New grafter here - how/when will I know for sure that a graft has failed? Are you generally able to keep the rootstock of a failed benchgraft alive for next year?
Also, if I’m getting rain a few days in a row, should I shelter my little apple grafts so the soil isn’t getting that much water?
It’s really hard to tell from that photo, but when I see and hear about curled up leaves, I start to worry about 2, 4-D spray drift. You haven’t been using any broadleaf weed killers have you? Or have your neighbors? Hopefully not, but it is something to consider if you have leaves that look strange.
If it hasn’t shown signs of life in a few weeks it may be bad, but you need to wait longer to be sure. At some point it will start to sprout below the graft and you may need to make a guess one way or the other - either remove growth if you think the graft may make it, or unwrap carefully and check.
Rain should not matter.
Put a few elderberry cuttings in some water about a week ago. These white spots have appeared, they remind me of popcorn. Could this be roots forming or something else?
I don’t think those are roots. I’ve done the elderberry in water thing, and seen those white spots also, but they did not grow into roots. Eventually they all rooted. Make sure to change the water every so often.
Thanks thecityman. All the other new stonefruit I planted around it look fine, so unlikely there is spray drift. Hopefully it is nothing.
I think those white spots are lenticils.
Hmm, ok. I’ll continue switching out the water every other day or so and hope for the best.
I think youre right. It’s interesting that they burst like that. I have root growth on one cutting, and it’s emerging from a spot where i pulled some leaves off before plunking it into the water.
Can anyone identify this tree? Could it be paw paw? The other ones nearby look greener than this one. It is one of the first things budding with the maples. I found this leafed out one in a sheltered area. Zone 6b in a forest area near a creek.
I’m going to buy some apple trees from the big box stores and graft over. What variety makes a good canvas? Most trees sold there are pretty generic…red/yellow delicious, HC, Mac, etc. Also, the trees won’t be dormant. Is it ok to graft leafed out trees?
It is the rootstock that would determine how big your tree will get. If a tag at a big box store says semi-dwarf, my guess it is M7 or M 111.
To graft it over, I would pick the one with the nice straight trunk and a good branch structure. Varieties would be my last consideration.
An apple trees leafing out is fine. Old timers say, you graft when leaves are about a mouse’s ear. There are people here who graft apples very late like July with no issue. Apples are very easy to graft. Go for it.
Can anyone help with this tree ID? This is growing in the woods (not a mature woodland) with no similar looking trees near it. The trunk bark looks like an old pear but the young limbs look like prunus americana with spurs and thorns. The kicker, though, is it’s height. It is around 40’ tall. The top is loaded with what looks like fruiting spurs. I did not see suckers around the base. This is in southern Michigan.
My guess is a wild Callery pear or a mix with Callery . I have seen them 40 feet tall .
I have some damage in my nursery bed (apples and pears) that I expected. We had freezing rain followed by wet heavy snow and then snow accumulation that kept a lot of the trees buried under the snow for the winter. Now that the snow is starting to melt off I’m finding the damage, quite a few trees have snapped. I collected scion in case I need to regraft, but I can’t get to the tags on the ground yet, so I had to record the row number and the tree number in that row so I can figure out what the scions are later on. I have some other damage I’m unsure of though.
This has happened on a few trees, they’ve peeled down from the top of a bud. I don’t believe this is animal damage:
And below the snowline on some trees I’m finding this:
I have no idea what causes the first damage, and the second I’m guessing is an indication that the variety isn’t cold hardy enough for my climate. I did have some growth later in the season than I would have liked last summer (I didn’t fertilize after June) and wonder if its growth that didn’t have time to harden off. Any ideas?
wow there is still thick snow on the ground!
First photo looks like a knife cut, as if someone had cut budwood
I was gonna comment on. whoever did it, it (assumes some animal did it) did better knife job than I do bark grafting😬
