I’m here for help. How can I fix this? Should I cut the whole top off and back to a whip? The side that has no limbs is in the direction of a large tree that provides some shade during the day.
I want this to be a multi grafted tree anyways. Would there be opposition to cutting off all the growth on the top and cleft grafting a different variety? Would it still encourage lateral branching from the existing cultivar?
I like your plan, achieve three goals with one graft on top of the vertical section of trunk. I’d do a bark graft that has more cambium contact than cleft but takes longer to heal.
Is it ascetically important to you to have a straight trunk? Otherwise this tree is capable of being strong and productive without radical intervention beyond choosing the most tactical 3 branches to create its permanent structure. Otherwise, just use the right side lower branch to create your permanent structure. Easy, peasy. If you want it straight, use a piece of metal conduit and electric tape to straighten it using that branch and removing the rest of the tree. Hinge as needed.
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I don’t need it to look nice, I just need to make sure the weight distribution is semi evenly distributed. I don’t want it to start leaning once it gets a crop load.
That usually isn’t a problem for a single tree- they seem to be genetically predisposed to creating stability when crooked, although if you are in a particularly high wind area, the calculous may be different. In such locations some growers train peach trees to be crooked in a way that gets it to face the predominant wind.
Of course, if you drive a sturdy piece of conduit into the ground by the trunk, it can provide some security. This is often done with apples on M7 that are prone to tipping during the first heavy crop, whether the tree is straight or crooked.
The tree is already in shape to provide a good crop if you leave the best branches and remove the two that are of excessive diameter.
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We can get some thunderstorms with winds up to 50-60mph. This tree is actually facing NWW which is where our wind comes from. I’ll just plan to keep the growth from this past year and plan to stake it. Would I risk damaging the root structure if i hammered conduit right next to it?
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The wind sometimes gets like that here also. I have orchards in very wind exposed sites but tipping is much more a problem with apples. It’s only happened a couple of times with peaches in light soils and two trees to a hole growing away from each other. I should have trained them differently. .
I have my apples staked, but not with anything super sturdy. They are on Emla 111, emla 7, and Geneva890. Not sure why the nursery chose those stocks specifically. I would assume my Elma 111s will be fine, but not sure if I should stake the Elma 7 (gold rush) or not.
I agree with Alan. To better balance the tree I would use a straight pole or bamboo cane driven in the ground a few inches on the side of the trunk and extending to the top fork where it would be tied off to the trunk. Then use that pole as you vertical measuring reference. You can then drive stakes in the ground about 10’ away to anchor a tension line that pulls on the top of the pole instead of your tree to avoid damaging the tree bark. Then tension the line slightly more each week until you get the pole pointing true vertically. I would wait until springtime rather than now since the tree is likely very brittle while dormant, but can readily be trained to vertical during the growing season. I have a similar peach tree here that had all its growth going to one side this time last year. I began training it by pulling the trunk away from its leaning direction. Then to give more growth and fill in space on the opposite side, I used a punch graft the grow new scaffolds as shown in pics below.
Tree was leaning too much in the direction towards the west. So I used a forked prop to bring it more vertical
Then I installed a new graft here that would grow a new scaffold off into the opposing direction of lean
A current pic of the new scaffold, The punch graft is a good way of gaining a strong 45 degree scaffold in any direction you need to fill in space around the tree perimeter. It takes a bit of practice but is useful where you need to balance fruit loads. In this pic you can clearly see a dead mob where dieback occurred several years ago that precipitated the trees awkward growth and leaning.
Dennis
Kent, Wa
Dennis, would a green wood bud graft be possible on the main stem in the summer or even a dormant graft in the spring? I’m thinking the main trunk is probably too thick for that?
Hi Dylan,
I count 5 major scaffolds above your lower dieback nub. That’s actually pretty darn near perfect! You may not need new ones requiring a graft once you get the tree more vertical. But if you do you can punch graft two year old wood a lot easier than one year old since you need a long smooth spot, without knots, to split the branch just enough to insert the sharpened end of a dormant scion. I use my small blade of a Swiss Army knife to penetrate completely through to branch close to one side, careful to not split either end. Then I use a tiny flat blade screwdriver to hold the hole open long enough to force the scion completely thru the hole, trim off any excess of the sharp end and use a plastic tape to seal up the graft union. This method allows you to choose the exact direction of growth you desire. I prefer spring time right after grow is strong and temps are well above 70F ambient most of the daytime using a dormant scion. It has also worked mid summer with green scions once you have well matured buds. Below is one of my best closeups of this graft. After I cover the graft union with plastic tape, I use rubberized electrical tape to tighten up the union. Once the scion buds breakout, I remove the rubber to avoid girdling too much while the graft heals.
Dennis
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I’ll see if I can get the entire tree pulled in the other direction. I’ll put in a straight pole along the trunk and up to the fork. Then I’ll stake and start pulling the tree. Hopefully by summer it will help it straighten out a bit. If not I may resort to the punch graft.
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I think your original idea was better. You wanted a multi graft. Just cut off the bend and graft 2-3 varieties using scion from the variety you cut as one of them.
I just can’t figure out if I cleft graft a different variety on the top of the trunk if the existing tree will branch out or all entry will go the graft.
It might throw a branch, but you should be able to cleft two varieties and maybe three with bark graft. Not with pencil thick scion of course.