haven’t seen a recent update on yours…how they doing? Mine are so far exceeding my wildest expectations! Its been so fun and rewarding for me…hopefully the same is true for you.
Kevin, obviously I don’t see it in your photos but did you end up covering the scions with any type of bag to protect them from direct heat or sunlight? I noticed that a lot of grafting videos, including Tom Spellmans, bags are used to cover the young rind grafts until they form calluses. I’ve seen them with paper lunch bags covering the scions with vent holes cut. Just wondering how much that increases the odds of successful grafting. I plan to perform my first bark grafts on my dad’s trees today and trying to give the grafts the best chance at succeeding.
That’s a great question speed, and one I’ve thought about. I don’t have a good reason why not, but the short answer is that I did not do that. You are absolutely right…many videos-including Dave Wilson- show that-and many do not. I intended to do it but never did. And so far it looks like I’ve got a lot of my grafts working. To be honest I just didn’t have any small paper bags or I would have tried it. Also, as you can see, I used black asphalt-type sealer and alan (I think) warned me that the sun could overheat everything with that large black surface, so it probably would have made even more sense for me to use bags. However, the weather turned fairly cool here so that may have saved me. Anyway, its probably a good idea to use bags but I didn’t do it and it seems to have worked out fine in my case. Good luck today.
On a more positive note (compared to my spray drift kills) I wanted to let everyone know that many, many of my grafts seem to be working out! I couldn’t be more thrilled. The apple tree that I top worked was right in the middle of the spray drift, but miraculously neither it nor my other apples seem to have been hit very much. Here are a couple photos. The better news is that even those that don’t appear to be growing in the photo actually seem very much alive. Its hard for me to understand how some scions could be grown out this much while others show almost no sign of growth, but perhaps different varieties of scion grow at different rates??? Those that don’t seem to be growing in the photo actually have tiny growth started to push that my camera didn’t show, so I do think they are making it.
The scions probably weren’t affected because they hadn’t leafed out yet when that spraying was going on.I wonder if using a hose to wash off any lingering residue from the stump/scion area might be helpful.But,the rain may take care of that. Brady
Sorry for the late reply, I didn’t see this until now.
That is exactly why I did the topwork grafting. It produced okay oranges for juicing. Also, one of the branches was really heavy with oranges and hung over into the neighbor’s yard right over their vegetable garden. I really didn’t want large oranges dropping on top of their plants.
I’ve been really happy with the wax. It has stayed pretty pliable, but we’ve not had a day cooler than 65 degrees since I grafted. I’ve never used paper bags on the plum and apple grafting I’ve done, but for the citrus, I thought it might be good to help keep them from drying out.
Congratulations on your apple tree. It looks great!
A little good news in my orchard! I wanted to share an update my important (to me) top working project! I know I always enjoy seeing photos of orchard projects over time, so I hope this thread will provide current and future readers with a good look at what happens over time.
THanks entirely to all the helpful people on this site along with a few you tube videos, this is the first time I’ve had any real success with grafting…and it couldn’t have gone much better. I did a total of 17 grafts on this tree (including on nurse limb and even a couple suckers coming off the roots and out of the ground beside the tree. Out of 17 grafts I honestly think 15 are going to make it! To be fair, though, as of today only 12 have leafed out. But 3 of those 5 are still very plump, healthy looking, and bright green when scratch tested. Also, two of those that are leafed out have just done so in last few days, while some leafed out 8 days after grafting. So it seems to be that there is a lot of variability. For what its worth, in my case here the Red delicious have been the slow ones and the Gala were the fast ones. Not sure if that is due to variety or when and how I collected and stored each scion or something else.
One of the things I am most curious about and really hope some of you can tell me more about is the blooming scions. I had one bark graft bloom and one sucker graft that bloomed. The scion all looked the same (to me). Why did some bloom? Is this good, bad, or neither? (Don’t worry, if they try to make fruit I will pinch it off). If I had done 10 trees and wanted to take a chance and let one of the blooming scions fruit…would it? Is it possible to get fruit the same year you graft? Again, I won’t take the chance and would much rather have the energy go to growth and healing, but I’m very curious about my blooming scion. Is it very common for first year scion to bloom?
OK, as usual I’ve gone too long and given too much info and asked to many questions. But I’m excited to have a positive development in my orchard, I’m thrilled with my success, and want this to be something of a historical record for others in the future, and I am curious about my blooming scion! Thanks for your patience and interest!
Cityman, congratulations! You know that good news from you this spring is extra special.
I know less about this than you do. I haven’t grafted a thing. I’m going to give you my guess while you wait for someone in the know to answer. Consider it as me practicing, not as a real answer.
My answer would be that they bloomed because the scions contained flower buds that formed last summer. You do not want them to set fruit. It would both take energy away from the growth and healing that the scion needs to do and would be likely to cause it to break off trying to carry the weight. Since it’s putting energy into sustaining the blooms, earlier removal of the flowers might be preferable. Then all the energy can go to building those future scaffolds. I may well be wrong on that last part.
I enjoyed the pics. You’ve gotten a taste of what that tree may look like in years to come.
Like I said in my post, even I knew better than to try and let them try to fruit so I’ll pinch it off if any forms, but I do appreciate the reminder. And yes, at least from my perspective, these things are growing like crazy. It’s been the most enjoyable project I’ve done to date. I don’t think I told you all this, but I grafted a total of 4 varieties onto the tree. Along with the limb of the original apple, I will now have a 5-variety frankin-tree. That’s nothing compared to some of you like @BobVance who have countless varieties on one tree, but for me and people I know locally, 5-in-one is a real attention getter and will fascinate me and my friends! I love it!
Back to the 2 flowering scions. If I had carefully looked at the scions when I cut them or when I took them out of fridge to graft, would I have been able to spot the flower buds on dormant scion? If so, should I avoid using scion with flower buds or is it ok as long as I don’t let it fruit? THanks. n
all you need is for one of those to take.
