Last week I got a Scion of Nadia plum and it’s already breaking dormancy in the fridge.
It’s just the kitchen fridge so there’s apples kept in the bottom. The scions are double bagged and kept at the top of the fridge in their own drawer. I did store the scions at the bottom for a few days, not really thinking, before moving them to the top.
I do have another fridge that’s empty. I wasn’t using it because I don’t trust it to not freeze inside.
Have any recommendations?
Sounds about right. Plum buds start swelling when it’s still pretty cold. Check to make sure none of them are flower buds (remove them if you find any) cause they will waste energy.
I have an off selection of Kaido Crab apple really bud swelling. It want in the darn ground now.
Here’s some pictures. I’m new to plums. I have a Euro plum scion in the same bag but that’s completely dormant still.
Good. Looks like healthy leaf buds, not flower buds.
The apples in the are probably causing some of the problems. I have a fridge in my garage for extra pop and stuff, but zero fruit or vegetables. I have apple and mulberry scions from a year ago that are in perfect condition with no bud swell. Also that fridge is set at 34 F.
Within a week?
I’d have to adjust and test the fridge down there for a while to see if I could get it to not freeze before I had the faith to store the scions.
For now I’ve triple bagged the scions, three ziplock bags.
Do you think the scion will make it to late March-April when the rootstocks are ready to be grafted?
They could make it… Personally, I’d probably just wait and see, but there is the option of breaking off the buds now since there is time for secondary buds to form which will be smaller and tighter at grafting time.
Thanks for helping me out. I’ll observe it. Am also looking at older threads & sources I didn’t find before.
Most of my scions are going to arrive later so it should be easier.
I’ve always had difficulty with plum scions budding out long before I felt that I could successfully get the grafted.
My scionwood freezes sometimes as my fridge isn’t exact and it’s set for 32F. I haven’t had problems with the wood having frozen a bit. Olpea keeps his scionwood at 30F so I figured it was okay if I did it too.
It might be a problem because it’s leaving dormancy and then you’re going to freeze it, but it might be better than trying to graft with non-dormant wood?
