I am wondering how it will go if I do a whip and tongue graft (of Trailman crab apple) onto the central leader of a 2 yo Enterprise apple tree on M111? The tree is maybe 6’ tall (and that is where I will graft it) and has two well trained scaffold branches that I would like to keep Enterprise, and change the rest of the tree to Trailman. So, the first 5-6 feet of the tree will be Enterprise, the rest Trailman. Will this work or is it better to change the scaffolds and keep the main tree Enterprise? I prefer to have almost entirely a tree of Trailman…I tried Enterprise this year and didn’t care for it enough to have a whole semi-dwarf trees worth. I also believe Trailman is less vigorous than Enterprise and wondered if that might be an issue. Thanks for any experience and help!
It is absolutely doable, and it sounds to me like the two scaffolds of Enterprise will be enough for you. The Trailman will take what it needs from the Enterprise so I don’t think the differing vigors will hurt.
Agreed it should work just fine. You will probably get some buds breaking below your graft that might try to become a new central leader but once your graft is healed in and growing well then I’d prune them out and let the Trailman take over
I have two young apple trees in my orchard that I am doing the same thing to.
One is Early Mcintosh… the other NovaMac.
They both have a few nice scaffolds developed… and a central leader heading up.
I plan to graft chestnut to one and trailman to the other.
TNHunter
As long as you’re ok with ladder work. My former Enterprise tree is now 50% Sundance and 50% Kittageskee.