Training branch up trunk to become a scaffold branch

[Olpea]

@Palmer

Yes, Drew, my experiments last summer worked just like you described. For various reasons I made about fifteen approach grafts with peaches. With all components on full life support, there was no time pressure on the graft. Both plants just grow happily until temperature and conditions are right to promote callousing. After 4-5 weeks I cut the scion loose from its rootstock.

Palmer,

Did you post any picks of this? I couldn’t find a thread where you posted about this, and was interested to see more about it.

Btw, I re-read some posts you are struggling with getting peach trees to shut down before winter. From another thread:

" I had a few other cultivars which decided to really get growing in late August, and the cold fall weather seems to have hammered them. My reading keeps pointing to the importance of rootstocks which help direct the early dormancy. I watched K1, St Julian, American Plum, Manchurian Apricot, Myrobalan, Lovell, and Halford this fall, and the Manchurian Apricot was by far the first to respond to the season change, followed by the American Plum."

Something I tried this fall was spraying urea on a few rows of trees (to increase hardiness and see if it has any affect on bloom emergence) and within a week pretty much all the leaves fell off the trees. I don’t know if they were truly dormant, or if that caused them to enter dormancy early, but it might be something to experiment with in AK.