Worthless peaches

[Rosdonald]

I think when one peach tree has 100 percent takes and the one next to it has none, (some with the same scions), tree vigor and overall health does play a role. It’s got to be more than technique alone.

[jeremybyington]

I’m in Zone 6b and 4 of my peach trees were (unfortunately) purchased from TyTy who said they were all grafted onto Nemaguard. It has gotten down to -10F a handful of nights and many days were highs in single digits and I haven’t had a problem with the rootstocks at all.

I only have 2 peaches on one tree this year because they woke up early and the buds apparently froze when it got too cold so I think another important factor to consider is getting a variety that requires the most chill hours and will be late to break dormancy and skip as much of the cold as possible.

[Olpea]

@hobilus

I’m wondering if you’d elaborate on what exactly the challenges are, and what optimizations apart from temp.

I’ve had better success in grafting peaches over the years, but I still prefer to fall bud them (T-bud). It’s faster for me, and success is still better.

For spring grafting, many people have issues of dormant peach wood budding out in the fridge, as Alan mentioned. I solved that problem by using a dorm fridge and set it so that it freezes the wood right at 32F. Then about once a month I take the wood out of the fridge and let it defrost at room temperature, then put it right back in the fridge. That seems to help keep the wood from drying out (i.e. freezer burn). Be aware that some newer dorm fridges won’t get cold enough to freeze the wood. The older (mechanical thermostat) ones seem to have the flexibility to set them cold enough to freeze the wood.

A common mistake new grafters make is they try to graft peaches at the same temps as apples and pears. A common piece of advice is that apples can be grafted when new leaves are about the size of mouse ears. But for good success, peaches generally take much warmer temps when apples have mouse ear leaves. I prefer the next week to be high 70s or low 80s for the high.

There was a thread on the forum about 5 years ago in which some of the more experienced growers tried to collect exact data and record grafting results for peaches. The results were somewhat variable. I’m sure we’ve all become better peach grafters since then.

Peach graft logging spring 2018

I thought I would start a thread where we can all log our peach grafting as we go, so we can in real time see how different timings are working out. Please include the temperature and sun forecast for the next few days when you log your grafting here, as well as how far along your leaves are on the stocks, and anything else you feel is important to mention. One thing different I am going to do this year is measure field temperatures with a laser thermometer. I expect the sun is a huge factor …

As Alan mentions, matching diameters helps, and of course a perfect cambium match helps. Also I’ve found grafting to a mature tree is much easier (more forgiving) than grafting to a whip peach rootstock.

I’ve had better success using this tool, which offers a lot of tightly fitting cambium match.

Zenport Grafting tool

This beast arrived in the mail the other day. Although the -7 degrees this morning feels like spring is a long way away, this got me looking forward to it. Will this work good as is, or have any of you had to make adjustments/modifications? [image]

Some of the grafting tools break (like mine did) but Danchappell had a good idea for an easy fix in the thread. I had a more elaborate fix for mine, which I showed at the end of the thread.

I really like the tool. It’s fast and accurate.

[alan]

@Olpea

I prefer the next week to be high 70s or low 80s for the high.

Peaches are past petal fall here and the 10 day forecast has not a single day higher than the mid-60’s- this is not unusual in my climate. If one waits for 70 degrees they might miss the window and I’ve come to the conclusion, or at least to the suspicion, that peaches can be grafted when temps are in the 60’s if they are rapidly growing. The presence of sun may be important.

Sorting this stuff out by anecdote can be confusing, but research is lacking.

Oh wait, the last 3 days of the 10 day forecast has it reaching 70-71F… but they are all supposed to be cloudy. Wood heats up when the sun hits it, right, so it probably isn’t about air temp as much as wood temp, I’m thinking.

[Olpea]

@jeremybyington

I’m in Zone 6b and 4 of my peach trees were (unfortunately) purchased from TyTy who said they were all grafted onto Nemaguard.

I’m certainly not trying to dis your purchase Jeremy, but I’m not sure how much one can trust the labeling from Ty Ty. If you check their Google reviews, they currently have an average 1.5 out of 5 stars review. Some of the reviews mention mislabeling.

[elivings1]

Luckily all my experience with TyTY is hearing people complain about it and watching their weird videos on YouTube.

[Scooter]

@jeremybyington

grafted onto Nemaguard. It has gotten down to -10F a handful of nights and many days were highs in single digits and I haven’t had a problem with the rootstocks at all.

I know I’ve mentioned my experience with peaches on Nemaguard in another thread, but figured I’d chime in here as well. This winter we ended up getting to about - 15 / -20 for two consecutive nights. While the fruit buds are all fried, the tree itself on Nemaguard is still kicking and doing well. I think comments about Nemaguard’s perceived lack of hardiness might be a bit overblown. Just my two cents…

[nil]

I have had success grafting peach during mid-late August in W. Washington. I think the trick is to do it when it is in the 70-79 degree F range, or to do a heat callus when it is dormant.

[AndySmith]

The 5 peaches I got this year are from Cummins and I questioned some of their cold hardy marketing as well. I ended up getting 5 varieties all on seedling rootstock, which left me questioning how they would know the rootstock was cold hardy if it was a seedling. At this point I’m just trialing varieties to see what may work in Z4a. I’m guessing even with a cold hardy variety I may be looking at an actual crop only once in a few years.