Topworking with a double cleft graft twice

Have a larger apple that I decided to top work over from a prairie spy to a more desirable variety. Many of you are familiar with the double cleft where you split a branch and insert two scions. In this case its a 20 year old tree so I plan on doing two splits per trunk one towards the front and one towards the back and use 4 scions. The alternative is to bark or aka rind graft the tree. What are your thoughts? I’ve never seen anyone make two clefts per trunk which could mean there is something wrong with it or it may be that they did not think of it.

I haven’t tried the double cut but I can’t imagine there being a problem with the method. Seems to me that the newly growing scions with this method would be more sturdy while they are healing and the top would seal over faster. I have thought about using the double cut but have not actually tried it. Good luck, Bill

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Bill,
I’m going to paint over most of the trunk with latex paint before long since it will not be accustomed to so much sunshine. It surprises me in all the years I’ve done and read about grafting never saw anyone use the two cleft method or bring it up. I’m going to graft a ladder one of these days because I have seen a few grafters do that. According to the expert grafters of old the ladder is the hardest to get right. I planted two trees in close proximity and will graft a branch between the two for starters. The ladder is not a very practical graft but I was thinking it could be for a living fence type fruit growing method.

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I’ve seen videos where they do four scions in two cuts in one trunk. Never done it or seen it done otherwise though. I think you could do three also for a nice vase.

Hadn’t heard the term “ladder” as a graft and when I googled it I found references to surgical techniques! But then I found some in arborculture. Looks like fun. Good luck with it.

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Yep the old guys did it still when I was a kid. They grew two trees beside each other and grafted branches in between to make a ladder. If the trees grow at different rates etc your ladder rungs get messed up. Its a very advanced grafting concept and not at all practical unless your growing a ladder you will use later from a couple of Osage orange trees. All joking aside I think it would make a beautiful pear fence.

What about making two splits crosswise? Did anybody do that? Another thought: if the trunk is quite thick, why make a split all the way across instead of a couple of shorter splits along the diameter near the cambium?

When I was first reading up on grafting last year, most of the articles on cleft grafting seemed to do this as a matter of course whenever the original tree was at least twice as big as the scion. I don’t recall them talking much about it, they just always seemed to have a scion matched to both sides, so I wouldn’t anticipate much of a problem.

On those big trees I put 6-8 bark grafts around … to get more growth in the first year to keep the tree vigor up. Many can be thinned later. Bark grafts have the advantage of being able to put a large number. Or you could do a couple clefts and bark grafts in the other spots.

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Scott,
I love those bark grafts when I have next to no scion wood and what I do have is only as big as a pencil lead. Bark grafts are 8’ tall by the end of the year on a tree like that.

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@clarkinks

Interesting. I am a total newbie to grafting, but from what I have read, I thought the use of 2 scions on a cleft graft was mostly to balance the cut from side to side. And the weaker of the two would be removed next year. If that’s so, I don’t see the point in putting 4 scions at the end. But perhaps I a m missing something here…

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Steve,
Better to have 4 chances than 2. I’ve had 6 grafts fail on a pear of different varieties for example. Only one of 4 grafts might take. I will be grafting to prairie spy which might be easy but you never know until you’ve done it or someone gives you some ideas of what they have done.

If you have a large diameter tree it should heal over faster with more grafts.

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Auburn,
That’s a great point to bring up on the healing and the extra scions can always be cut away.