Yes, I did it last year. This isn’t on my big frankentree, just a smaller one (3rd year tree) where I was grafting 4 varieties on it. I didn’t have much confidence in my grafts, as I had a 50-60% take rate the previous year (my first try), so I did 12 grafts on the tree. As it turns out, 11 took, so when one flowered, I figured sure- even if it runts out, I’ve got 2-3 backups of the same type.
As it turns out, all I learned is that July 29th is too early to pick this apple. ARS says that it is 60+ days earlier than Delicious (earliest rating), but the seeds were still white and it was pretty tasteless. It is supposed to have an interesting hazelnut-banana flavor.
But at least I don’t think it hurt me any- I’ve got a return bloom on at least one of the scions so I’ve got another shot this year. In all 3 of the 4 types that I grafted on the tree last year are flowering this spring. I’m disappointed in the 4th one- if it had, I would be getting apples from a variety before the scion-wood source produces them for my dad.
Looks really, really good city, as Scott said they really are “cranking”. I bet they put on 5-6 feet of growth this year. I see the plantain flourishes in your lawn too. Not surprised all that damn herbicide killed so many of your trees, but plantain remains healthy. Works that way here too.
I got that type and the broadleaf plantain growing here.
@Appleseed70, your post illustrates what I love about this site…I am always learning things. I had no idea what those weeds were and didn’t know what a plantain was. (I thought it was just those banana-type fruit popular in the Caribbean!) After your post I just spent the last 10 minutes googling the weed…thanks for the cool information. Not that I’m going to be eating them, but who knew those pesky weeds had some medicinal value? But yes, good observation- I have those darn things everywhere, and the 2, 4-D “accident” made them 100 times more prolific by slowing down or killing their competition weeds.
And @BobVance, your story has almost convinced me to go ahead and let my one blooming graft go ahead and produce just one apple. I have about 13 successful grafts so even it ends up ruining itself with fruit (by breaking or misappropriating energy resources, etc) I’d still have 12 others. And the trunk is so huge I’d think it could supply adequate resources. Also, the location of the blooming graft is such that if I did leave one apple, it would sit perfectly on top of the stump, meaning the graft wouldn’t have to support the weight. Anyway, you definitely have me thinking. Obviously one apple isn’t a big deal, but it would be a fun thing to do.
I noticed someone (thanks Bill) just “liked” my update photos of my first top-worked tree project I did last year. As you can see from the thread and pics, I did cleft/rind grafts to a large (8 inch +) “stump”. They did remarkably well last year and I’m very sorry that I didn’t post more updates last year and this spring. Believe it or not,those scions grew a whooping 4.5 feet in one year!!! And it was all bushy, well branched growth.
But the reason I wanted to take this opportunity to update this thread is report some bad news that I had with these grafts in order to (hopefully) help some other inexperienced growers. In short, I ended up loosing all 4 of these grafts to wind! The thing is, they did great until they got very big and very bushy, and were still growing well. But the large, spread out growth also happened to catch wind much better than the single sticks. So the moral to the story, and my advice to others, MAKE SURE YOU BRACE YOUR scion when doing these. Some of mine even made it the whole season last year and the whole winter, so I thought they would be firmly anchored. To my surprise, after a full year of tremendous growth, when they blew down you could tell that they still hadn’t connected all that much to the stump. Anyway, my point is just to remind everyone to be sure and put some kind of brace or anchor on these guys or you may loose them, no mater how big and strong they look.
BTW…for me personally it turned out ok because when I did these grafts I also grafted onto a couple of suckers that were coming up from the ground 5 inches from the big stump. Those grafts took even better and appear to be much much stronger (and larger if you can believe it- they are 6.5 feet tall and bushy today, 1 year after grafting them with my omega tool). THe stump is also very much still alive and sending out new growth, so I’ might cut 6 inches off it and bark graft it again next year.
I know it’s been a while since you started this topic but I was wondering if you have any updates on your tree now that it’s been 8 years! I want to do almost an identical grafting project next spring on a crab apple on my property and would love to hear how your tree turned out. Have you been able to harvest any fruit from it?
Hi there. Its always fun to ask about projects several years later and see how they turned out, so I very much understand and appreciate the question. I would go take a photo of it, but as I’m about to explain, I can’t.
The short answer is yes, that project worked and was honestly one of my most successful grafts of all time - for a few years anyway.
It turned out that the 4 or so grafts shown on the top graft site in the photo at the start of this tree were Rome Beauty scionwood being grafted to a very old, unknown apply tree that didn’t make very good apples. As I recall 3 of the 4 grafts took and grew well. A bird landed on one and broke it off (something that happens to me way too often so I strongly advise you to put a steak of some kind adjacent to the grafts to support them). I think I left the 2 grafts that took all year and even all winter, and eventually removed one the following spring. There were also 3-5 grafts on the other cut-off portion of the stump and I ended up removing all those to concentrate grown on the larger, higher cut-off point. I left the large nurse limb for years for no good reason other than it still had the old, original apples- even though they weren’t good it was fun having 2 varieties and colors.
Over the next 5 years, it was nothing but shocking how fast and how strong the one grafted wood grew. You just wouldn’t believe it. After just 3 years it had a diameter of about 3 inches, and by the end of the 5th year, I was fairling close to the 9 inch diamter of the old “stump” I was grafting it too. The connected seemed strong and stable and just wonderful. And yes, to answer your question it absolutely fruited. I mean it fruited like crazy and produced huge crops of beautiful apples- some of the best and certainly the most beautiful I’ve ever grown. This isn’t about variety selection but I have to tell you that those Rome Beauty’s are the most beautiful, post card perfect apples you will ever see. Better still, if you rub them or “buff” them with a clean, dry rag, they develop a mirror shine you would swear had to be made with car wax and a buffer!
But I digress…this is about the grafts. The tree ended up reaching about 20 feet tall by the end of year 6, with massive crops. But here comes the sad part. One spring, I THINK it was spring of 2022 (so year 7?) we had a bad storm that took out trees all over town, and my beloved apply tree was one. It did break at the graft. But I’m very reluctant to blame the graft or its union in any way. As I said, that storm was so bad that pine trees all over town broke in the middle, hardwoods blew down at the roots, and countless trees lost their tops. So having this one break at its union just doesn’t really prove anything was wrong…it had to give somewhere. I also admit I had not pruned it well so it was too thick and therefore acted like a giant wind-catching salil (think Bradford pear).
I desperately wish I had photos to show you of how great that tree looked 5-7 years after those grafts with its huge size and perfect health, but you’ll have to take my word for it.
I’m probably one of the least skilled grafters on this site, so if I could do this, you can too! I wish you look with your coming project.
Thanks for the update! I’m sorry that your tree met such an unfortunate end but I’m glad you got a few good harvests from it. Those Rome Beauty apples sound amazing. You’re getting me excited for next spring already…I hope my grafts turn out as successfully as yours.
