A suggestion was made for top working two pomegranate “Compactum” in the other thread. This variety is supposed to favor being an 8 foot bush, but I have as about 12 to 15 foot multi stem trees in the style of crepe myrtles. Delicate thorny crepe myrtles is definitely the description I’d give to how I’ve trained them, and they seem to be similarly thin skinned. I hadn’t considered top working them because I thought it would be too difficult due to the thin skin. I finally got some apple grafts to take this year, and I’m super exciting waiting for my rootstock to push growth this year, but I’m not what you might consider “competent” in any way. I bought two wonderful pomegranates for my mom and my yard last year, and one of them died. I could probably contact the nursery but I’m fairly confident my dogs killed it so I can’t really blame them. It’s not a patented variety, I don’t believe. The roots seem to like the area, but the fruit has never been much more than technically edible, and very pretty treats for the cardinals in winter. They aren’t pushing buds yet, so I have plenty of time to think about it.
That’s been my thinking in the past. The young wood is also more spiny than a flexible branch, so I am not sure exactly how collecting the scion would go.
I have never grafted them but they supposedly graft as well as any other fruit tree. Richard Ashton in his book mentions pretty much any of the grafting methods work well for him.
Good for you looking for a way to upgrade your mature pom rather than start all over by spending $ on a new, small tree. I have topworked several poms in the last few years, and it is self-evident which graft techniques are consistently more favorable. First, I would clip away any extra suckers coming out of the trunk/sucker cluster at ground level. It will be a “forever” thing to prevent extra suckers from entering the scene. A pc. of carpet at the base with an eye hole cut in it to snuggly wrap around the trunk cluster will help suppress some of the below ground sucker wannabes from being. If you would like to keep the lower 3 to 5 foot of trunks slick and free of any side growth it will make it easier to mow around the tree w/o getting eyes possibly poked by the needle-like prongs that emerge on new suckers. I prefer to graft mature trees above 4 to 6 foot when the tree is that height, and 6 foot is even better. The grafted scions will usually grow upward and later cascade sideways/downward as gravity tugs on them. When you have a pencil thick (or up to 3/8") fast growing sucker growing straight up, doing a perfect cleft graft with same-thickness scions is the BEST. It will usually form a very thick/heavy duty joint that is stronger than the sucker. The scions to use are from dormant suckers that grow straight up, have almost no side growth yet, and have a zillion dormant buds just waiting for their chance to blast outward. I cut them about 6 to 8" long and wax the cut tip top. Because the suckers are fairly soft, it is easy to slit a centered slot for the scion to rest in. I insert, wrap the splice with Parafilm, spiral-wind the splice with a 1/4" rubber band, and then wrap some light-blocking tape/wrap/whatever so that the film, band, and wound will not be blasted by Sunlight. The exposed scion above the wrapping then gets a light spray coat of clear coat paint to kill germs on the bark and seal it.The tiny pom buds have no problem pushing out through to c/c paint. I graft the dormant scions that have been sitting in the fridge when the Spring growth starts on the trees. Graft a lot of the available suckers and you can later clip off any that are less impressive. On the other hand, if you want to topwork branches above that are 1/2" to 1" thick, I would do a double scion bark graft with the scions on opposite sides. Using 2 scions about 1/4" thick and 6-8" long on the 1" and thinner if bark grafting 1/2" thick branches. I look for a section of the branch that is more oval shaped than perfectly round so that the 2 flat tapered tips of the scions will have a flush fit against the flatter branch core wood. Before tucking each scion into it’s slit “pouch”, I very lightly scrape the very thin/fibrous bark on each side of the tapered tip’s back/bark side. Just a little strip on each side so that once the tapered tip is tucked in below the 2 branch bark flaps, the 2 bark flaps will sit on top of barkless, greenish tissue that it will readily grow together with. I scrape rather than try to slice, since this fibrous skin is way too thin to slice. Like before, I wrap the double scion graft area with Parafilm, apply the band, cover with light-blocking tape, and spray the c/c over the scion area above the graft. Over the next year, one scion may grow faster than the other. If one ends up with a healed area that is not so strong looking, I will clip off maybe half the new growth on top of that graft in Winter (to graft with elsewhere or root), and thus the graft will have another year to get stronger w/o having a very tall wind-catching “sail” on top that could put too much stess on the young graft during a storm. If you only put one scion on a bark grafted branch, the side of the branch opposite the one scion will start to die back, first the bark and then about half the core wood. It may still become a strong graft over time, but the double graft is a better mouse trap…The trunk cluster will ALWAYS try pushing out new buds below the grafts, so it is good to stroll around the grafted poms regularly to remove the baby shoots that emerge. This year I will try loosely wrapping some weed block fabric on slick pom trunks below new grafts to see if the lack of Sunlight will suppress new suckers/shoots from busting out below the grafts. When trying to slit thinner branches to do cleft grafts, a single-edged razor blade can be rocked back and forth with a bit of downward pressure to make a good slice in the soft branch. If your scion is thinner than the branch to cleft graft on, lining up the bark on one side works fine.I have tried multiple varieties and none seemed to be incompatible with the trees being grafted on. And if some pom grafts don’t take, it is no big deal because the trunk below the grafts will just bust out new shoots to bypass the “closed bridge ahead” zone. Go get 'em.
I’m surprised to know Poms can be grafted in conventional ways. I think the fact that Poms sucker so much, top working them would require regular sucker removal. Sucker removal is probably not a good option for zone pushers.
Thank you for the detail @fruitility. When this storm passes I will get pictures for specific suggestions. Cutting at five foot and grafting both sides might be feasible with these trees; they’d look like the trees crepe murdered in the neighborhood until they grow. I have been under the impression that year old water sprouts are best for source wood - I have never gotten watersprouts that thick after only one year. Pencil thick first year growth isn’t very common on the trees, they are like quilting needles in width. If I cut wood thicker it’s probably several years old, so I am wondering how old is likely to take. As long as it has at least two good buds it should work? It’s not a wonderful spot for a productive tree, but I don’t demand more production than being attractive and providing some type of fruit for myself or wildlife.
The tall, vertical new growth at the tree top is fine for scions, as it is also filled with tiny buds and no side prongs yet. Even if your scion-providing tree has vertical shoots that have already set the twin side prongs, you can clip off the side prongs while leaving about 1/2" long stubs on each side. The nodes with the twin side prongs have tiny, viable buds that will shift gears after grafting and bust out. I usually wax the ends of the 1/2" stubs. When rooting these, even those that are 3/4" thick with the pruned prongs and waxed tops can root for you. When choosing this kind of twin pronged wood for grafting, I usually graft with sections that have 2 nodes left after the graft is in place, even though I have had good grafts with only 1 node on short pcs. that got grafted. The branches that I never use to graft or root with are the SLOW growing, non-vertical, curved, short pcs. with lots of side growth and with stiff, dry, thick bark. I want to use the shoots that the tree has decided to fill with fuel to grow big time, not the branches that it chooses to keep alive but has no big plans for. Rather than thinking to only put one graft on one branch, it works well to put a pair of bark grafts at the decapitated top and possibly 1 or 2 cleft grafts on shoots from the same branch that emerge below the bark graft area. If they all take and look very strong, you can leave them all or clip the less strategic one(s) while using the clipped graft growth for future grafting/rooting.
Thank you, that is a great point. I grafted with long scions before, but I am planning on cutting back to two or three buds this year. I only have very small donor bushes, but if I can get a decent stick, I will make it stretch as many times as possible and try grafting two or three times per trunk seal the stub, and parafilm the buds.
Because the pom buds emerge as pretty dinky/fragile things that don’t look strong enough to push out and stretch Parafilm enough to puncture it, I have never tried the film on top of the buds, only on the budless bark areas. However, spraying the clear coat takes care of everything safely, quickly, cheaply, and does not complicate the buds growing out at all.