Questions not deserving of a whole thread

@Chris1

[quote=“Chris1, post:1902, topic:10530”]
(“but my question is where the graft is attached does it make the branch weaker?”)

Well not really. A bird or the wind may knock off a graft the first year. But after several years of growth I would consider most grafts as strong as the rest of the tree.
Excepions would be poor cleft grafts ,done on to large ( over 2 inch ) stock that are slow to heal. And some incompatible stock can snap clean off at the Union.
But in general .compatable , well executed grafts, that have healed properly are strong.

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Thank you. I moved this to a regular thread hoping I would get a few more responses.

Heh! It’s an idea. Incompatibility/rejection would worry me. I suppose named apple varieties, being what they are and only and forever reproduced from cloning by grafting, are extremely tolerant of any and all rootstocks and interstems because we know only the successful ones. The same may be said of widely available conventional rootstocks. These are all of such closely related material that incompatibility and graft rejection seem uncommon. You still hear people wondering whether to use it as an excuse for early failure of a tree. I myself have (had) a Golden Russet on B9 that went dormant (and perhaps died) in the middle of last summer after being in the ground 12 years. Didn’t seem obviously sick to me until its demise. Just wondering…

In your case, where you want to stack several interstems, you are risking incompatibility/rejection from any one of them, which, for the topmost, would be the sum of risk from each of the lower combinations.

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Hi,
I am a beginner on growing fruit trees and planted few fruit trees the past fall and this spring. With limited spaces, I would like to learn grafting to expand the fruit varieties (apple, plum, persimmon, jujube and eventually pawpaw).

Can I start grafting next year on trees I just planted (of course assuming I will have scions) or I have to wait another year or two?

Thanks
Kate

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@Kate6b,
Yes, you can. Here’s the scionwood resources. You can start ordering around the end of the year.
Scionwood sources - #149 by moocks.

Around Dec/Jan next year, your can post your request on the Trading Post category. Often, other members would send you what they have for cost of postage.

Buying scionwood often gaurantee you get the correct varieties. Exchange scion, there are times you get wrong varieties.

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So, this winter i went around and cut ever single cedar (well, really everything in that family ) on my property to try and reduce car. I honestly thought it would help me because outside of my property- which had a lot- I am surrounded on all sides by nothing but active farm land. There isn’t another stand of trees for at least 1500 feet (1/4 miles +). Yes, I’ve read that it can travel up to a mile or more but I was doubtful. Most of the trees I cut had the CAR galls /jelly balls on them every year, so I was sure I would help my CAR problem. Well, my pears aren’t even the size of marbles and aready have those bright orange hairs on them and are bumpy and deformed.

Are those orange hairs and bumpy/deformed baby pears (the leaves all have black spots too) from CAR or is it some other fungus? I do know I can prevent a lot of this with fungacide spraying and I did it last year but this year I’ve not sprayed yet (I know!) but was hoping the absence of nearby cedar-type trees would have ended or at least reduced my problem…but it seems worse if anything!!! What’s going on?

You already got a response from one of the most knowledgeable and nicest people here, but I just wanted to confirm what she said. IN FACT, I have actually grafted potted fruit trees (like the ones you buy at a big box store) the very year I put them out and have had good luck with apples and pears doing that. I doubt that would be a good idea for bear root trees but certainly anything a year old can take a graft. Good luck. Welcome to the hobby!

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@thecityman
Kevin,
I’ve found this Cornell article is informative.

http://www.scaffolds.entomology.cornell.edu/2016/SCAFFOLDS-5-2-16.pdf.

Scroll down tobthe Rust part of the article.

It looks like your pears got Quince Rust, not CAR, per se. It appears these fungi overwintered from last year and show up on host trees to cause rust this year. You got rid of all junipers this year, you may see substantial reduction of infection next year or better, the year after next.

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Ok. I see what you were saying about the incompatibility. It would be crummy to do all that grafting and have one be incompatible. So would you suggest trying it or going with the branch grafting of new scaffolding branches? I guess the real question is what one would I have higher success rate of and longevity.

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@mamuang, thanks for the scion source and advise! I can’t wait to try grafting.

@thecityman- thanks. I had joined this forum and learned a lot from members. I got a feeling I will be expanding the # of trees soon for this new hobby :grin:. But def want to try grafting with space limitation.

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Are you going for absolute size? The it would be 1 per flower cluster.

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To me, It depends on a few things:

  • how mature the tree, the more mature, the more fruit you can leave on
  • how big a brach that support those fruit. You don’t want a branch to break. If flower clusters are on twigs, I don’t keep any.
  • how large are those pears. Korean Giant can be very big, even if you leave two pears on a cluster
  • it is fine to take off several clusters on the same branches. You do not need to keep one fruit on every cluster.

Asian pears can go biennial. 20th century went biennial on me after I did not thin them sufficiebtly the year before.

Korean Giant produced substantially fewer flowers and fruit last year because I left too many on the year before.

I swear I thinned thousands of little pears off. It looked like that was not enough. Thin off 80% would be good. You would rather have some pears every year than having pears every other year.

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My thought is to leave two pears per cluster on the two larger trees and one per cluster on the smaller tree. Pics of the Asian pear trees -

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Yes, I’ve read about QR before. I also have researched Hawthorne Rust a lot and photos of it match my problems as well. I may never know exactly which one I get, but it may not matter - I just need to do a better job spraying!
Thanks for the great link and for looking into it! As you said, hopefully me getting rid of all my cedar-type trees will pay off, I just hoped it would do so this year!!!

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Spud,
What are those varieties?

You can leave more than one at first in case OFM or PC damage some so you won’t too many. In general those bugs don’t have much change to hatch and tunnel in. You can remove some more a bit later if they seem too many after they grow bigger.

Congrats for your fruitful pears.

I’m grafting over a crabapple this spring. It’s a volunteer in fence row, it seems to be a natural dwarf and produces small, bitter apples with deep red flesh.

Anyway, grafting it has been a trip because the cambium is also a dark red color. Is this normal for red fleshed apples?

It’s not abnormal. Some, but not all, have red-pigmented wood and leaves.

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Methods for planting new fruit trees?

Do you trim the very tips off the roots?
I have read that the roots should be trimmed if damaged when they were dug. Does it make sense to trim the ends off to encourage water uptake, much like you would a cut flower going into a vase?

Do you give them a soak in water for about 30 min before planting?
Is there a max amount of time roots should be in water? I am a slow planter!

Cut the tree back to knee high at planting, or not?
My Schlabach’s trees are beautiful 4.5’, hate to cut them back, but I know some here recommend that, while others say leave em be! Apple, peach, cherry and pear.

You should only prune roots if they have very obvious damage.

If the ground you are planting in is damp I don’t think there is any benefit to soaking. The important thing is to keep the roots slightly damp at all times.

I’m still experimenting with it but you can also try partial girdling to redirect the nutrient / hormone flow and encourage lower growth without removing the growth the tree has already put on. Its really a personal choice into how much effort you’re willing to put in to managing the height of your trees.

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Cut it back to the height of your belt. That’s where the first scaffolds will form. You do need to cut it back. You’ve destroyed a lot of root structure, transplanting it. Cutting it back brings top growth into proportion to the remaining roots. If you don’t, you may kill it.

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