Three week old graft bloomed

FIrst time I have seen this happen.

Here is a better photo

I just picked off a couple of blooms from a graft, and it is common and annoying. You can’t get as much growth out of such a graft as a purely vegetative one in my experience, even when flowers are removed promptly.

The variety will probably be a precocious bearer. I think anything that produces flowers on side shoots of one year wood must be.

Looks like nice work there.

Thanks Alan

It is an older variety that really does well I cant find anyone that really knows what variety it is. The tree has been there for decades and the people that planted it are long gone. The fruit is similar to green pippin.

You need to knock off those low sprouts. or the tree could soon decide to feed only them and to give up on the graft.


Sorry I missed the focus
2 in a row bad focus. Alan I also picked off the blooms but haven’t gotten any new growth yet. Variety is E. Spitzenburg.

I see the bugs are getting after your grafts too. I guess when fresh tender leaves come out later than normal it’s like a delicacy to them. I had to wait longer than I wanted to because, like you, I had some grafts and other stuff blooming, but Imidan has led them to their final resting place.

Esopus Spitzenburg…Thomas Jefferson’s favorite apple. He apparently also liked very much the Newtown Pippin. I’ve never had the pleasure of sampling either one.
Too bad Jefferson never got to try Honeycrisp or some of the other newer stuff.

It’s a bit blurry, but I assume you removed all the flowers and they didn’t just shed their petals.

ApS is right. I’ve had many a graft killed because I didn’t adequately protect it, even after substantial growth. Here the leafhoppers can suck the life out of a graft even after the threat of worms decreases and it is fully calloused.

I saw one of my grafts being munched this spring so I put an alum foil hood on it. The next time I looked it was all munched! Looking closer there was a caterpillar hiding in a fold of parafilm, I had encased the bug in. Oops. I thought the grafts were toast but one bud had a little bit of life at the base and seems to be coming back. Its now this strange growth that is a big pea of green with these microscopic leaves on it, hoping it will soon shoot up some normal leaves.

Here’s one I found the other day. It is Roberts Crab, a red-fleshed apple which actually has red wood as well.

I’m debating leaving it there, as the graft is at the absolute top of the tree and I don’t want it to put on too much growth. I’ll probably decide based on how well the other Roberts Crab grafts take- if I have another one doing well, I can keep this one small and let it try to make an apple.

Thanks for the bug tip ApS. Spraying tomorrow morning Imidan, chlorthalinil(sp) and sticker. Wind is 30mph.

yeah…I’ve been wanting to spray also. The wind just won’t calm down, even in the late evening.