In early April we bench grafted a dozen apples for some folks on rootstocks they’d purchased. All of our grafting has been on field stock but they needed the help so we did them. They potted them after grafting to plant after frosts. The rootstock is now leafing but the scions haven’t yet (they haven’t planted them in the ground yet). Should they pinch off some or most of that growth? On my field grafts I leave one or two shoots or branches and that’s worked well, but I don’t know what to tell them for the bench grafts on new rootstocks.
IF you bench grafted those in early April and they havent been in a cooler since then there is a 99% chance your scions are dead. We bench graft at the end of April and most of my scions have 6" or more of growth on them already. Hard to believe your root stock is just pushing growth now as well… maybe I am missing something? Leave a shoot on the root stock so that they can be regrafted again at some point.
That’s possible, of course, but I hope at least some grow. After grafting they kept them in an outbuilding or root cellar till fairly recent. They’re outside in the shade of a building now. Our temps just warmed (60’s daytime, 40’s night)fairly recently. We just grafted a week ago. I’ll tell them to remove all but one or two rootstock shoots. Thanks.